Strolling about in Hanoi

 Coffee, Books, and well, Coffee

P. Hang Ngang roundabout

We spent our final days in Hanoi doing slow travel through the alleyways and markets around the Old Quarter. I was grateful to have the time to enjoy the people and the food and the personality of place. I thought a lot about other places I have lived or visited that prepared me to see and understand the vibrant ways of life that I was experiencing here. There are Vietnamese versions of being, eating and living that connect me to my travels. 

We visited a few temples in town, the most famous the Temple of Literature, a humble walled off garden with stone gates honoring the site of the first university in Vietnam. A butterfly with indigo spots, perched on the edge of a koi pond, held our attention during our visit there.

🦋

We wondered along the street beside St. Joseph’s cathedral while a choir was singing inside - it was enough to temporarily forget that the French colonizers built it, in the likeness of Notre Dame, when they brought Catholicism to this largely Buddhist nation. 

We stopped at a coffee shop, @FiFi, across from the cathedral that drew us in with the cacophony of color spilling out onto the street while a black and white dog beckoned from the entryway. Inside I sipped strong cinnamon coffee with condensed milk while two friendly musicians practiced a new composition on the piano. The color, the singers, the lacquer red piano, the sign that read “appy birthday”, Norah’s mango smoothie, the dog in the doorway…it was too much. I was enthralled.

🥭

During the last hours of the last day, we walked through the old quarter to a neighborhood just north of it to seek out a bookstore with English language books called the Bookworm. After a very long walk through streets dense with motorbikes and sidewalk commerce we reached this beautiful quirky quietude of a bookstore crammed with new and used books. What an oasis from the noisy street! We stayed for hours looking at books. The first floor had a small coffee bar where Norah and I sipped on a freshly made iced peach tea. While it was hard to say no to another cup of Vietnamese coffee (I had already had two on the way to the bookstore), this whole situation made me very happy.

Iced peach tea with peaches

🍑

Meandering through alleyways, eating street food, meeting people and learning from my time here is another chance to inform my way in the world. 

Thich Nhat Hanh said that life is only available in the present moment. I appreciate my chance to be present in Hanoi this week - Norah and I will have this place in our mind’s eye forever.

🇻🇳

Ninh Binh

  A Day in the Countryside

Our intrepid tour guide Tran

On our second day in Vietnam, we met Tran and his driver outside of our hotel for an adventure to Ninh Binh Province, a cultural heritage site with, limestone hills and rice fields that line the Ngo Dong River near Tam Coc. It was really a fabulous drive through the countryside while Tran told us the entire history of Vietnam. I listened intently while thinking about the Sampan boat we would be taking down the river - wondering if I had the arm power to be a viable worker on the boat…

 my one photo from the temple 

We stopped on the way to visit the Dinh King temple from the 10th century near where the original capital of Vietnam was located. It was after this stop that things started to go south. Tran took us to a very touristed spot, Tam Coc, to walk up 500 large and irregular limestone steps to look out over the valley and the river where we would soon be boating. 

 photo from the internet 

I was game, of course, but I have no photos from this event due to the fact that I was in full pray mode that I would somehow get out of there without having legit heart failure or from tumbling down hundreds of limestone steps on my face. It was hell. 

Norah did snap this from the top

After we did make it back down (I was practically crawling), Tran drove us to lunch at a restaurant teaming with foreigners and bland food. I was okay with that while in my recovery, however, Norah came down with a case of severe nausea. We hung around for awhile hoping things would improve but in the end turned back without finishing the tour.

I was actually relieved - I don’t think this tour was my vibe. Tran was a little sad, though both he and the driver were terrified that Norah might puke in the car. They gave us about 15 plastic bags from the restaurant as a precaution and then put the pedal to the metal for two hours back to our hotel. We made it and I was so happy to be back in busy crazy Hanoi.

 our very welcoming hotel front door 

Hello Hanoi

 Mopeds and Bun cha!

We arrived in Hanoi at midnight to a city very awake and thriving. Late night eateries lined the boulevard on our taxi drive from the airport to the old quarter of central Hanoi. 

At the airport, we had a brief panic at our taxi meeting spot as we could not find my name. After staring at this make shift sign by pillar 9 at arrivals I realized that my name was written in Hiragana above Niamh Gleason (Liam Neeson?). Our driver was patiently waiting for us there and he whisked us off towards downtown.

After a thorough night’s rest and a slow morning walk around Hoan Kiem Lake, Norah and I met Mai and Hang, our foodie tour guides on mopeds, for an afternoon eating our way through the old quarter. We stopped for five authentic Vietnamese/Hanoi dishes along the way-- from bun cha, to Vietnamese coffee, pho cuon, mango pudding, and (snails!!).

( Norah and Hang)

( preparing Banh quon)

(enjoying Bun cha)

The moped rides between stops was super fun even though I had a death grip on my seat as Mai drove deftly through a sea of honking, crisscrossing, speeding mopeds! I was having the time of my life!! 

(the time of my life!)

Midway through the afternoon we stopped for Vietnamese coffee, a rich dark coffee that is slow brewed and fused with condensed milk. We stepped from a narrow alley to a quiet cafe to be greeted by a tiny dog wearing a dress; my new best friend.

(the entrance to Circle coffee bar)

(my new friend)

Mai and Hang drove us around the city, past Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, through a street market and along the West Lake where John McCain was captured during the Vietnam war. It was a lot to think about.

We ended the afternoon with a bowl of steamed snails and then a variety of sweet desserts. I could not finish the snails! But the mango pudding was delightful. 

(That is a lot of snails!)

I really appreciated this start to our adventures in Vietnam. We learned a little about the food and life in this beautiful city from our new friends Mai and Hang. I am looking forward to tomorrow and our journey to Ninh Binh.

(Mai, Norah, and Hang)