Harrow Hanoi

8th May – Arrival

Well the stress was in vain…I sailed through immigration at Hanoi, not before a sweaty 30mins in the queue mind! Once through immigration I went out to arrivals and booked an overpriced taxi to take me to my hostel. The drive into Hanoi was crazy. At this stage I was used to the mental driving from China – but in Hanoi it was a totally different ballgame, as here, the bikes rule the road. I had never seen so many feckin motorbikes, scooters, mopeds etc on the road. I mean they were everywhere and all loaded with people, animals, food. Basically no load to small for these bikes! And child safety…well don’t even ask. We finally made our way to my final destination – Hanoi Backpackers Hostel. I had gotten a recommendation from a guy I met in Yangshuo that this was the hostel to go to in Hanoi. My god, how right he was.

What I arrived into was this really big open-plan hostel, full of backpackers. When you enter, on your left you have a big reception desk divided in two – one half where you check in to your room etc. and the other half is dedicated to tours – so you can book bus tickets, tours to Halong Bay, tours to Sapa etc. More on this later! Then the rest of the open planned ground floor is a huge bar, with a massive food and drinks menu. Anywhoo, I checked into my room – a 6 bed mixed dorm. It was a really well thought out dorm. Trust me, I’ve been inter-railing around Europe, and I’ve slept, fearing for my life on the top of some not-so-trustworthy bunk beds in my time! These beds were all new, and under each bunk there were locked lockers, and beside each bed there was a reading light and small locker beside a socket. So you can leave your phone charging, locked in this locker. Good security! There was no en-suite in the room but there was a large shower room and bathrooms just down the hall. When I checked into my room, there was nobody there, but judging from the boxers hanging off one of the beds opposite, I guessed there was at least one boy staying in the room. Mrs. Marple, me.

I headed downstairs to mayhem of the bar and ordered a sandwich, got talking to a couple of guys who worked there. One of them a Canadian guy with a huge Mohawk. Little did I know at this stage how mental this lad was! After eating I was pretty shattered so I decided to just have an early one. Went back to my dorm which was still empty and cracked out my laptop. I was just beginning to think I was quite the dullard being the only one hitting the hay at like 11pm when the door opened and two guys walked in. Hot guys. Two Canadian guys who had just arrived from the airport. 5 mins later, two more guys arrive back to the room – two british guys. Next thing I know they’re all stripping off for bed – and me sitting on my top bunk trying to look like I’m on the net whilst at the same time I’m surrounded by 4 half naked guys.

I knew this travelling solo thing would have its benefits. ;)

9th May – Goooooooooooood Morning Vietnam

Well after my early night with the boys, ha ha ha, I got up early and availed of the free breakfast in the hostel. Since Vietnam used to be under French rule, there are still a lot of French influences around the country. One of which is baguettes. They’re feckin everywhere. So most meals either come with a baguette, or served IN a baguette. So it was no surprise that the free breakfast in the hostel was watermelon, bananas, and baguettes with butter and jam. Did the job. I met the two Canadian guys from my room for breakfast and filled them in on my plans to join this free walking tour of Hanoi that the Hostel do every morning. They said they’d join me, as much like I thought, saved us the effort of havin to crack out a map. We set off with about 30 other people and followed this tiny Vietnamese girl who was guiding us around the city. To be honest with ye, most of the time I hadn’t a breeze what she was saying most of the time, but it was good to be led around the place and see the market (which had way too many pungent smells for that time of day!). The best thing about the tour was it introduced us to Vietnamese Road Crossing. Now fuck me, but I may have said, there are A LOT of motorbikes in Vietnam. And Hanoi is a bustling city as it is. Crossing the road is like a sport. You have to just walk into traffic. If you were to stand on the side of the road and wait, well frankly you’d be waiting all day. So here’s the strategy – you walk into the traffic, SLOWLY. It’s crazy, you are literally going “fuck fuck fuck fuck I’m going to die” but the only way you can cross is to be obvious and don’t rush, because it’s a constant case of Mexican stand-off with the people on bikes – they’re gonna go, unless you literally make it clear you are not gonna stop or hesitate. But hell it’s daunting!! So watching this tiny Vietnamese girl walk straight onto a hectic road with oncoming traffic in both directions and manage to make it to the other side was an education in itself!

Yes people do actually wear those hats in 'Nam

Whilst on the walking tour I met a few Canadian people and we went to try out a well-recommended Vietnamese restaurant for lunch called Quan An Ngon. It was really good and had lots of traditional Vietnamese dishes but an English menu. I went for Bun Cha – a really traditional dish in North Vietnam that I had read about – it’s basically a noodle soup with pork in it. Really tasty and refreshing. Afterwards we decided to visit the Hoa Lo Prison, which was ran by the French when they ruled Vietnam, see below. They're bad bastards, them French. ;)

Surprisingly, not the first guillotine I'd see in Vietnam

Afterwards I just had a wander around the rest of the Old Quarter of Hanoi and made my way back to the hostel.

Reason No. 2 why Hanoi Backpackers is such a good hostel – every night they have something on downstairs in the bar to basically help people to meet other people and get people mingling. Apart from the pub crawl that starts in the hostel every night, tonight’s “activity” for want of a better word would be a Pub Quiz. Excited, I was. Although much to my surprise I realised that the “pub quiz” is not as universally known and enjoyed as I would have thought. That morning when I expressed my excitement (I blame those Credit Union Quizzes) at that evening’s quiz, the two Canadian guys from my room just looked at me with blank faces. They had never heard of a pub quiz before! I had to explain the concept and they said they’d probably go too. So I headed down and met a few people downstairs from the walk earlier that day and we gathered ourselves around a table to let the quizzing begin. Well, unsurprisingly we didn’t win. However, we didn’t end the quiz completely empty handed. In between each round, they asked a question and the first person to shout out the answer won a round of shots for their table. The question began…”In what film, does Patrick Swayze, play dancer…” “DIRRRRRTY DANCING!” – I roared! BAM – round of shots for the table. Thank you, Credit Union Quizzes for your early training, me and my table thank you. The quiz was a right laugh and met so many people that night – Martin from Denmark, Ollie and Hannah from London, Zara and Dai from the UK and many more. Aterwards, a load of us went to the hair of the dog bar across from our hostel and indulged in some beverages.

These weren't for building sandcastles.

Little did I know how much more I’d be seeing of these guys ha ha! Hit the hay relatively early, as the following day would be the start of the best 3 days of my travels so far – The Halong Bay Boat *Booze* Cruise.