mmm...Hanoi

By Pete
18-20/03/2019
We’ve resigned ourselves to the fact that the first taxi ride in any new country will, very likely be a rip off. You are arriving at an airport or train station or bus station, you’re tired and you just want to get to the hotel... easy prey. To decrease the rip off we shared the cab ride (lets say ride-share as he had no signs or meter) from the bus station into Hanoi’s old quarter with Abby, a zoology graduate from country New South Wales, who we met on the bus. We checked into the Hanoi Pho Hotel and a room that proves you get what you pay for and we paid $22.00!! then headed out to re-explore the old quarter.

It had been a few years since we had been here last and it still had the same vibrancy though the traffic felt a little more aggressive and the streets a little more touristy. We tried to find a cool brew pub I had frequented in the past but it had sadly closed. Heading back to the hotel we stopped at a street vender for some really good Banh Cuon (steamed rice rolls stuffed with mushrooms and minced shallots) and a couple of beers.....Hanoi was always going to be about the food...and beer.

After a late start the next morning we headed out for some site seeing, the citadel- lovely area and the ethnology museum- interesting, to a point, basically Vietnam has a large variety of minority ethnic groups who live in the hills grow rice and weave!, we also tried to cash a travellers cheque, big hint- don’t!! That evening we headed out to find beer corner a place I remember you could sit on small stools on the pavement and drink bia hoi* and snack on great food. I was gutted to discover beer corner was now beer street and was full of hawkers asking you to sit at their stall and drink bottled beer at inflated prices, I asked one guy if he sold bia hoi... no no no Heineken, Tiger no bia hoi here!! Ask where I might find it he didn’t know.. which is surprising given we then turned the corner walked 50 metres and found a guy selling it in front of an ATM. We sat down and enjoyed a glass or three of 22c beer and some delicious Hanoi fermented sausage.....Hanoi was always going to be about the food...and beer.

Bia Hoi is local beer that is kegged each night and delivered very early each morning as it has no preservatives and is so fresh it has to be drunk within 24 hrs, street venders tap the keg and pour directly into glasses.

For lunch the next day we went on a bit of a foodie pilgrimage. In 2016 the late Anthony Bourdain shared a bowl of Bun Cha with then President Obama during an episode of Parts Unknown, it is a now famous and remarkable episode. We set out to find Bun Cha Huong Lien and try it, yes we know it would be crowded now and over priced... We were surprised to find that, while there were tourists there were also lots of locals and that the prices were normal (though you could now buy the ‘Obama set’).
The great thing about good Vietnamese restaurants is they do one dish (with sides) and do it really well Huân Lien is no exception, they do Bun Cha (and crab rolls as a side) that’s it, they were both delicious.

We had read about a restaurant near the west lake that had preserved its ration era ambiance called Trade Shop #37 so we thought we should check it out that evening, it was nice and the decor cool but... street food still gets my vote. On the way back to the hotel we passed another lively street corner with several venders selling bia hoi and food.. Dinner when we return from Halong bay sorted.
....Three days later it didn’t disappoint the food was great and the intersection endlessly entertaining.

One of the joys of travelling without a fixed schedule is your ability to change on a whim. Belinda’s friend Cynthia had recently facebooked about her stay in Ninh Binh, it looked amazing so we thought what the heck lets nip down and check it out. We asked at the hotel about train tickets, $15.00 each, not bad, but I had seen on the web a price of $10.00 so we strolled the 10 minutes to the train station to see if it was cheaper there- $4.50 each!!! ie a saving of $21.00 or 96 bia hois. On the way to the station there is a point where you can actually walk along the tracks with a quite amazing back story.

As you find in many Asian countries the land alongside the railway becomes a shanti town, housing some of the cities poorest workers, in this case poor maybe, but entrepreneurial absolutely. The story goes that a few years back a tourist visited this area and blogged about it, hearing this a few backpackers decided to check it out. At some point a friendly resident asked if one group would like coffee they accepted and sat by the track and drank there coffee as the train went past just feet from their knees. Realising she maybe onto a good thing she put out a sign... now the little strip is a bustling, backpacker must do, with all the old slum squats converted to trendy coffee shops and the owners presumably now living in bungalows in the suburbs (maybe not). Any way its a cool little slice of urban life and initiative.

On our last day in Hanoi we met up with Van Anh, a friend and ex work colleague of Belinda, for lunch at Cha Ca Tang Long, famous for its...Cha Ca, the final dish on our Hanoi food list. Cha Ca is a delicious dish of fish sautéed in heaps of Tumeric and spring onions and dill then served with noodles, peanuts, shrimp paste and fresh mint leaves. A really wonderful lunch.
Later we adjourned to the Metropole for coffee and while the girls chatted through the afternoon I made my excuses and headed to the Puku Pub to watch Fremantle demolish North Melbourne. It was a great way to end our time in Hanoi but then again...Hanoi was always going to be about the food...and beer.