Bia HaNoi

Our overall experience in Vietnam was nothing short of amazing and Hanoi definitely didn't disappoint. We arrived to Hanoi to temperatures that were in the upper 60s. It actually felt nice after being in hot and humid climates for the last 2 months. The main part of Hanoi where we stayed and spent our time was in the Old Quarter. This part has the original setup of Hanoi with super old streets that are not on any sort of a grid. This made it confusing to figure out how to navigate but by the end of our 6 days we had it figured out. The setup of the city and all of the buildings were so awesome to stumble around throughout the day. The streets are still very chaotic just like a smaller scale of Ho Chi Minh. At this point in our travels, we are more interested in getting lost in cities and discovering the culture and how locals live rather than hitting up every museum and tourist trap possible. The first couple days we would just head out after breakfast and walk around all day up until the evening. The nights end quite early there (bars close by midnight) and everything else is shut down by 11pm. This was quite a change after Thailand and our time with Emily and Jim when we were staying up till super late. We loved what the nightlife consisted of here however. On every corner you people gather to have tea, street food, and most importantly Bia Hoi which is a very light beer. They sell it by the glass for 5000 Dong which is equivalent to $0.25. This starts around 6-7pm and they go until the kegs run out. The beer is only good for a day as it is not pasteurized so around 9-10 when they run out the begin serving bottled beer. Oh another part to add on is that all food stalls, Bia Hoi bars and everything that has you sit outside has stools that are meant for children's size. You can see the photo below. When you're in Asia for so long you stop realizing that the average person is much shorter than us, but seeing the photo below makes it quite clear that I'm a giant in comparison. On our 2nd to last day we decided to walk around to all of the monuments and such. It was great to walk to all of the places as the inner part of the city is super small. On our last day we were finally able to get a tour setup with Hanoi Kids Club which is a club in the university. The tours are free as the students do the tours to learn the English language better and to just speak to foreigners. This was by far one of the best things we did on this trip. We had 2 guides, Bach and Nougat. Their English was perfect and we learned so much from them. Since we did most of the touristy things the day before we told them we just wanted to hangout and talk with them. We went to 1 museum, the Museum of Ethnology and then we just walked around the Old Quarter asking them questions and learning more about them. They took us to a really cool coffee/tea shop that was through an art gallery and up 4 different spiral stair cases. It had an awesome view of Hoan Kiem Lake. After having a Vietnam type of tea here we took them out to a nice restaurant of their choice for lunch which was pretty good. We did find that our favorite restaurants were either street Pho places or other street stalls that found a building to throw a couple tables into. The Pho we had was so good as well as a dish called Bun Bo Num Bo. We had such a great time in Vietnam, the only downfall is that we didn't allot enough time there. We will definitely be back to Vietnam to completely discover the country. It's nice to be in an area that isn't completely saturated with tourists. A lot of people say that Vietnam is what Thailand was 20 years ago. Below are some photos from Hanoi.

 Aaron on the famous red bridge.

The red Bridge from afar.

They were celebrating while we were there the 40th anniversary of a battle in which they shot down a bunch of US war planes.  Surprisingly they do not hate Americans in Vietnam.

A temple floating in the main lake in the center of Hanoi.

Aaron eating Pho on a really small table.

The menus at each restaurant were really small.  Some even served only one dish.

Saint Joseph's Cathedral.

Me at the Hoa Lo Prison where John McCain was held as a prisoner along with other American pilots that were gunned down.

Our favorite tea shop.  If you look closely you can see Aaron on the balcony.

Aaron in front of an old gate.

This is riding on one of the cabs.  They will bike you around in these for a small cost.  This is in front of the Temple of Literature.

Dinner with our Vietnam guides.

French style streets.

Lake view.

They sold flowers everywhere for a very cheap price which made everything so beautiful.

Traffic was worse in Vietnam than anywhere else we saw.

The flag tower.

Climbing in the small alleyways.  Our favorite part of Hanoi was exploring the alleys and small streets and everything they had to offer.

Bum bo nom bo!  Our favorite dish in Vietnam and a Bia Ha Noi.

 Drinking bia hoi (not to be confused with bia Ha Noi) for 25 cents a glass in the street and people watching.  The charis are only about 8 inches tall and I am a giant in this picture.