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Vietnam Dairy - Day 1 - Hanoi

We landed in Hanoi at around 11am by flight. We quickly withdrew some local currency and bought a local SIM card with data, costing only 200 VND. Having travelled all night we decided to head to the hotel and rest for a bit before exploring. While we walked out looking for Bus 86, a guy tried to redirect us to another bus stop. Once there, he told us that we'd have to go to Terminal 1 for Bus 86, and that terminal 1 was 4km away and we had to walk. Soon after he suggested he would drop us to our hotel by taxi, which would cost 450 VND/roughly 1350 INR. We politely declined and asked another staff for Bus 86. He said it was right outside the airport. We saw the bus and quickly hopped on. The ride cost us only 70 VND and took us right till the homestay we had booked. The buses here looked so efficient and clean and the average speed was 80!

Noi Bai Airport



Airport Shuttle Bus 86


The road to city was wide and clean, with lots of trees lining it. We walked from the bus stop till the homestay using maps. Communication so far wasn't easy, and we were hoping that once we get to the main city or the homestay, we would be able to converse in English.

Our cosy room at Hola Homestay
Our homestay is called Hola Homestay. It's small and cosy, and the staff shared a welcome sheet with us in English that had the homestay details and some tips on getting around. Our room is really clean and cosy with all the basic facilities. We were a bit hungry, so we freshened up and headed out for lunch.

The restaurant that was recommended by the homestay was closed, so we walked around and found a local joint that looked very much like a mess. The place was bustling with energy with the staff serving mountains of food to customers, some even washing utensils out in the front and washing vegetables for the next meal. We walked in and asked if they had any vegetarian food. The food looked heavily non vegetarian. The counter had pork, beef, chicken, shrimp, mixed seafood - even.. ROACHES! Daaymmm. They didn't understand the word vegetarian. So we typed it out on google translate and showed them the screen. "Aahhh..." said the lady, and asked if we could have the Tofu, rice and steamed greens. Perfect! They served big plates of it, and gave us two small bowls and a pair of chopsticks to eat in. All the food was so so flavoursome and delicious! Arvind got a bit queasy after smelling the seafood and we quickly shifted outside. They even had this soysauce infused with red chillies that had a very umami roasted and salty flavour, that we added to the rice and steamed chinese greens. What a delight!

We couldn't finish all the food though. We just hoped this meal wouldn't empty our pockets. When we asked how much, the meal cost us only 70K VND!! That's around 200 INR, for both of us! It was unbelievable.

We walked back to the homestay and napped for a good 2 hours. In the evening we walked to the old quarter, and were lucky enough to go there on a weekend. It was a Friday. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, they have a night market that opens at 7pm where you can buy shoes, clothing, local crafts, gifting stuff etc. The street was busy and lined with street food, vegetable and fruit shops, cafes etc. It was such a sight! We walked along the street and reached Hoan Kiem lake, which is stunning even at night.

Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc Square near Hoan Kiem Lake

Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc Square near Hoan Kiem Lake

Hand Painted Wind Chimes

Hand Painted Wind Chimes



Ectstatic about the coffees!

Hanoi had such a good night scene! The main square near the lake is busy, bustling and lively. We enjoyed a hot and iced coffees at a local cafe overlooking the lake and the main square. Youngsters were seen in circles, playing with small bouncy jingly toy that is passed around by foot. Others were rope skipping, and there was live music with young and old couples dancing to the music. We were even lucky enough to catch the dragon dance, where a line of performers move a papier mache dragon on stilts, synching the movement and dance to live drum beats. It represents the emperor, the prosperity and power of the nation. Like the Chinese dragon, the Vietnamese dragon is the symbol of yang, representing the universe, life, existence, and growth.
Couples street dancing to music

Satays!

Rice paper veggie rolls

Yassss!

The main square
It was really hard to get some vegetarian food, let alone vegan food. A lot of locals consider even seafood and eggs to be vegetarian, so it was hard to communicate that. 'Chay' is the word for vegetarian, which actually means buddhist food. That usually works, once you pronounced it right (chai). We had some amazing street food and headed back for a good night's rest. 

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