guide
In my last post, I talked about the 5 things visitors should do when they are in Hanoi, Vietnam. However, we all know that traveling isn't about just doing things and going to attractions in a foreign place, right? One of my favourite things to do when I'm abroad is eat their local food. FOOD.
FOOD is one of my secret passions. There must have been countless of times when I said I absolutely loved a city just because of the food. When food in a country/city is good, half the battle is won!
South East Asian countries are always known for their incredible cuisine and Vietnam is no exception. Plus, I can't write about what to do in Hanoi and leave out it's awesome food, so here is part 2 of my Hanoi Travel Guide featuring, interesting Sights and great FOOD!
E A T
BY THE STREETS | BUN BO NAM BO
Walking along the streets of Hanoi you'll see a lot of street food shops, people selling food items and fruits out of a basket, and a multitude of Pho shops.
NOTE: PHO IS BEST EATEN BY THE STREETS.
Street stalls are not to be missed when in Vietnam. In fact, they probably serve the most flavourful dishes. Even though the restaurants in Hanoi serve pretty good food, I was so glad I tried their street food from both the night markets and the regular street side stalls. Jerald and I shared a large bowl of Pho from a random street side stall, and it is the best bowl of noodle's i've ever tasted in my life! The soup was clear, light, and incredibly flavourful. The portions were great, the noodles were the right texture, I was more than surprised.
Bun Bo Nam Bo is another street side shop we went to. It is named after one of Hanoi's famous street food. This stall was one of my favourite food places in Hanoi! Affordable, simple, and delicious. Plus, they have proper tables and chairs. If crouching down and eating is not your cup of tea, and you rather have a decent sitting height whilst eating, this shop is perfect!
One thing to note though, their menu is in the form of a large canvas sheet on the wall, and the shop owners don't speak english. But that can be easily fixed with some pointing and hand signals.
Food to try: Bun Bo Nam Bo, Gio.
CAFÉS | KAFE BOX
Hanoi has so many different cafes, from those along the streets, to fancier ones in the shopping centres, or some only accessible through dingy alley ways. Even though the café culture is permeating the local food scene, what I love about the cafés in Hanoi, is that they maintain their own local flair. The have the same short tables and chairs for street side dining, and food served in a box like how street food would typically be served.
Food to try: Zucchini Fritters and any of their snack boxes
DINING WITH A VIEW | CITY VIEW CAFÉ
If you don't have a strong stomach, or aren't as adventurous when it comes to asian food/street side dining, another way to enjoy Hanoi, is to see it from above. Hanoi has several cafés located on the 4th or 5th floors of different buildings allowing tourist to dine with a great view of the city, and escape the chaotic noise and traffic on the ground.
The only I enjoyed the most was City View Café, located near the centre facing one of hanoi's busiest streets and overseeing the beautiful Hanoi Lake.
However, food isn't as fantastic and cheap as compared to those you get by the streets. Still, it is very much affordable, and for the view, I would say its worth it to have a meal in these cafés!
S E E
COLOURFUL STREETS | Day vs. Night
The colorful buildings, the flags, the umbrellas of makeshift street food stalls, all add to the atmosphere of Hanoi. This is especially true when you're in the Old Town area of Hanoi.
What I loved about the streets of Hanoi is how different they look in the day and night. At night, when all the sign boards are lighted up in various colours, it gives off a slight party atmosphere. But, in the day, it takes you right back to a typical old town/asian style village - rustic, authentic, and just slightly chaotic.
Also, remember to occasionally look up, for you'd see what they call the Hanoi Spaghetti - tons of electrical wires being knotted up near a lamp post resembling spaghetti!
HANOI TRAFFIC | Motorcycles/Trishaws/Cars/People All On the Road
When you stop at a crossroad, or just walking along the Old Town in Hanoi, you get to experience how insane the traffic is. With the crazy number of motorcycles, its almost impossible to cross the road. I remember breaking out in a little cold sweat because of the blazing horns and chaotic traffic.
The traffic doesn't stop, there aren't many traffic lights, apparently, one should just walk at a constant pace whilst crossing the road, and somehow, motorcyclist and cars will just manoeuvre around you.
The vietnamese are extremely used to the insane traffic. We saw women crossing the roads in heels while vehicles were zooming by them on both sides, as well as people in hats carrying baskets of food walking along side the cars and motorbikes with no fear!
STREET ART | 4KM MOSAIC WALL
Near the Oldest Bridge in Hanoi - Long Bien (a sight in itself), is a long stretch of road covered in mosaic tiles. It was donated to Hanoi by a woman who fell in love with the city. It stretches 4 kilometeres long, adding colour to the streets of Hanoi.
Since the traffic in Hanoi is pretty insane, it makes getting right to the Mosaic Wall a great challenge. Furthermore, the sidewalks were quite narrow, which meant that it was almost impossible to photograph the wall. But, this is still a sight to catch. Look out for it when you're entering into the city by car. You'd definitely pass by a stretch of the mosaic art wall!
Honestly though, there is so much to see in Hanoi itself. The sights and sounds are unlike any other. The streets are filled with motorcycles, everything is vibrant, exciting, and just constantly moving. Despite the hustle and bustle, when you get to a quiet part of the city, you get a deep sense of serenity and you can really appreciate the architecture, the rustic charm, and old vibes Hanoi brings.
Not to mention, food everywhere is great. I've been craving a bowl of street side Pho ever since I left. Food in Singapore is good, but the Pho here can never compare to the $2-3 dollar massive bowls I got from the streets of Hanoi!
If you want to find out what else I got up to in Hanoi and what I wore watch the 2 videos below!
Hanoi Travel Guide (Part 2) - EAT & SEE
28 September 2015 Hanoi, Hoàn Kiếm, Hanoi, Vietnam
After coming back from a long fun year abroad in Europe, I knew i'd be feeling some sort of traveling withdrawals. Especially since I had to jump straight back into an intensive week long summer school module the moment I came back.
Also, Jerald and I have been apart for half a year, and since he has graduated from University, he'd be starting his work life soon. So, at the beginning of august, we planned a short trip to Vietnam - a trip we wanted to take a year ago but never got the chance to.
Originally, we intended for it to be a weeklong trip, however, Jerald had to attend his convocation, on the 3rd of August, so we had to cut our trip short by a couple of days, and left out Sapa from our destination list.
Nevertheless, it was an incredible few days spent in Hanoi and Halong Bay. I would definitely want to go back and visit Vietnam again, there are so many other cities and smaller villages I'd love to visit (Sapa, Hoi An, etc.)
In Hanoi, we Jerald found this hotel room on a discount it was surprisingly HUGE. I was definitely not expecting it. I loved its hardwood floors, the sofa area, a large bed. Definitely a massive upgrade from the hostels I was staying in during all my Europe trips!
Hotels we stayed at:We were lucky enough to get rooms that were on the higher levels of the building, which meant we could look out and see the city at night or in the day!
Annam Legend Hotel - Average breakfast, but awesome room!
Hanoi Legacy Hotel - Hang Bac - Slightly cheaper but smaller room, decent breakfast!
Hanoi was way more than what I expected, and here are 5 of (my favourite) things to do in Hanoi & I think one should not miss if they were to be there!
1 | Go for a Water Puppet Show
This is a traditional Vietnamese water puppet show where around 10 puppeteers were in the water, and manipulating the different puppets. There was spurting water, fire, jumping and somersaulting puppets. Dragons, people, & fish puppets. This is Hanoi's oldest Water Puppet show/stage. And when we went to buy tickets it was almost sold out! Thankfully they had several time slots for the shows.
The receptionist at our hotel highly recommended it, and said it was really funny.
Since I don't understand Vietnamese, I didn't quite get the story. But, to be able to watch these puppeteers perform their craft, was rather incredible. Plus! All the music and sound effect were LIVE. It was cool. These performers work really hard though. After the show I was at ended, they probably had a 10min break before the next show was schedule to begin!
Duration of Show: approx. 1 hrRegardless of your comprehension of Vietnamnese, I think this Water Puppet show is definitely worth watching!
Cost: 100k Dong (USD$4.45) and 20k Dong (USD$0.89) for a ticket to allow you to take photos
2 | Walk Around Hanoi Lake
Hanoi lake is known as a couple's hotspot! Its quite a huge lake, so walking around the lake would take sometime. It it is a gorgeous lake where cars and motorbikes weren't allowed nearby - unlike the regular pavements by the roads! It was free from the insane traffic of Hanoi, which was something I thoroughly appreciated. The lake was super calm, serene, and just a great place to spend the afternoon.
As Jerald and I were walking around the lake, and snapping a multitude of photos, there were so many others sitting around in the pointy triangular vietnamese hats, tons of couples, and even some kid playing around.
Bring a picnic basket if you'd like, or just have leisure stroll around and people watch. No matter what you do, there is not missing the romantic Hanoi Lake when you're in Hanoi!
3 | Shop at the Dong Xuan Night Market/ Streets
One of my favourite things to do in Vietnam is SHOP. Before going for my trip, I heard from Jerald that a few of his friends found Vietnam to be a little uninspiring on the fashion front.
Initially, walking along the main streets of Vietnam I conquered with their opinions. Most of the stalls sold very similar items and they weren't anything special. That was until we found this one side street - Hang Quat Street - with all the interesting boutique shops, and I was like "SCOREEE!"
Other than shopping along the streets, It is also interesting to take a look at the Night Market and the Dong Xuan Market.
Dong Xuan Market is this wholesale market with food, clothes, shoes, bags, accessories, PLENTY of items. Sadly, they really mean wholesale when they say wholesale market. I saw this pretty pair of shoes, but the shop owner refused to let me buy it, and said "minimum 100". What would I even do with 100 pairs of the same shoe right?
So I just left the shop.
It is interesting to see how these wholesale market shop owners don't bother to tout, interact with tourist or attempt some sales. They merely stared at us when we walked by and then proceed on to packing their things.
I guess it is more of observing what they do, and having the experience of being in a crammed space with TONS of apparels that stood out. Oh I definitely felt a little claustrophobic inside.
4 | See the City From Above
When I was traveling around Europe, there were so many times when I climbed a up a bell tower, or went up to a higher ground just to get an aerial view of the city. Before going to Europe, I never really did such things on my travels within Asia - many asian cities don't have those kind of high rise buildings, or tall bell towers to begin with.
But as the capital city of Vietnam, Hanoi had several mid-height buildings and cafés with a stunning view of the city. The hustle and bustle of the streets below. The colourful signboards and buildings. The view from above and the vibe of the city you get when you're on the 5th of 6th storey of a building is so different from that on the ground.
5 | Enjoy A Cruise to Halong Bay
This is one of the most common excursion tourists take out of Hanoi. Almost every hotel offers booking services and information for a cruise to the stunning Halong Bay.
It usually lasts 2 days and you get to cruise around beautiful UNESCO Heritage site visiting several stops along the way (upcoming post dedicated to that - stay tuned!).
There you have it! 5 things to do in Hanoi as a rough guide for people who are thinking of visiting Vietnamese capital!
Since I have way too many pictures to share, i've decided to split them up so I can share more about what I did on different parts of my journey, and all my favourite moments. I hope you like this upcoming Vietnam Travel Guide series.
Watch my youtube video for highlights of what I did in Vietnam!
Hanoi Travel Guide (Part 1) - 5 THINGS TO DO
24 September 2015 Hanoi, Hoàn Kiếm, Hanoi, Vietnam
In all honesty, Porto wasn't originally in my plans when I wanted to visit Portugal. Since I only had 4 days (subjected to the cheapest range for flight tickets) I thought i'd spend my all them in Lisbon. However, a friend of mine told me that she took a trip to Porto during her winter tour around Spain and Portugal, found it to be beautiful and wished she could have spent more time there. She said she enjoyed Porto much more than Lisbon. So given her verdict, I decided to squeeze in some time in my schedule to spend 24 hours in Porto - of course that meant waking up at 7 or 8 am everyday during the trip to cover as much of Lisbon as I could, but I'm not complaining! I love waking up early when I'm traveling!
The train ride from Lisbon to Porto took about 3 hours, and the view that you get along the ride is INCREDIBLE. JUST INCREDIBLE. Unfortunately, the windows were dirty and very... spotty? (if that is a word) so, I couldn't take any nice pictures, but I spent half my time attempting to!
When I got off the train, I was instantly amazed by the surrounding and the vibe of the city. It is different from Lisbon, and a lot less crowded. The most fascinating thing was, the trees in Porto were WHITE. From afar, they looked like they had white leaves, but of course going closer to it, it was just a tree covers in white (some pink) flowers and no leaves! If anyone knows what these trees are called, please let me know. For now, they register in my mind as "flower trees".
After dropping my bags at the hostel, I wasted no time and headed out to explore. But I took a couple of outfit shots in the backyard of the hostel before heading out. Yes - the hostel I stayed at had a BACKYARD, an area to chill on and have your meal outside and on top of it, a nice area with sofas and pillows to relax on the inside! Even the 2nd floor had its own area with flowers and chairs where you could just sit and talk!
WHAT I WORE
Dress - similar here / Blazer - similar here / Leggings - Primark / Watch - Nakedglory.com
But of course, I wasn't interested in resting in the hostel, so I went off and made my way through the city centre. Upon reaching the city centre, I realised why my friend thought Porto was more beautiful than Lisbon. The architecture in the area reminded me so much of Paris!
In my opinion, Lisbon embodied what I expected the typical architecture in Portugal would be like. Rustic, colourful, a little worn down, and charming nonetheless. However Porto's city centre had a more similar vibe than what you would expect a stereotypical european city like France or Germany to have, but influenced with a little bit of asian/chinese inspired architecture details.
(As you can see, my vocabulary when it comes to architecture description is close to none, so I hope the pictures aid you in understanding what I'm trying to say!)
Basically, the difference between the vibes was that Porto was a little bit more elegant and well polished, it really took me back to the times I spent roaming around Paris and even reminded me of Germany a little bit. Of course, when you take a turn down the streets, you instantly remember you're in Portugal. The cobbled streets that undulate up and down was just like Lisbon, and has now, to me, become a characteristic trait of Portugal (base on my narrow conclusion after visiting 2 cities haha!)
The shop was like a novelty store museum. It sold things from door hangers, to clocks, collectibles such as cars, home decor, mini plants, CLOTHES, postcards, food, and JAM. The first floor was for collectibles and the second floor they had more home items like pots cute pots and pans, cookbooks and homemade marmalade jam.
Not to mention, the interior decor of the shop was so on point. It was like #futurehouseinspiration everywhere I turned.
After the rained stop, I continued to make my way towards the main attraction in Porto, which was the Porto Ribeira and Ribeira Square. It boasts a great view of the river and the city, and I was most definitely not disappointed! The houses near the ribeira were so colourful and just gave me a nice-all-around-portugese-vibe. Its what I'd imagine myself seeing when I think Portugal.
I attempted to cross the metal Luís bridge along the Ribeira but I gave up after walking midway because a) I was hungry and b) The winds were so strong and cars were zooming beside me I thought I was going to fall off.
The best thing about the Riverside of Porto, was that there was NO ONE. I mean, you would expect a place with a view like this, plus loads of cafes and restaurants in nearby to be surrounded with people, and bustling with life, but no, it was QUIET. There was perhaps one or 2 workers in the area but apart from that, I had the river to myself.
If I wasn't that afraid of seagulls and pigeons, I would have just sat right a long the river and just stared at the view opposite. But there were massive seagulls that stared at me as if I ate their lunch, so I took a short stroll along the river instead of sitting at one place.
After my stroll, I decided to satisfy my hunger at a recommended dinner place round the corner from the Ribeira, called Jimao, and treated myself to the BEST dinner I had in a long while (plus the restaurant staff were SO NICE.)
I planned to eat slowly and enjoy my time with my food till the sun went down so I could see what the Ribeira would look like at night - in my head it was colourful, and I also expected it to be more crowded.
Low and behold, it was NOT CROWDED AT ALL. But, the view lived up to my expectation. It was serene, and yet so colourful. I loved how the lights of the building reflected and made dancing colours on the waters of the river. Honestly, I live for moments like this when I travel.
Porto definitely did not disappoint. Although I did not manage to find that supposedly gorgeous library/bookstore, I had my fair share of beautiful sights. I loved it even more for the fact that I did not have to squeeze past people, or have awkward heads in my photographs. If you're planning to visit Portugal for a longer period of time, give yourself a day or 2 in the wonderful Porto, you'd be pleased!
A Day in Porto (+Outfit!)
16 April 2015 Porto, Portugal
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