Hanoi, Vietnam: A 4-Day Cultural Adventure

That Time We Met People Who Live On The Sea

Ha Long Bay is something out of the movies. No trip to Vietnam is complete without taking a cruise on the bay.

Slowly making our way up to the north of Vietnam, we spent the final leg of our January honeymoon in Hanoi, known for its culture, architecture and history. It was also the coldest part of our trip!

Our flight from Hue arrived in the evening and even though it was fairly late, one of Hanoi’s most iconic sights immediately became clear: smoggy white skies. We spent our first night in the Old Quarter, and ventured out towards the night market, which is only open on select evenings.

It was interesting to see just how different the market was to that in Ho Chi Minh. As well as the clothes, the Hanoi market was geared towards locals and was flooded with tech gear. Fortunately, it was cheap too: we got our trusted selfie stick from there for £1. Bargain.

We had a small meal and headed back to our hotel, as we had an early start the next day.

Although we didn’t know it yet, we were about to embark on one of the most memorable parts of our trip: a cruise on Ha Long Bay. The relatively small area is made of up of 1,600 islands, most of which have no signs of human or animal life, but make for beautiful views as you sail between them.The best way to describe it is to compare it to something out of Pirates from the Caribbean.

We were both really excited about the cruise before we flew out to Vietnam – we had seen pictures – and the journey didn’t disappoint.

There’s a large number of options when going to Ha Long Bay in terms of the type of cruise you can join: small, large, luxury, or more budget options. We opted for a little of everything, although perhaps less so on the budget side, seeing as it was towards the end of our journey.

On a friend’s recommendation, we spent one night on Indochina’s Red Dragon junk (Fatima still laughs hysterically at the fact it’s called a junk boat) and loved every moment. The food in particular was probably the best we had on the whole trip even though we could only eat fish and vegetarian meals. Sadly however, we weren’t able to enjoy the deck much as it rained quite a lot during our trip.

After unloading and having a quick look a the rooms, we got to know the 8 other guests on the boat with us; a wise, elderly American couple and a family from Australia. We were offered our first meal and headed for the Thien Canh Son cave, full of stalactites and stalagmites. Apparently fishermen used to hide out in the cave when the seas were rough, but who knows what the real story is!

We then went kayaking around the islands for about half an hour, building up an appetite, just in time for dinner. We spent the night in what felt like the middle of nowhere, although the boat was anchored to an island (in the middle of nowhere), where the tour operators had kept the generator, so that our sleep would be undisrupted by noise!

The next day was full of highlights. First we were taken to a pearl fish farm, where we learned about how pearls were made – and also found out how expensive pearls are! We were then taken to see a floating fishing village.

Guided by the locals on small boats, we rowed through the clusters of houses literally on the water. Apparently the locals sell fish to the mainland and trade it for meat and drinking water. There are about 35 families who lived there at the time, although our guide told us that the number is constantly decreasing, as the government tries to bring the families onto the mainland to make sure the children can get an education.

What would their address be? 4, The Floating Village, Island 846, Ha Long Bay, The Sea.

As we headed back to Hanoi, we first stopped off at the Yen Duc village and were treated to a traditional water puppet show. We can definitely say that we’ve definitely never seen anything like it before! Let’s just say that it wasn’t totally PC.

We spent our final three nights in Hanoi overlooking Westlake, away from the crowded buzz of the city. By this point we were really craving some meat – we were onto day 13 of our trip – and headed out in search of something halal. Fortunately, we found a Pakistani restaurant, Nan n Kabab, only a few minutes’ walk away. Fatima was very happy.

We had another cultural day the next day, walking around and seeing as much as we could of Hanoi. We visited the temple on the Hoàn Kiếm Lake, as well as the Hỏa Lò Prison.

Although French colonialists initially made the prison for political prisoners, North Vietnam later used it to imprison American Prisoners of War. We were given a lengthy history and also saw pictures of John McCain, the US Senator and one-time presidential candidate, who was an inmate there for more than five years.

The Vietnam Museum of Ethnology also gave us an incredible insight into the local culture. We learnt about relationships and marriage, especially for those who live in villages, and it’s definitely worth a visit.

We spent the evening in the centre of the town too and saw a ca tru concert in a traditional Vietnamese house. This was a festival for both our eyes and ears, as we were introduced to both the typical dress style for these performances, the dances as well as the instruments on show. One of the fun parts is that everyone in the audience was provided with bamboo sticks to throw in a metal bowl at the front whenever they were impressed, giving the performers encouragement. Everyone ran out of their sticks very quickly.

Oh, and some of the performers taught us how to play some of the instruments. Fatima was basically a pro by the end of the evening, or at least that’s what she claims.

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Some tips:

• We spent four days and five nights in Hanoi (including Ha Long Bay) and although it was a little rushed, we saw everything we wanted to see.

• The night market extends over 3 kilometres and is open only a few nights a week – Friday, Saturday and Sunday – so try and plan your trip around it.

• • While we prepared very few elements of our trip – hotels and the cruise – we should probably have looked up what else we could do ahead of time. For example, Ionah is a highly rated visual arts show but we couldn’t find any tickets at the last minute.

• Hanoi definitely feels more western than the other Vietnamese cities we visited, which probably worked out better in terms of our long trip, as that’s when we started to crave food that felt a little bit like home!

• It also reminded us most of the weather back in London, as it was definitely the coldest city we visited, so make sure you have something to keep you warm.

• The Old Quarter was where we spent most of our evenings – the atmosphere was warm and alive with people. There were also a lot of restaurants, coffee shops (we found a favourite at the top of a building) and shisha cafes.

• Other things to see, that we didn’t mention above, is the French quarter near the Opera House. This isn’t too far away from the prison, and north of the Hoan Kiem lake. It’s also home to luxury (and expensive) shops, all housed in architectural gems.

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