Getting social in Hanoi

In Hanoi, I had my first taste of Vietnamese food and it was an EXCELLENT recommendation by my Hanoi Kids guide. She brought me to eat Bun Bo Nam Bo at a shop called BUN BO NAM BO (surprise!!) named after its specialty. It’s more expensive than the usual ‘Bun’ noodles you’d get by the street but ever since then, I haven’t had anything quite like it (I was desperately trying to find though!). It cost 35,000 VND, about 2.60 SGD). IT’S SOOOOO GOOD!!!!

According to my good friend Wikipedia, Bun Bo Nam Bo is done in a southern style and it’s different from the usual type of ‘Bun’ you get from the streets. In fact, I just found out that I went to the most popular beef noodle place in Hanoi (rated #5 attraction in Hanoi on TripAdvisor)! The shop is a hole-in-the-wall type of establishment and it’s located along 67 Hang Dieu Street. It is a MUST-TRY *drools*.

Bun Bo Nam Bo

67 Hang Dieu Street

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We also went to get ice cream from a highly popular ice cream place called Kem Trang Tien.

It was swarmed with locals, all standing around eating their ice cream. Having been there for over 50 years, the place is practically an institution in Hanoi, but it’s little known to tourists and foreigners because it’s not written in guidebooks. Most foreigners head to Fanny’s by the lake, but Trang Tien is (supposedly) better and definitely cheaper. It cost about 12,000 VND a pop and we tried the 2nd most popular flavour, which is green rice.

Why try the 2nd? You may ask. Well, simply because the 1st was sold out. The best-selling ice cream at Kem Trang Tien is on an ice cream cone. I have no idea what flavour it is of though. When I was getting ice cream for my guide and I, it was out of stock. But in the time we were standing around and enjoying our ice cream, no. 1 was back in stock. And people were just rushing to join in the queue, some were so desperate that they don’t even bother queuing up, but squeeze their way through. Every person leaving the line were carrying 3 or more cones in their hands, just like this man below.

(Sorry about the blur photo. The people were always in a rush!)

Why not give Trang Tien ice cream a try when you’re in Hanoi?

Kem Trang Tien
35 Trang Tian Street

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The day I joined my friend D and her Hanoi Kids guide, we went for lunch at Quan An Ngon Restaurant.

It seemed like a rather nice place and the bill ran up to 200,000 VND for the 4 of us. We ordered about 4 dishes (fish, pork, salad and soup) with steamed rice and several cans of soft drinks. The food was tasty but portions were small.

Call me a miser, but I would rather be eating by some street stall for 20,000 VND than to eat here. It was my most expensive meal in Vietnam I think, but still very cheap by Western or Singaporean standards.

Quan An Ngon
18 Phan Boi Chau

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Yes, I’d rather be eating this!

Pho Bo (Beef noodles)

Or this!

Bun Cha (Pork noodles)

These delicious and healthy street-side eats should only cost you 20,000 VND. If you’re quoted any more than that, BARGAIN.

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D and I also happened to chance upon a cool yogurt ice-cream shop called Soyo along Quang Trung St while shopping. The interior is so cute and the sheep toys are SOOOOOOOO ADORABLE!!! I wanted to buy 1 from the shop, but they weren’t for sale :( When I saw one of them at the Toys street in the Old Quarter, I just had to buy one :D :D :D

The concept of Soyo is pretty interesting. You can squeeze out however many flavours you like and the amount, add toppings if you like and then they’d weigh the cup and charge you accordingly. I can’t remember how much we paid but it was cheap! And much appreciated after hours in the hot sun.

SoYo
Quang Trung Street (I know it’s quite a long street, but it’s hard for me to describe where it is. Actually, I forgot :p)

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I met Hong, a fellow CSer, on the first night I was in Hanoi and I got to ride pose with her super cool pink bike (with fluffy white clouds). Woohoo!! Such a biker chick *proud*

(Please ignore my country bumpkin attire. Thx :p)

We wanted to settle for drinks just outside St Joseph’s Cathedral, but it was way too crowded and too hot, we settled for an air-conditioned restaurant nearby. You should check out the Cathedral area at night and see locals sitting on little stools having drinks. Join them!

By the way, Bia Hoi (some kind of beer) can only be gotten on the streets at the little stalls and not in restaurants.

For the ladies, you can try Halida. Very light and I was drinking it like it was water (though I am not alcoholic).

Here are some other social events that happened in Hanoi:

Dinner at the Old Quarter, then drinks at Press Club with Hong and 2 french girls we met in Sapa

Lunch and then coffee with Amelia and Daniel at the Art Cafe near the Cathedral

Hanoi Attractions

I was in and out of Hanoi as I headed to explore Halong Bay and Sapa. I tried to do the touristic thing and checked out some of the attractions in Hanoi and my conclusion is: The city is best used as a base to explore Northern Vietnam.

In the few days I spent exploring Hanoi, nothing was particularly memorable nor engaging. The best attraction besides shopping at the Old Quarter, was perhaps the Museum of Ethnology, where I learnt about the different tribes and how they are different in the way their houses looked or the clothes they wore and where the different tribes are located. It was interesting, but I thought the museum was pretty sparse.

Here’s a rundown of the places I checked out and my thoughts on them:

Ho Chi Minh Complex

It’s a large compound housing a mausoleum where his body is reported kept, a museum about Uncle Ho and his life, struggle and achievements, and also the houses which he used to live in.

Ho Chi Minh is affectionately referred to as Uncle Ho by the Vietnamese because he dedicated his life to saving the country and did not have any wife nor kids. Thus, they call him Uncle Ho because they want him to feel like he has a big family, or so I was told by my Hanoi Kids guide (more on Hanoi Kids later).

I didn’t get to visit his body – I think it’s only open to the public in the morning. I was told that Ho Chi Minh wanted his body to be burnt after death, but such a practice is not deemed as good according to Vietnamese belief and thus, the government decided to preserve his body instead.

This is the place where Ho Chi Minh lived. The 2 pictures on the right are buildings in the same compound, but the 2 on the right are pictures of his actual humble abode. He lived in 2 houses and this was the old one.

His new wooden house built on stilts. The new house was given to him as a gift and like the old house, the interior is simple and humble. The new house doesn’t have a toilet because Ho Chi Minh deemed there to be no need for one since his old house, 1 km away, had one. So whenever he needed to use it, he’d go to the old house.

We headed to the Ho Chi Minh Museum thereafter and it would have been pretty interesting, if only it was not so hot inside + if I was not starving + if I had all the time in the world.

Ho Chi Minh Museum

I didn’t feel comfortable spending too much time checking out the various exhibits and trying to understand everything about Ho Chi Minh because my guide was with me. I prefer to explore museums alone because in that way, I can spend more time on what interests me, rather than worrying about whether the other person will be bored or if the other person wants to leave already. Anyone else feels that way about museums?

Museum of Ethnology

As mentioned above, the Museum of Ethnology is where you’d get to learn about the different tribes in Vietnam. There is an indoor section to the museum and an outdoor section as well.

In the indoor section, you get to see some costumes, depictions of their lifestyles and even miniatures of their homes.

The outdoor section was more impressive. Take a look at this humongous house.

Saw a boy trying to paint the house. Good job!

There are several real-life tribal houses in the outdoor compound for you to explore. I thought it was pretty cool.

Here’s another one tribal house.

The men are to go up by the stairs on the left and the women by the one on the right (quite obvious right? hahahaahah!). The women are suppose to touch the pair of boob-like protrusions on the staircase before entering their homes, haha.

Pretty cool museum, huh?

Fabric market

I forgot the name of this fabric market, but it’s located at the south of the lake, near Vicom Towers (possibly the only shopping mall in Hanoi). The clothes on sale there are mumsy, but it doesn’t matter if you’re going there to get fabric and not clothes. The ground floor of the complex is home to numerous shoes and replica bags stalls and the second level is where all the fabric stores are.

We went there just to see if we could find any cute fabric for making some clothes, but left after a while because our knowledge of cloth was poor and we didn’t know what are reasonable prices for the different types of fabric. It’s fabric heaven for those who know their stuff or seriously want to buy some.

It was hot, so we settled for dessert on the ground floor of the complex. Basically you just choose a few things and they’d top it up with red bean soup and ice. I can’t remember how much it cost, but I’d kick myself if we paid more than 10,000 VND for it!

Old Quarter

This area is located north of the lake. It is pretty touristy, but here’s where the fashion stores and eateries congregate. There are dedicated streets to toys, bags, shoes, apparel etc. and the best way to explore is to just get lost in the Old Quarter and be surprised at what you may discover down the street or the next.

I bought tons of laundry/storage bags with cute designs on them – such as lingerie, shoes, baby items etc. They’re great for travelling because they allow you to compartmentalize and organize your things. Love them! You could get the large ones for 15,000 VND each by bargaining hard.

Jumping in the Old Quarter! *New romper alert which I bought in the Old Quarter – only 165,000 VND (about 13 SGD). A steal!

Water Puppet Show

I wanted to go catch this, but bailed out due to the weather and mixed reviews about the show. All I know is that it is outdoors and entirely in Vietnamese. People have described it to me as “weird”, “nothing much to see”, though there was one that said “pretty interesting”.

So no reviews on this one, though I’d like to hear what you think of it if you’ve watched it before. :)

This is just an entry on the various attractions I checked out in Hanoi. The next entry will cover food and drinks etc, the social stuff. Also, look out for a GREAT tip for Hanoi!

Till the next post :)

Vietnam/Hanoi Basics

Weather (mid to end June 2010): SO FRICKIN’ HOT. I don’t have the figures but a quick check on Google shows the weather forecast on Monday to be 36 degrees Celsius *dies* Lather on the sunscreen or learn from the Vietnamese and wear long-sleeved shirts and pants.

Money: Vietnamese Dong. It’s pretty rare to find money changers that change SGD to VND, so your best bet is to change at the airport upon arrival. The rate with Vietin Bank (they have a counter at the airport) is good at 1 SGD to 13,500+ VND.

Tip: There are several foreign exchange counters at the airport, but they don’t all offer the same or even similar rates. I got a really poor rate at 1 SGD to 13,144 VND, all because I didn’t look around and just went for the first counter I saw :(

Should I use Dongs or USD?

Tricky question. I used only dongs, but found that when you are quoted in USD and you ask for the price in VND, they use an exchange rate that varies from 1  USD = 19,000 VND to 20,000 VND. Actual exchange rate when I was there was about 1 USD to 18,900 VND. So I guess you lose out a little if you pay for things like accommodation and tours in VND, when you are usually quoted in USD. Your best bet is to have both.

Transportation:

Taxi – In ‘scammy’ Vietnam, take only the safe metered taxis because a lot of them are rigged and run much faster than normal. Use Mai Linh taxis or Hanoi Tourist Taxis. Be careful of taxi companies with similar names! They are the most reliable taxi companies around.

Xe Om – These are the motorcycle taxis. In Vietnam, the best way to commute is by motorcycle because of its ability to weave in and out of traffic. You have to haggle for the price though. If you’re travelling within the city centre, you shouldn’t have to pay any more than 20,000 – 30,000 VND (depends on your bargaining ability) per ride. My friend and I paid 30,000 VND from the south of Hoan Kiem Lake to the Old Quarter, north of the Lake, but we were 3 on a bike (us + the driver). 3 on a bike is illegal and likewise for being on a bike without a helmet on. (I broke 2 of these rules, oops!)

Tip: How to identify a Xe Om driver? Most likely you’d be approached but if you are looking for me, just look around for a middle-aged man with a bike and if there is an extra helmet strapped on his bike, that’s your guy (most likely).

Food: You could be charged a higher price, especially at those street side stalls, once they know that you’re not local. Try to observe how much locals are paying, so you’d know whether you’re overpaying or not. From my experience, Pho Bo (beef noodle soup) and Bun Cha (pork noodle soup, but they serve the noodle and soup separately. You’re suppose to dip the noodles in the soup first before earing) cost about 20,000 VND at the street side stalls. If they ask for more, BARGAIN.

Yes, you can bargain for food in Vietnam! (Note: this is in reference to the street side stalls, not cafes/restaurants with a menu)

From Hanoi International Airport to city centre:

There are minibuses that you can take that are located just outside the airport. Locals pay 30,000 VND and they’d try to charge you 40,000-50,000 VND. You can try to bargain by insisting that 30,000 VND was the price the airport people quoted you.

I read on the Internet that 50,000 VND was the norm, so I readily paid, but my friend’s experience proved that you can bargain on the fare to pay the local rate. Trust me, she definitely looks like a foreigner (she’s Indian), so it’s not like they mistook her for a Vietnamese or anything. :p

The minibus will stop you along Quang Trung Road, where the Vietnam Airlines office is. From here, you can grab a Xe Om or taxi to your hotel/hostel.

Accommodation: There are numerous options and some may choose to stay in the heart of the touristic Old Quarter. I found the Old Quarter too noisy with all the sounds of bikes and honking, so I was glad I was staying at the southern end of the lake, which is rather pleasant to walk around.

I stayed at The Drift Backpackers Hostel (http://www.thedriftbackpackershostel.com) for USD5.50/night for a dorm bed (8 in a room). I chose to stay at The Drift also because it’s an easy walk from where the airport minibus drops you and it is also walkable to the train station (for my Sapa trip).

There are female dorms and mixed dorms available. The staff are generally pleasant and accommodating. They allowed my friend and I to store our bags in the lobby while waiting for our night train and also allowed us to take a shower + use the Internet before our train ride. The hostel was also very clean and the toilet/shower facilities was excellent (the BEST in my whole trip). USD5.50/night was definitely a bargain.

They have Halong Bay and Sapa tours available, though I didn’t check them out. I did a DIY trip to these places, as you’d find out in later posts. ;)

I hope to do up a post on my Hanoi experience tomorrow. :)

Golden Rule: Always bargain in Vietnam!!!

2 hot weeks in Vietnam

I’m back from Vietnam! Although I have only been away for 2 weeks, it feels like a really long time. I guess it’s because I did so many things during this short span of time, it felt a lot longer than it was!

So the trip didn’t go as planned, in terms of the route (we skipped Hue and Danang) and budget (I overspent by ALOT!!!), but I had some crazy experiences which I am sure, I’d remember for a looong time to come. Mostly good experiences, but some pretty bad ones too. Aack!

Usually whenever I come back from a new destination, I’d be like ‘OMG can’t wait to go back there again!!!’ I don’t get this feeling for Vietnam though. The weather was unbearably hot when I was there and you get ‘scammed’ for almost every damn thing you can imagine – including FOOD. I never thought I’d have to bargain for food, but yea, we did!

I have over 1000 pictures and my computer is running sooo slowly while trying to edit them :( I hope to get my pictures done within a week or 2. I found several great ways to have a good budget trip in Vietnam and can’t wait to share the tips!

Greetings from Vietnam!!!

Hi!!!!

I’m typing this from Hoi An in Vietnam. It’s our last night here and in a bit, Dha and I are gonna go sing KTV. Hahahahahaha!

Today, we rode a bike (I was the pillion) and went to the beach! Pretty cool.

Be back soon and will definitely update!!! So much to write about!!

I am coming home with lots of bruises (my battle scars), a deformed ear, many mosquito bites, thousands of pictures and LOTS OF NEW CLOTHES!!! Whooopiee!!!!

Check back in 2-3 days please!!

<3,

sab