When I first came to Hanoi 5 years ago, I found myself instantly intimidated by all the surrounding. Thanks God I flew in from Ho Chi Minh City where the traffic was probably crazier so I did manage to hold on and find enough time to gather my senses without losing my mind in the process. There were people everywhere, all running to wherever they wanted to go and that constant honking took a little bit of time to chew in. I had to remind myself over and over again that I was there on a holiday so I didn’t have to keep up with them – that I had to go about things in my own pace only then I’d get to really enjoy all the things that the city had to offer.
Arriving in Hanoi. Yippie!
But I liked Hanoi almost instantly, even more than Ho Chi Minh City, which I thought was quite too modern for my taste. Hanoi on the other side is very oriental yet so European, thanks to the French who had turned it into the Paris of the East. I could gaze and marvel at the architecture all day long without getting bored and believe me, Hanoi is not all about the architecture but a combination of so many other things that are hardly found in any other city. It is a very big city, probably bigger than KL, but somehow there’s something so rustic about it, with a strong flavor of kampong charms, at least in its people who look more like farmers that live in a metropolis that Hanoi is.
Fast forward, 5 years later and I found myself in Hanoi again. I returned to Hanoi as a much more experienced traveler (ehem!) compared to the last time when I was so new in traveling. I remember how back then I’d become suspicious of just about everything that came my way. Mind to tell you that Vietnam was the only third country that I went to after Britain and France so I was being a little bit too careful with everything – even the every penny that I spent.
Crazy traffic in Hanoi
I remember how I’d walk for many kilometers just to save a dollar in my pocket. I’d refuse to eat anything more than RM5 (can’t even remember how much it was in dongs but that was the bench price that I set back then) so in the end I didn’t remember eating anything. I returned to Malaysia with a mindset that Hanoi doesn’t really have much to offer at least gastronomically which was quite unfair (for Hanoi) when I come to think of it now.
Of course, coming back to Hanoi again this time, it has all changed. I was ready to spend a little bit of money over food and drinks and sure enough it didn’t take long for me to realize that Hanoi is not really a bad food destination after all. In fact, there were so many good foods that I found that I had to stop myself from eating too much before I ended up coming back to Malaysia as a balloon. Heh.
Some of the foods and drinks that I had in Hanoi
I went to some good restaurants without caring too much about the prices of food. I’d order the best coffee that they have (funny how I didn’t drink coffee at all back then, not even a single drop) and their best cake to come with it. I was back in Hanoi as a real traveler who enjoyed the city at its best. Heh.
I actually arrived in Hanoi in the wee hours from an overnight train ride from Sapa, and started rambling aimlessly in the streets of Old Quarter without knowing where to go, at least until the hotel that I would be staying in that day opened its door at 7am or so. I didn’t feel intimidated at all, because I knew how safe Hanoi is, even more safe than KL that I knew.
Mind to tell you that Vietnam is a communist country and its government is very strict about how the local people treat its tourists so the locals don’t really want to mess with that. Of course they are so many cheaters in Hanoi and even in Vietnam as whole but all they want is your money. Somehow I think, they wouldn’t come and rob you right away but they’d usually find some other way to get your money without really hurting you at least physically.
Rambling aimlessly in Hanoi in the wee hours
And true enough, I was roaming on the streets of Old Quarter when a pair – a man and a woman – on a motorbike came to ask where I was from – the most common introductory remark by any Vietnamese when they know you are not one of them – and where I would be staying in for the day. I told them that I already had a hotel and that I’d go there later when they are open but the couple wouldn’t leave me alone. “I have a room for you. Very good price”, she’d say while tagging so closely behind me.
She had now disembarked from the bike so I was getting a little bit irritated and uncomfortable. Despite having assured them that I already had a room they wouldn’t leave me alone. I changed directions just to get away from them but it was 5am when the streets were still empty and they could follow me without any obstruction from the traffic – which was none at that time of course. It really was getting quite very uncomfortable.
Then, quite at the very right time, a lady who had just opened her restaurant somewhere in the corner called out to me and asked me to come to her restaurant. I took the chance and went to her right away and I realized how the couple disappeared almost instantly. I guess people in Hanoi know how to handle things among each other.
I ordered a bowl of Pho Bho (nyumss!) and the lady served it almost instantly, even helped me putting in all the ingredients and all. I guess that was her way of telling the couple that I was now her customer and that I should be left alone. I stayed at the restaurant to enjoy the meal and watched the world go by around me. I’ve always been a morning walker so seeing the locals coming about their daily morning routine while enjoying my Pho Bho right in the heart of Hanoi was quite an experience that I’d never forget.
Taking a morning walk around Hoan Kiem Lake while waiting for my hotel to open
Well, fast forward again, I found myself enjoying Hanoi quite too much than I had intended to. I only returned to the hotel to take a shower or use the toilet when I happened to be somewhere around it. I walked like crazy, took pictures like crazy and I wanted to absorb everything that there was to see in Hanoi – which was plentiful.
I was actually having a coffee at one of the famous Coffee shops on Hang Gai street while enjoying the morning view of the Hoan Kiem lake when I happened to read about the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum from one of their pamphlets. I remember how I went there during my last visit but it was closed so I didn’t get to see the embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh – Vietnam’s most revered leader. I checked my wristwatch and found out that I had at least 15 minutes more to go before the mausoleum took in its last visitors. Quiet an instant later I found myself riding on a taxi bike, thinking that it would be an easy buy-the-ticket-and-go-in business.
How wrong I was. What I came upon was a long long long long line of people all queueing up to take a glimpse of the embalmed body of the dead Communist leader. I had to run from one end of the queue to the other and gosh, I gotta say it was crazy long.
It was so heavily guarded, with security personnel stationed at just about every corner leading up to the mausoleum and beyond. It felt quite – well – intimidating? All bags were screened and checked and visitors were subject to quite a handful of rules and regulations. Of course we visitors were not allowed to take pictures or even put our hands in our pockets especially when nearing the mausoleum area. I remember how the security personnel were mostly youngsters, probably in their 20’s and they seemed to be so tempted to smile but I don’t think they were allowed to.
The Ho Chi Minh Museum just outside of the mausoleum
One of them, probably somebody who watched too much of 007, asked me to take off my glasses, and me being me, I was tempted to protest. I mean, I was there to see the dead man and I needed my visual ability to do that. Of course further down the line I put it back on and there he was – Ho Chi Minh – laying so still in a glass case. His face was white, as if made of wax, glowing under the glaring light. He looked every bit like Ho Chi Minh in the pictures that I saw all over Hanoi and beyond. I was told that his body had to be sent to Moscow for two months every year for maintenance purposes. I find it quite funny that Vietnamese still can’t maintain their own dead leader when they are so proud of their accomplishments – at least in the wars that they were involved in in the past.
Of course Hanoi is not all about Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. There are so many things that it has to offer to its visitors that it was almost impossible for me to see them all when I only had one day before going back to Malaysia the very next morning.
I remember how the Hanoi Flag Tower was closed when I was in Hanoi back then so I knew I had to go there this time. It was a long long walk trying to find my way to the entrance gate. In fact, I had to make a full circle around the huge compound of the ancient city before I managed to find it. Knowing that it was a UNESCO World Heritage Site, I was ecstatic. But then, there really was nothing much to see in there. The area where the Flag Tower was located in was heavily contaminated with wartime propaganda – just as it is in most other historical sites in Vietnam – so all I saw were remnants of war crafts, mostly belonged to the US which were shot down during the hard-fought Vietnam War.
The Hanoi Flag Tower was nothing more than a propaganda museum. In the website, it is named as part of the UNESCO Site but somehow it has its own entrance with its own entrance ticket. To go to other parts of the site, you have to buy another ticket which I found quite misleading. I complained it to the guys at the counter and they just look at each other and smile. I knew I wasn’t the first to complain. Overall, there’s nothing much to see in the UNESCO site area. In fact, it’s quite safe to say that it is the most unimpressive site given the grandeur of all the other UNESCO Sites that I’ve been to so far. I made my way to the exit after being there for less than half an hour.
Putting the UNESCO Site aside, Hanoi never failed to disappoint me. It is still the best place to let yourself lose in, because there’s always something to surprise you somewhere in the corner. I walked like crazy until my feet went sore. Every now and then I’d find myself in a corner without having the slightest idea which way to go next because I didn’t know where exactly I was on the map. Then I’d keep walking and I’d get my bearing back. Then I’d get lost again. It was a continuous process and before I knew, I was nearing the end of my journey in Vietnam.
I realized how the people of Vietnam have changed a lot from the last time I went there. Back then, they were quite rude and unfriendly that some of my friends who traveled to Vietnam had vowed never to come back again. Somehow this time, I found them very warm and welcoming. If there was something that they were still struggling with, it’d be their English but I believe even that is changing too now. After all, language is not really a barrier to a good travel.
So, the question is, will I wanna go back to Vietnam again? Sure as hell I will 🙂
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