M&C: Hanoi

Our flight from Chiang Mai was one of the most turbulent we've ever had, but we landed safely in Hanoi on the afternoon of February 6th. We seamlessly got through immigration, scored a sweet new SIM card for our time in Vietnam, and got a ride into the city. Hanoi was immediately completely different than anywhere we've been on several obvious counts. The city felt much more chaotic, congested, and vibrant than anywhere in Thailand, something we were expecting to find more of in Bangkok especially. Also, the buildings were much older with strong traces of European architecture everywhere, a colonial legacy that Thailand just doesn't have. That first evening, we got some amazing pho right by our guest house and then went for a leisurely (but also hectic) walk around the Old Quarter, a maze of narrow winding streets jam-packed with traffic, people, and businesses. Our first night's adventure included ridiculously overpaying for some absolutely terrible donuts and also a 30-minute stop in a park watching some older Vietnamese ladies do a sequence of dances as part of an evening exercise routine.

The next morning, we got pho again for breakfast (70,000VND, about $3) and went for another long, leisurely walk. We ate our first banh mi, drifted over to a Vietnamese history museum (ancient times up to WWII) and got an hour-long massage. That evening, we tried out a local bia hoi experience, getting a variety of delicious little foods to go with our freshly-made, low-alcohol, ultra-quaffable beers. Even Michelle enjoyed the beers, drinking three of them! We spent the rest of the evening wandering around some more, popping in a couple of shops and sampling a bit of food here and there.

Our final full day in Hanoi, we spent most of the morning planning our next steps before venturing out again. For a late breakfast, we had bun cha, also known as "Obama noodles" from when Barack and Anthony Bourdain shared a meal at a local establishment, and wandered over to a teeny little alleyway that has a train track running right down the middle of it, just feet away from the various coffee shops lining both sides of the street. Chandler had a beer and Michelle had an egg coffee while waiting for the train to rumble by, which it eventually did, rattling our table and bones.

That evening, we went to a show at the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre. Apparently, water puppetry is a uniquely Vietnamese art form, but we didn't really know what to expect. It turned out to be an incredibly delightful, fun, and lively performance with very personality-rich puppets and live music and sound effects. The tickets were quite cheap (200,000VND each, about $9, for the most expensive tickets right up front), and the whole thing lasted a satisfyingly tidy 50 minutes. All in all a terrific experience.

After the show, we walked around town a little more and sampled some more food including some snails, some disappointing noodles, and a super weird ginger-cardamom-sesame-pepper dessert.

Quick side note about the coronavirus: We have obviously been closely following news about its progress in Asia and around the world. There hasn't been anything we've heard to cause us any personal concern or to make us consider amending our plans. What's crazy is that the overall level of alarm is much higher in Vietnam so far than we ever saw in Thailand, mainly, we guess, because of the physical and cultural proximity to China. Even though there have only been 12 total confirmed cases in all of Vietnam, several major tourist attractions in Hanoi are closed entirely, and the Old Quarter weekend market was shut down as well. Twice today we were given face masks and strongly encouraged to wear them. There are virus-prevention PSA fliers tacked up all over the city. Also, we were told that it's a great time to visit some of Vietnam's most popular tourist attractions because Vietnam is no longer allowing Chinese tourists to enter the country at all. So all of that is a bit of a crazy backdrop to our trip, but again we see no reason to alter our current plans at all. We are also still in the vast minority of people by not wearing a face mask. They are very uncomfortable, and all of our research indicates that they're not really effective at all.

Next up: Two-night, three-day tour to Lan Ha Bay and Cat Ba Island, courtesy of the parents Jennings as a birthday gift for Chandler, before looping back to Hanoi for one night, then heading south.