Vietnam North to South – Day 1: Alone in Hanoi

My redeye from Delhi arrived close to five in the morning, and I did not catch a jot of sleep. Once I got to my hotel, however, I did not feel particularly drowsy, and instead of napping for a few hours, I started sorting through my photos from India. This exercise lasted for as long as it stayed cloudy outside – that is to say – until around eleven, when I grew bored of the very mechanical editing process and decided to go out.

The hotel where I am staying is right next to Hoàn Kiếm Lake, a place integral to Vietnamese culture. According to tradition, Emperor Le Loi led his successful revolt against the Ming Empire with the help of a magical sword. After his campaign was over, he returned it to the giant turtle who lived in the lake, which is why it is sometimes referred to as Sword Lake (Hồ Gươm). Freshwater turtles did, in fact, live in this lake up until very recently, but the last died a few years ago as no new generations took up the mantle.

To reach the lake, I passed by a park with a massive statue of Lý Thái Tổ, the founder of the Lý dynasty which existed from 1009 to 1225. I had been warned that coming to Vietnam during New Year’s celebrations was not a good idea, as everything would be closed, and I would get to see nothing. The very opposite was the case. The park was filled with festively dressed people who were celebrating and taking pictures of their families, while several spaces were set apart for children riding cute little bumper cars. A few times, middle-aged women would come up to me asking me to take pictures of their group. Although they did not say “please” and practically seemed to expect this favour, they usually did thank me.

From the lake I continued to Saint Joseph Cathedral, which was closed due to the celebrations. On the way, I saw so many streetside vendors that I marvelled at how they are all able to stay in business. Most of them were selling either cut fruit, sausages, or cotton candy, and around the temples the most frequently offered items included incense sticks and other prayer-related accoutrements. The cathedral stood just a short walk away from the very touristy Train Street; the famous locale where cafes and restaurants directly neighbour a narrow train track, offering tourists the exhilarating experience of drinking coffee while fearing for their lives.

It was around this time that I started to feel a little hungry, but Train Street was far too mainstream to consider eating there. Instead, I carried on with my itinerary and hoped I would find something on the way. I walked past the Hanoi Flag Tower, built in the early nineteenth century by the Nguyens, and arrived by the Imperial Citadel of Thăng Long. Entering the complex through one of the massive side-gates, I was surprised to find there was no entry fee and relatively few visitors. The exhibitions were closed, but I had no trouble accessing any of the outdoor attractions.

I was really hungry by the time I left the citadel, which is deceptively large and extends almost to Trúc Bạch Lake north of the centre. I walked around the island that sits on the lake, but all the restaurants there were already closed. Only upon leaving it and walking farther north did I find a few streetside eateries. One of them did not have any menus and seemed to offer only one dish. After standing around for a while hoping to either figure out the procedure for ordering or attract the owner’s attention, I gave up and walked on.

The same strategy met with more success at the next place, where I was immediately called inside. The server was pleasant and patient, and although he spoke very little English (and I zero Vietnamese), I was at long last able to convey the idea that I did not want anything containing meat. I ended up ordering a phở chiên phồng, which was described on the menu as “fried pho” – a concept both bizarre and intriguing. As I soon learned, the dish consists of tossed vegetables and fried pho squares, the latter puffy and absorbent. I found it very good.

One of the biggest contrasts between Hanoi and Delhi is that in Hanoi, business owners are generally quite honest and undemanding. A few moments after I had left the restaurant, the waiter came running after me to give me some money, as he realised he had overcharged me by not subtracting a few thousand dong for giving me the vegetarian version of a meat dish. There are very few countries in which I would expect something like this to happen.

Having thus ended up in the north of the city, I decided it was time to curve back and start my return to the hotel. I did so by going down the walkway that separates the lakes Trúc Bạch and Hồ Tây, off the coast of which lie two island temples. I visited both, but the more popular one by far was the Trấn Quốc Pagoda. Formidable queues formed on the way in and out, with many worshippers carrying incense sticks to offer the gods, while others blocked the pathways by taking big family pictures.

My last proper stop before getting back to the hotel was the area around Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum. The highly protected square and its environs (to access which one must pass through a metal detector and have one’s bags X-rayed) includes the Presidential Palace, Ho Chi Minh’s house on stilts, the Ho Chi Minh Museum, and the One Pillar Pagoda. Of these I only visited the last, as I had already gotten a relatively good view of the palace from the outside and I did not want to spend an hour going on a whole tour.

I timed my return to the hotel well, as within an hour of reaching my room, my dad and the rest of the tour group touched down on the airport and joined me at our accommodation. After making all the necessary introductions, we made a brief visit to Hoàn Kiếm Lake (the third time I had seen the lake that day), after which my dad and I spent a good half an hour looking for a restaurant with a free table.