Playing Frogger in Hanoi

Oh Hanoi- you managed to charm us even with your insane traffic and torrential downpours. 

 Before we left, if you asked me what I was most worried about, you would have expected me to say something along the lines of someone breaking their leg, food poisoning, getting hit by a scooter, etc, etc Nope! I have been slightly worried for months about being cold in Vietnam, as technically it’s their winter. What’s the big deal you ask?! I HATE being cold. Like REALLY hate being cold. I like to look at snow from a warm spot by the fire. Also, because we are mostly traveling around the equator we did not want to waste room lugging extra layers that we really weren’t going to need often.  In fact, we each have only 2 pairs of pants, 1 long sleeve shirt, 1 athletic jacket and 1 rain jacket.

Wouldn't you know that when we arrived in Hanoi they are having an unseasonable cold snap (54 degrees, which doesn’t sound cold unless you’ve been spending the last month in 80s-90s). All the locals were commiserating with us. The onslaught of hard rain did not help. Our apartment, which was very charming in a ramshackle way, had no heat, no hot water and no insulation. We could not get warm so we spent as much time as possible in cafes or restaurants to warm up. Any time we were back in the apartment we crammed on the little couch and snuggled up under a throw blanket.

We had one throw blanket and it's missing from this picture since it was wrapped around me!

The kids were fantastic and did not complain even though their teeth were chattering. It was a real Vietnamese city apartment and we appreciated seeing what it looks like. Quiet in a city like Hanoi is a luxury only for the rich. At one point in the middle of the night, I went downstairs as I thought I heard Brent throwing up in the bathroom. I was really worried he was ill. I realized that everyone else was asleep and I had just heard someone in the hallway hocking phlegm!! The walls were paper thin and we could hear all their conversations. I hope they also enjoyed hearing Penguins of Madagascar at 7am. 😉

After two nights and when our last pair of socks was soaked, we decided to throw in the towel and change locations. Brent found a hotel that rents for long term business stays but they had availability for us. We were thrilled to have two bedrooms and a washer and dryer in our unit. Yay!  Everyone’s mood completely lifted and we were thankful that we had the means to make the switch. We moved to a different part of Hanoi that is right by the lake that John McCain was shot down in. There's even a memorial there commemorating the fact that they shot down an American pilot.

We spent many hours just wandering the hectic and narrow streets of the Old Quarter, which is the oldest part of Hanoi and has been in existence since imperial times. This quarter used to be the commercial center and is famous for each street being dedicated to a specific trade or guild. This still holds true today where each street specializes in one product. For example, a few of the streets we came across:

• Paper Street – selling Christmas decorations- what happens to this street after Christmas??
• Herb & Spice Street
• Refrigerator Street
• Eyeglass street
• Cooking Utensils Street
• Hardware Street

The traffic is Hanoi involves deep breathing, constant vigilance and purposeful prayer! There doesn’t seem to be any rule of order and everyone continues along a high speeds.  Expect traffic to come from all angles, even on a one way street.

We found a darling café that served Hanoi’s famous egg coffee. Egg coffee was ingeniously developed when a countrywide shortage of milk led to some creative alternatives. Instead of milk they can use butter, egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk and even cheese. We sampled several varieties during our stay but our favorite included coffee with sweetened condensed milk whipped with a egg yolk dollop on top. Think Cadbury egg center...mmm!

At the Note Cafe, where every single surface is covered in sticky notes with positive messages to fellow visitors.

One unique feature of Hanoi is the Railway Village. Hidden among the chaos of Hanoi is an area where high speed trains hurl through a residential street, mere feet away from people’s everyday lives. The street itself is like the majority of the streets in Hanoi’s old quarter – narrow, tall buildings lining a bustling, narrow street. But with one main difference: a working railway track fills up the space where a road should be. The train comes through twice a day and the street is so narrow that residents quickly move dishes, laundry and children inside.

We really wanted to see the train in action so we go there ahead of time and waited and waited and waited. Some enterprising residents turned the bottom floor of their apartment into a cafe so at least we were not waiting in the rain. 

Apparently the rain had caused some problems somewhere on the track so the train was delayed. Boo! We were disappointed, but that’s life! We were able to enjoy many of Hanoi's charms, even if a few managed to elude us before heading out to the Halong Bay area.