You haven't experienced Asia Until You've experienced NAM! Part 2

So I left you guys (hopefully at the edge of your seat) at Thailand and promised you tails of Vietnam which I failed to deliver on.... until now!

Let me just jump right into it. So Bilal and I said good riddance to James (jk jk we actually left him in the middle of the night) to catch our 6 am flight to Hanoi, Vietnam! Thailand and Vietnam are separated by Laos and Cambodia but are not far from each other at all so it was a nice little 2 hour plane ride.

Now, I was so freaking amped up to get to Hanoi! I had heard the best things at Vietnam. I had heard that there was French influence everywhere since Vietnam was originally colonised by the French. I was told that I could get fresh baguettes on the streets and in the hostels, 20 cent "microbrewery beer" on the sides of the road, heavenly pho, and vintage Vietnam war propaganda posters. This place sounded like quite the cultural mecca. Secretly, I was also hoping that Hanoi would be the cheese oasis of Asia given the French influence....(spoiler: I was wrong).

So let me tell you my feelings about the real Hanoi...... it really IS THAT COOL and I LOVED THE PLACE!!!!!! Bilal and I were staying in a really, really tall town house in the old quarter of Hanoi. All of the architecture is like that - everything is built UPWARDS and built with French architectural influence. 

Our tall, tall hostel

Now, the only word that I can use to describe the old quarter is...madness! The narrow roads are absolutely filled with motor bikes and I mean FILLED. No one drives cars (so actually, traffic is quite efficient...Bilal and I even took motor bike taxis a few times!) Unfortunately, it's also impossible to walk on the sidewalks because people are selling the contents of their store right on the side of the street and each street in the old quarter is known for the different things sold on it. There was silk street, fabric street, aluminium things street....etc. etc. etc. I think you get the picture. 

Bilal helping me to buy THE BEST pants on the side of the road

Now, none of these streets have traffic lights or stop signs. Traffic just flows and flows and flows and when you come to an intersection, somehow, without any signal, the traffic changes directions. It's literally as if these motor cyclists are being conducted by the wind. We didn't even witness one road accident. Very impressive.

typical hanoi randomness

The pedestrian, in these circumstances, has to be extremely brave and just CROSS the traffic. They must trust that the motorcyclist with either stop for them or skilfully avoid them. At first I found this pretty difficult. Even with my Montreal road-crossing training plus my Malaysia high-way crossing skills, I did not trust that the drivers would stop for me. Unfortunately if your a scaredy-cat you end up waiting on the side of the road for 10 mins. So I quickly learned how to take a deep breath and just CROSS! Let me tell you - the vietnamese people have no problem with this arrangement! While in Hanoi I saw old, pastey, shirtless men casually walking out in front of traffic to deposit their garbage for pick up and parents nonchalantly pushing their kids in trams straight across oncoming traffic! Like... WHAT ARE YOU DOING GUYS - I give you a ZERO for your parenting abilities. As much as it was terrifying to watch, it was also highly entertaining and Bilal and I would sit on the side of the road, drinking beer, eating food and watching people manoeuvre their way across the street. 

Pensive Bilal with motor cyclists in the background

When we walked through the French Quarter of Hanoi, I actually felt like I was in Paris! There were beautiful buildings, giant sidewalks and squares to sit in, Longchamp, Louis Vuitton, and little french inspired cafes EVERYWHERE. Hanoi has some of the best cafe culture I've ever seen! It doesn't beat Montreal, because nothing beats Montreal, but I was so happy to be able to WALK down the street, sit in a cute cafe, eat a baguette and enjoy the scenery. 

Finally, the last thing I have to tell you about Hanoi is the food!!! I was sent to Hanoi with a list from my friend Sunita who actually lived in Hanoi for 8 months. I know nothing about vietnamese food so we relied heavily on this list and on our hostel to tell us what to eat. Even still, at some of the places Bilal and I ended up, we looked down at our plates, seriously contemplating if we should eat what was in front of us. Of course, we always did. And we were always VERY pleasantly surprised. From fish and dill to what I am going to call "rice paper pizza", to tofu hotpot to fried pork to grapefruit salad (yes I'm about to list you everything I ate) it all ended up being flavourful, interesting and very very new. Here is a series of pics of me with various food experiences:

Our pizza being cooked on the street... it was a family affair

Final product: Our random pizzas...vietnamese style

The yummiest restaurant "A New Day"- note my happy expression

First resto we went to in Hanoi....Not sure how I felt about this dish.....

HEE HEE JK IT WAS YUMMY

Fish and Dill (YUM YUM)

Can't leave without some Pho

Bilal and I had some really serendipitous moments… The first one is that we went to sit down on the impossibly low "classic" stools on the street corner where all four corners sold beer for 20 cents to obviously have a few glasses of beer (BIA HOI!). (This is what Rachelle Ngai described to me as a "microbrewery"... Really, it was just this dude:

the "microbrewwry"

Bia hoi!

Besties

Typical Hanoi Stools made for normal size people

Not more than 5 minutes after we sat down, someone sits next to us and Bilal asks me - is that person from McGill? I'm about to laugh in his face when SEBASTIEN from MCGILL (apologies to sebastien as I don't know his last name) walks over to us to say hi! 

We were in total shock because this street is a BUSY place. What are the chances we sit down next to someone who was in residence with Bilal in his first year? SLIM TO NONE, I'd say. Turns out Seb is spending the summer in Hanoi with his brother teaching and travelling and living the life! So we had a good chat with Seb and his friends from Ottawa and then parted ways. 

Serendipitous moment number two comes with a big recommendation: IF YOU GO TO HANOI, you MUST book the "Hanoi Kids" to take you around Hanoi! This is literally a group of students at university in Hanoi who volunteer their time to show tourists around their city FOR FREE. They just want to practice their English and meet people from all around the world (They are also rated the number one thing to do in Hanoi on Trip Advisor for 3 Years in a row). So, we heard about Hanoi Kids from Seb's friends and given that it was such late notice, we were very doubtful there would be free students to show us around. 

The next morning I sent Hanoi Kids and email and then Bilal and I set off to see Ho Chi Min (uncle Ho!) Mausoleum  where the body of Ho Chi Min has been enbaumed and preserved for people to come and visit. Creepy no? LOL at communist countries. 

ANYWAY. This meant I wouldn't know if we had a 2 o'clock tour confirmed until we got back to the hostel.  On the way back from the mausoleum I saw a really tall Vietnamese boy wearing a Hanoi Kids t-shirt so I stopped him on the side of the road to ask what he thought about us trying to get a tour for today. He responded saying that it's probably too last minute and that we should send an email.

So I told him I sent an email that morning, and then the Hanoi Kid asks me …. "Is your name Sheena Melwani?" and I was like "WTH YES!" and he was like - "Your tour is confirm! I'm giving you your tour!!!!" Needless to say, Bilal and I were pretty shocked that the RANDOM hanoi kid that I stopped on the side of the road was actually the one who had volunteered to take us around Hanoi that afternoon! So after finding out our tour was confirmed (in the weirdest way possible) we happily headed for some food. 

Now, I really want to tell you all about the tour that our two vietnamese friends took us on (Bach and Tien) all around the old quarter, the temple of literature, and to little hidden cafes and food stalls but I don't think I have enough space, or enough of your attention (LOL) but I do want to tell you that it was absolutely wonderful to have a local person show us around and explain to us all about the Vietnamese culture, food, way of life etc etc. You know how when you go to visit a friend who lives somewhere, your trip is so much better than going to a country that you don't know anyone in and just showing yourself around? Well, our Hanoi Kids made it possible for us to get that "inside scoop" on a city without needing to know anyone in Hanoi! Bach and Tien instantly became our friends and we had a great time asking them questions about their personal lives - why they joined hanoi kids, what its like to live in a communist country, what their education system is like, what their favourite things to do in Hanoi are, if they had girl friends (their single and on the look out FYI) and I also showed them pictures of my family. I really felt like I had made 2 great friends in Hanoi :) They even got comfortable enough to start making fun of me and my appearance (which is not that great when I travel)…. Tien and Bach if you are reading this (Cuz I now have them on Facebook), thank you so much for making my Hanoi experience so much richer!!

Hidden cafe over looking the lake in Hanoi

Creepy hallways to get to beautiful places

So my final feelings on Hanoi: the reason why I think I loved it is because it was so RAW. In Hanoi, you don't feel like a tourist. No one makes any accommodations for you - you walk around and are just totally surrounded by vietnamese people, vietnamese way of life…. and you just have to find your way, even when it can be a little difficult at times. It was really an experience where A) i felt like everything was a new discovery - and I haven't felt like that since I moved in KL in Dec and B) where I was way out of my comfort zone - and that was the best part! 

Our Map of old quarter in Hanoi at the end of our trip with everyone's recommendations

Now - I could also write to you about Ha Long Bay but I think I'll just put some pictures here - because Ha Long Bay is stunning. Bilal and I went on an overnight cruise on a junk boat. The entire time on this junk boat we are surrounded by majestic limestone formations jutting out from the water all around us. Nature is incredible, guys. And every time I get to hike to a waterfall, go trekking outside of KL, or go to see the beautiful sights, I instantly feel a sense of gratitude for having the opportunity to experience these places outside of Canada. Now I am DYING to explore Canada and all of its natural goodness! Anyway - we went kayaking and swimming in Ha Long bay, ate great food, had an awesome tour guide named Hughe (who was our age and is fantastic at napkin folding) and had a really peaceful 2 days there :)

Spot the jumping Bilal 

To finish I just wanna say that I <3 Vietnam and that I experienced but a SLIVER of all it has to offer and that I can't wait to go back (and hopefully, I convinced you to want to visit as well :) ).