📍Hanoi, Vietnam 🇻🇳

After adding Vietnam to my bucket list in 2019, we finally made it to Hanoi. The land of 10 million people and 12 million motorbikes 🏍️.

Our first leg was a 13 hour flight from Vienna to Taiwan and the plane was empty. We each had a whole row to ourselves and it was an absolutely perfect start to our trip. We had a relatively quick three hour layover and then boarded our next flight to Hanoi, where we also each had a full row to ourselves. Life was good.

Day 1: We arrived in Hanoi (the second biggest city in Vietnam) at 10:35 am. Jet lagged and sleep deprived, we made our way to our hostel, Nexy, to drop off our stuff so we could begin exploring. We walked around the city, learned how to properly play Frogger in real life (crossing the streets there should be an Olympic sport), and, of course, had our first Vietnamese meal. Side note, at this time we had absolutely no plan of what we wanted to do during our three week stay in Vietnam other than make it from the north to south of the country. My bff Erin and her brother Sam had given us some helpful suggestions and upon arrival we had done zero planning other than that (my dad and grandpa are probably very unwell reading this so I apologize). We stopped at one of the many tour guide shops to get an idea of what our options were. While eating our bahn mi from Bahn Mi 25, we made a brief game plan. Bahn mi truly makes everything better. We then continued our personal food tour and made our way to Bún Cha Die Kim where we had an amazing pork and noodle soup. 🤤. J had understood his assignment when it came to finding restaurants in Hanoi. 👌🏽

Even though we had lots of space in the plane, we flew during day time so we didn’t sleep. Again, I am unpleasant when I do not eat or sleep so I was crashing hard around 8 pm. We went back to our hostel and before ya know it, I was asleep. Next thing I know it’s 15 hours later and I am just waking up. Whoops.

Day 2: We decided we wanted our next stop to be Ha Long Bay, but the tour was full for another few days so we spent the time exploring Hanoi. Our goal was to find authentic food and goodness. We succeeded. J found a pho “restaurant” where the owner started selling her pho on the streets, but after a street food license crackdown she moved her operations to her living room. So, we went looking for this lady’s home. We followed the instructions on the internet and walked down a small alley to a home. All of the sudden we heard a “no.” Turns out, we were in the wrong alley and wrong home. No pho for us there. We cross the street and found the correct home where they actually welcome visitors.

There were two bahn mi places that J had found and listed as “must haves.” Since our first bahn mi experience went so well we HAD to try the other place. It was called Bami Bread and it was also delicious.

We went back to the hostel for happy hour (BOGO beer, yes please) and made a few friends that were also staying in our hostel. We had truly just gone down for happy hour when one of the girls turned and said, “are you coming on the food tour?” Say. Less. With full bellies, we leave the hostel for our impromptu food tour. The tour started at Nha Hang Mr Bay Mien Tay where we tried an egg omelet-like food called bahn xeo and a kebob-like food called nem lui and both were amazing. Next stop? Bún Cha Die Kim, where we had gone the night before. Turns out the second time was just as good as the first. Our last stop was a dessert shop. The Vietnamese do a lot of things right, but dessert is not their finest work. We tried a few desserts and while they were good, there was no need to find them again during our visit.

The tour ended conveniently next to Beer Street, which is a street full of bars literally on. the. street. The chairs are actually in the middle of the street. Cars drive by and you have to scoot in and pray. Eventually, the cops drive by and if the tables are in the street they physically take the tables and chairs away in their trucks. As the cops started getting closer to our bar, the staff quickly began stacking the chairs and tables so we took that as a cue to go to the next bar. We bar hopped for a while with the crew from the hostel. J and our new friends went to the club and had a blast.

Day 3: We find yet another hole in the wall breakfast spot down another ally and it was amazing. The restaurant only has one dish they serve, so you know its gotta be good. We enjoy our meal and continued exploring. Apparently, Vietnam has some amazing coffee (even I liked it and I’m not a coffee person). They also have creative ways of drinking coffee, such as with an egg in the coffee. Yes, an egg. We had to try it so we went to the original place of this creation. Sounds gross, tasted amazing.

We took a ride on a cyclo to the Tran Quoc Pagoda.

We then walked to the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long and took a nice stroll. We met some friends, watched some Vietnamese sports (very impressive), and saw the most beautiful carts.

The goal was to make it to a few more places, but we got a little hungry so our group stopped for lunch. By the time we made it to the Temple of Literature, it had just closed so we only got to see the outside. Welp, guess we gotta go back.

We met up with everyone for happy hour at the hostel and then had one more group dinner before one of friends left for their next destination. We ate at Chả Cá Thăng Long.

I knew we were going to be wearing sandals for a bit and I was much overdue for a pedicure. Crusty feet are never cute. So, we found one place that was still open at 9 pm and we got these toes looking right again. J said it was the best pedicure he’s ever had.

We went back to the hostel for what I had hoped would be an earlier night. I was all ready for bed and J was in the bathroom when I saw a lizard. In our small room. On the 5th floor. The parent trap scene immediately entered my brain and I could not sleep. J spent what seemed to be 2 hours trying to catch the little guy with no luck. I had no choice but to sleep with our new roommate so there was only one solution: (yes, I am crazy)

Days 4-6: We were at Cat Ba Island and Ha Long Bay during this time, which will be a separate blog. After Ha Long Bay, we spent one more night in Hanoi which I wanted to included on this post.

Evening of Day 6: We made it back to Hanoi for our last night and went to Train Street with some new friends from our Ha Long Bay trip. Train Street is a street where the train runs directly through apartments, restaurants, and cafes, and is now “closed” for safety reasons. When we arrived, there were guards telling us we were unable to enter, but a lady who worked at the café on the street waved us up, which allowed us to get past the guards. Very safe and VERY different from America, I know. We sat on the rooftop waiting for the train. We thought we had missed it so we were just enjoying the views…until another train came through. It was soo cool. There was JUST enough space for the train to fit and everyone had to be inside to avoid being hit. It was safer than it sounds because the locals had the train schedule so there was ample warning before the train came zooming by. We went to one more café and watched the train pass by a few more times.

We had decided to book our own train (sadly, it did not go through Train Street) to our next destination for that night. We had too much fun watching the trains and not the time, and nearly missed our own train. To save some time, we got on another cyclo. The poor man biking had to pedal us after we ate about three too many bahn mis and had all of our heavy backpacks. So now his legs are pretty much tree trunks. Side note, our train (2 hr ride) was a total of $7, which was about the same price as the 5 minute bike ride we took, but we are heavy so he deserved it all.

We made it to the train and headed to Ninh Bihn.

Bloopers for the sleepiest town we’ve seen: