I am a bit behind on the blog (what’s new?), but I am so excited to start sharing about our time in Vietnam, beginning with Hanoi.
I’m going to “jump in” with a little analogy: When Rich and I were in Rovinj, Croatia, there was a swimming spot on the sea located off of some rocks right by the town. There were two ways to get into the water. You could climb down a ladder and ease into the water or you could climb up on the biggest rock, run, and then jump at least ten feet down straight into the sea.
I took the ladder; Rich ran and jumped off the high rock.
Deciding to start our first trip to Asia for either of us in Hanoi was definitely jumping off of the highest rock. From the second, we stepped into the Hanoi airport, we were in a quite different world.
Let me be clear: we had a great time. Hanoi is an incredibly culturally rich city that has faced and overcome monumental challenges. In our time there, we learned a ton– both about Vietnam and about ourselves.
Day 56/57: Intercontinental Travel and Arriving in Hanoi
If you are a faithful reader, I left you last in Cefalu, Sicily on day 54 of our time abroad. I’m going to fast forward a bit: on day 55, we traveled by train from Cefalu back to Palermo. In the early morning (~4:30 AM) of day 56, we started our 24+ hours of travel to Hanoi which looked like:
- A bus from Palermo to the airport
- A flight from Palermo to Rome
- A flight from Rome to Taipei
- A flight from Taipei to Hanoi
- A bus from the airport to our neighborhood
Quick Highlights of the Long(EST) Travel Day
- Lounge Access. The international lounge in Rome was amazing, and we enjoyed a big breakfast. When we landed in Taiwan, the pace of the airport was a bit frenetic, and at the security checkpoint, the Taiwanese official spotted a small pair of scissors in Rich’s bag that we had no idea we had. We emptied everything out of his bag to discover the scissors came with our first aid kit and had already made it through about 1000 security checkpoints undetected. Suffice it to say, we needed the zen of the lounge in Taiwan, and it delivered.
- Our Long Haul Flight on China Airlines. We have no complaints about this flight, and we have one really big kudos: The in-flight entertainment options included a 25 minute film on the Philadelphia Eagles winning the Super Bowl last season. We are HUGE Eagles fans, and I first found the film and watched it while Rich was sleeping. I cried. No really, I actually really and truly cried. When Rich woke up, we watched it together. Then he watched it two more times before the plane landed. I didn’t tell you this, but Rich may have cried each time he watched it too.
Arriving in Hanoi, Vietnam
So when we left our apartment in Palermo, Italy, it was about 4:30 AM on Monday local time, and when we landed in Hanoi, it was 11:00 AM on Tuesday. Crazy, huh?
We read that there was an easy, and cheap, bus (Bus 86- ~$1.50/person) to take us from the Hanoi airport to near where we were staying in Hanoi, and we were able to find it and get on pretty quickly.
Rich and I knew this day of travel was going to be challenging, particularly once we arrived on a different continent. We have gotten a fair number of questions from readers that basically boil down to how do you keep from killing each other, and one way is by talking through situations where we know we will want to kill each other in advance. It’s like running a race and visualizing where the hills are going to be and how you are going to keep your mind right when you get to them. We had already talked through staying calm, taking our time, remaining patient, etc.
Still, visualizing Hanoi and being in Hanoi are two totally different things. Once we got off the bus, we had about a 15 minute walk in the middle of the day with all of our belongings through the streets of Hanoi in approximately 95 degree heat.
What you should know about walking in Hanoi:
- Sidewalks are not for walking. They are almost like personal carports. On the sidewalks, people cook food, park motorcycles, sit in small plastic chairs, burn trash, drink beer, sell items, make flower wreaths, prepare meat, keep animals, exercise, etc. You can try to walk on sidewalks…
- Traffic signals are meaningless. Cars, motorbikes, bicycles, tuk tuk drivers, and pedestrians somehow just make it work, regulation-free. Someone told me that you just have to close your eyes and step into traffic when crossing the street and trust that the motorbikes and bicyclists will find a way around you. Let’s just say Rich and I did more hand holding (hand gripping?) in three days in Hanoi than we had previously done in three years of marriage combined.
- The smells are overpowering. Some of the smells are breathtakingly positive– imagine freshly baked bread and sweet fruit– and some are a bit sickening, mostly where meat is being prepared. Walking down the street is like walking through kitchen after kitchen. The intensity of the smells was something I had not anticipated.
So learning to walk in Hanoi is probably best done without carrying all of your belongings after 24+ hours of travel. We made it to our AirBNB which was four flights up a stairwell with no air conditioning (we hardly ever fight but there may have been 30 seconds of screaming while we tried to get the key lock box open), and then immediately opened the door to our beautiful AirBNB and took off all our clothes (sorry to be graphic, but that is exactly what happened. We were literally dripping with sweat. And we’re married.). We had arrived!
Day 58: Exploring Hanoi
Exercise at Hoan Kiem Lake
If you enjoy exercise, do not go to Hanoi without making it to Hoan Kiem Lake at 6:00 AM. It was everything.
So Hanoi is hot. And as I shared, the sidewalks are useless. If you want to exercise, you need to do it very first thing in the morning, and what better place to do it than at Hoan Kiem Lake, a centrally located lake surrounded by a large park.
We arrived at the lake right at 6:00 AM and exercise was already in full effect. There were runners, cyclists, workout classes, men lifting weights, and groups doing Tai Chi.
We ran around the lake one time, which was about a mile, and we were, once again, the sweatiest. Rich wandered over to where the men were lifting weights and did a few bench presses after a local gentleman invited him to join in.  There were no women anywhere near the bench so I used that as my excuse to stick to running.
The morning had the feel of a community 5k– people happy to sweat, laugh, and be healthy together.  I loved this.
Coffee, The Ngoc Son Temple, Bun Cha, and the Temple of Literature
We grabbed coffee at the Note Cafe (super cute) and then went home so that Rich could participate in Fantasy Football Draft #1 (of 3) because #priorities.
After that, we headed to the Ngoc Son Temple, a temple dedicated to Confucius and Tran Huong Dao, back at Hoan Kiem Lake.
From there, we walked to Bun Cha Huonh Lien, the famous spot where President Obama and Anthony Bourdain ate bun cha (imagine a variation on beef pho) together. The bun cha was delicious and cheap.
Our last stop of the day was the Temple of Literature. This temple dates back to 1070 and honors scholars throughout Vietnamese history. The educator (and nerd) in me thinks this is the coolest— if you did the best on your royal exams, given by the ruler himself, you had a statue of you erected for posterity. Amazing.
We also overheard a tour guide tell this priceless story about a man who spent his whole life studying and preparing for these exams and finally took it and passed when he was 80+ years old. #growthmindset #neverstoplearning
When we got back to our apartment, we took a long, glorious, air conditioned nap! The heat takes it out of you!
Day 59: Our Visit to the Hanoi Hilton
Day 58 was light and fun. Day 59 anchored us a bit. We were Americans visiting a country where individuals in our parents’ generation had waged a war.
The Hoa Lo Prison
The Hoa Lo Prison, nicknamed the Hanoi Hilton tongue-in-cheek by Americans during the Vietnam War, is a must visit in Hanoi.
The museum is in Vietnam, run by the Vietnamese, and thus, very much reflects a Vietnamese worldview. The tour starts by showing how the French built the prison and then continuously renovated it to hold more and more Vietnamese prisoners. It heralds the “brave communists” who risked personal safety to compose newsletters and encourage one another while imprisoned. The museum highlights several Vietnamese prisoners who were able to escape through a cistern and honors communists who paid the ultimate sacrifice by displaying photographs of their being beheaded.
You are able to walk in to almost all of the cells.
At the end of the tour, there are two small rooms dedicated to sharing the story of the captivity of the American pilots during the Vietnam War. The room shows smiling pictures of American soldiers playing basketball, strumming their guitars, celebrating Christmas, eating full meals, and receiving medical care.
Senator John McCain passed away two days after our visit to the Hanoi Hilton, and our visit in combination with his death, certainly made Rich and I think and talk a lot about bravery, propaganda, and how communities tell their own stories.
Senator McCain went months without medical treatment. He spent six years of his life imprisoned in Hanoi. He considered suicide because he was being beaten multiple times a day. While he refused an early release unless soldiers imprisoned before him were also released, he did sign a false confession he would regret all of his life.
When the Vietnamese were held in the Hoa Lo prison, the treatment was brutal and inhumane. When Americans were held, the treatment was kind and generous. Who the storyteller is changes the story.
Hanoi Coffee Station, Banh Mi, and Bia Hoi
On a lighter note, we enjoyed some good food and drinks!
- Banh Mi. A banh mi is a traditional Vietnamese sandwich on french bread. They are ubiquitous, cheap, and delicious.
Enjoying banh mi! - Bia Hoi. Bia Hoi is the local draft beer in Vietnam. It is very low alcohol content– about 3%– and each one costs about 35 cents. Bia Hoi was exactly what we needed after our visit to the Hanoi Hilton.
A much needed bia hoi. The best part is that they are served ICE cold. - Hanoi Coffee Station. In Vietnam, the coffee is typically served with condensed milk, and often with additions such as egg, butter, and coconut. Our host at the Hanoi Coffee Station explained to us that this is because Vietnamese Coffee is particularly bitter, and the flavors are necessary to make the coffee taste good. This gentleman extolled the Hanoi Coffee Station’s process of selecting and roasting their beans and truly he made us two of the most delicious cups of coffee of our entire time abroad.
Highly recommend the Hanoi Coffee Station for coffee and conversation
Our host at the Hanoi Coffee Station wanted to know more about how we drink coffee back in America. We told him about our favorite coffee, La Colombe, which started in Fishtown, our neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and how they had developed an amazing draft latte. He asked about our travels, and we shared that we were , in fact, traveling for nearly a year.
This bright, kind, interesting young man then said very directly that because of the low wages in Vietnam, he would probably never leave the country, and it gutted me. Sure, we made some sacrifices to save money for this trip, but we did absolutely nothing to influence our both being born in a country with high wages and boundless opportunities, particularly for white, straight, healthy individuals like ourselves. Talk about unpacking your privilege backpack.
In Hanoi, many people live their lives on the sidewalks. They wake up before dawn and work until after dusk. They sweep the streets, they butcher animals, they prepare food sitting on low plastic stools or in deep squats. They laugh and love and yell and show kindness, and they have much more demanding lives than Rich or I could imagine living. While our time in Hanoi was sweaty and crossing streets was more than a little challenging, the experience was eye opening, humbling, and expanding, and I am glad we decided to dive in head first. I will always remember and appreciate our three days in Hanoi.
