Hanoi, Vietnam.

The mad traffic and noisy horns of Hanoi are crazy. We had 4 days in the capital city after flying in from Hoi An.

The humidity is crazy in Hanoi and apparently at its worst can be nearly 99% so it’s practically water!

We stayed in 2 different hotels in Hanoi. Thien Thái in the Old Quarter which was very cheap and in a good location but for our last night we decided to check into the Daewoo Hotel so we could have a relaxing last day in Hanoi by the pool and catch up on some rest!

We went to see a traditional water puppet show in Hanoi which was a nice experience. Didn’t have a clue what was going on as it was all in Vietnamese but it was a really well put together show. The puppeteers are waste deep in water behind a curtain and come out at the end.

The night market in Hanoi was manic. Probably the biggest one we’d seen in Vietnam. They close the roads for the market so you get some relief from the motor bikes but there are huge crowds of people you are trying to get through which made it very sweaty!!

Whilst in Hanoi we had a day trip to Halong Bay booked. It’s about 170km from Hanoi so it was an early start to get there. We were booked onto a group tour of 12 people and got collected from our hotel in a fab minibus with reclining leather seats and charging points. This was ideal as it meant you could go straight back to sleep once you got on the bus! About half way into the journey you have a quick coffee stop, this place is swarming with people all doing the exact same trip! On arrival into Halong Bay we went to find our boat – White Tiger – and despite there seeming to be so many people, once the boat had left the dock there really didn’t feel like many other people around! We had a huge seafood feast onboard and once finished we could go up to the top deck to take it in view. I’m not normally very good with boats, always get seasick but the water as so still in Halong Bay it’s was incredibly peaceful. We spent about 5 hours cruising around some of the different limestone islands (there are 2000 in total) and we on a bamboo boat into the caves. It was really magical. The day just flew by! It was another 3 hour journey back to Hanoi which took slightly longer due to the Vietnamese football team playing which lead to thousands of people tearing round the city on motorbikes and horns celebrating, even though they lost!

I was speaking to an American guy in the airport the week previous who said he’d done a vintage Vespa tour in Hanoi and how brilliant it was so we decided to book one. Both a little hesitant at first having never been on bikes but once we started we actually loved it! We whizzed round all the main sights of Hanoi and our tour guide Bing was great. He took us to the Indochina railway cafe to watch the train come whizzing by just inches away and to try Vietnamese ‘egg coffee’. We finished up our Vespa tour but having a big lunch in a restaurant called Little Hanoi who gave us enough food to last a week!!

Our second hotel in Hanoi was next door to a big department store called Lotte which has an observation deck on the top floor. Faye loved this as a section of it jutted out and had a glass bottom so you could lay down and watch the city whizzing by beneath you!

Hanoi was the most expensive city out of all we visited but still a lot cheaper than England and as to be expected being the capital city. We were also here over Independence Day and the anniversary of Ho Chi Minh’s death so a lot of things were closed on this day, mainly restaurants, but it did mean that roads were a lot quieter as people had left the city to go home to their families to celebrate.