[Travel] Backpacking IndoChina Day 9 -10: Hanoi, Vietnam


The same cold weather that had attracted me to SaPa sort of chased us out of there too. And I don’t mean that in a negative way. It was just getting too cold for us and we weren’t really packed for a 10˚C weather. So before night falls on the 9th of March, we headed down to Lao Cai. Our train isn’t scheduled to depart until 9 that evening so we had hours to kill but with nowhere to go, we ended up just hanging at the train station. The local currency we had on us had dwindled so we had to make do with a crusty Baguette bread and just wait til we get to Hanoi. It was another uneventful 10 hour train ride which was a bit uncomfortable since we had the uppermost berth again but I couldn’t really complain. I love train rides, I really do. In the morning I like standing outside of the compartment and stare out the window just looking at the countryside pass by.
The beautiful Hoan Kiem Lake




I was expecting a cool weather when we get to Hanoi and I was right. At around 18˚C, it was the sort of weather that I like since you could walk for hours and not break a sweat. This is my second time here and I was excited since there are places that I didn’t get to cover last year and food I haven’t tried so I was really looking forward to this leg of our trip. We have an appointment with Hanoikids at 10 that morning so we checked in early at our hostel, took a much needed shower, got dressed, and used the meal stub for the buffet breakfast. Hanoikids is an organization consisting of college students who volunteers to show tourists around Hanoi for free. Do check out my review on tripadvisor here. I will be writing separately about this tour along with select food places we went to since they’re so good they deserve a separate post.
Hoan Kiem Lake at night..




One of the charms of Hanoi is that you could walk for hours on end or sit down on one of the many streetside food stalls without getting bored because there’s always something new to see. The city is so vibrant and full of life, so chaotic and yet so serene. It’s hard to describe really, you have to experience sitting idly by one of the benches in Hoan Kiem Lake or get lost around the Old Quarter to understand. You see people exercising by the lake at all hours and it makes you wish you packed that running shoes and tracksuit so you can join them. The sheer number of Pho restaurants and other hole-in-the-wall food joints serving a variety of noodle dishes with baskets of green leafy vegetables makes you wanna commit to healthy living for the rest of your life. I am actually thinking of going back already but for now I’m just gonna share some precious snap shots.
Cyclos everywhere…






Don’t this make you wanna put in some gym time? 🙂



’twas the season for getting married.. ❤



of flowers and conical hats..





Or spend hours just people watching…







These photos pretty much sums up what I see in Hanoi, well aside from the controlled madness that you see day to day with thousands of motorbikes plying the roads as well as the delightful chaos around the Old Quarters. But that’s a post for another time.

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