Finally the purpose of this blog is coming to light! I can finally share our travel stories, opinions, and tips! I'll be starting with South East Asia first, and once I've shared all our favorite cities I'll share stories from our Australian adventures!
First stop Hanoi!
Hanoi is the capitol of Vietnam and is the second largest city in the whole country. The heart of the city is the Old Quarter. This city is crazy, fast paced excitement crazy. The streets of this city are a circus of motorbikes zooming by but somehow never crashing. All of the small winding streets are tailored selling specific items, you can walk down one street selling only kitchen goods and the next frames and mirrors and the next only teddy bears! Anything you need and don't need you can find in the wild and crazy streets of the Old Quarter.
The main sights of Hanoi are easily accessible by foot and I highly recommend doing so. I would only recommend a tuk'tuk to go places if crossing the crazy traffic by foot makes you uncomfortable because you have to move fast and smooth in order to not get snipped by a bike! My recommendations on sights are 'Ngoc Son Temple 'The One Pillar Pagoda 'Tran Quac Pagoda 'Water Puppet Show 'Sunday Night Market & 'Temple of Literature!
Red Bridge to Ngoc Son Temple'
Hanoi stood out to me more so than other cities for many reasons but my number one reason was simple, the food. The food in Vietnam differs regionally, and boy Hanoi's cuisine stood above the rest. We never once were disappointed with our meals, whether we were recommended to try a restaurant or stopped at a stall where only while sipping our broth were we able to identify what meat we were eating when we laid eyes on the chopping block. Every interaction with food was personal, we saw the chefs preparing the meals, they saw our appreciation and amazement in their dishes and it created such positivity that was expressive even through the language barriers. Seeing the chefs smile as they served us and smile even bigger when they saw our bowls emptied and smiles on our faces made every meal feel truly special. Here were some of our favorite meals!
Bun Cha!
Bun Bo Nam Bo!
Pho!
Egg Coffee!
Chef!
With all the delicious food it is important to be able to enjoy a refreshing drink along side and here is where Bia Hoi gets introduced. Fresh brewed beer that you can find everywhere for a whopping 15 cents a glass. For night life there are 3 streets connected that house collections of tiny plastic stools that students, families, locals and tourists take over. Beer is plentiful and served quickly and refilled quickly. We were lucky enough to find a bar hidden in the street that surprised us to no end, there truly are gems in this city that you can find and they're so worth the search. Leu Coffee is small and has a homey feeling except its decorated with a vintage circus theme that is impeccably realistic and all done by hand. They have beer, shisha, amazing cocktails (I highly recommend the tea cocktail, one of their best) but especially they have character and workers that are friendly and love to meet customers. We went back multiple times to this bar and every time were more and more impressed.
Hanoi was splendid on all accounts. There is so much more to Hanoi than what I've been able to share. I could write so much more but as a true traveler I would rather let your curiosity entice you to visit the city and find out all the secrets and experience it for yourself.
Cheers to Hanoi! You were unforgettable!
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