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Every night in Hanoi, we always make sure we roam and walk around the city. The place has this homey feel to it and it’s really safe to wander around. My favorite part was chilling out at Hoa Kiem Lake, enjoying the cool breeze and watching locals hang around the park, playing with their dogs, cycling around, and watching a bunch of people making out. There’s a whole lot serious make out sessions going on around here, I even took some pics of them in the act.

Saturday Night – We were able to experience the Night Market in Hanoi at Dong Xuan. It’s similar to the night market in Hong Kong, wherein they occupied almost an entire street, with vendors selling the usual night market stuff: shirts, pants, shoes, toys, bags, and a whole bunch of knick-knacks, as I wanna call them. And the place is seriously jampacked with locals and tourists, buying stuff, haggling, walking around. It was so chaotic and noisy, I actually got lost when I separated myself from the group. The night market in Dong Xuan is only open during the weekend (specifically during Friday and Saturday nights only), we only found out about it when we decided to visit again during Sunday night only to find out that the place was empty.

The thing about Hanoi is that it’s not like the usual city metros, where people enjoy hanging out in the malls and in bars, go clubbing, etc. It has this laid-back feel where people are all about chilling and relaxing. At night, the sidewalks are filled with young professionals literally sitting on the sidewalk, hanging out with their friends, having their own little picnics, playing cards, talking and chatting. It’s the same scene we find in bars and clubs, the difference is, they are doing it on the sidewalk and on the streets, with their shoes neatly placed beside them, together with their individual motorcycles nearby.

The place is so safe that I even told myself I could stay here till the wee hours of the morning or even sleep at the park without anyone bothering me. It is that beautiful. I have to say that it’s definitely the best, if not, one of the best places I’ve been to in Asia. It’s a far cry from Singapore, but I fell in love with Hanoi without me expecting myself to. I know I will be coming back here. I have to. And I absolutely recommend to everyone planning a trip to Vietnam to visit and spend a number of days in Hanoi, just skip Ho Chi Minh if you want, Hanoi is just wonderful. I love, love, love Hanoi!

While I’ve been doing my research about Vietnam, a few weeks before our trip, I was able to stumble upon some blogs gushing about Ha Long Bay. Ha Long, which means “Descending Dragons”, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and probably the most popular travel destination in Vietnam. I’ve seen some pics of it online and I knew then I had to go to this place. We had the option to do an overnight tour in a junk or do a daytrip instead. I opted for the latter since there’s not much to do or see anyway overnight and we wanna roam around Hanoi some more.

It took us approximately about 4 hours by van from our hotel to the port of Ha Long Bay, and the place was packed with tourists! We were assigned to this junk and was seated per group. The tour included lunch and we had to share our table with this Serbian guy, who looked older but was actually younger than us. The food was nothing special, it was actually meh. I was more excited about taking pictures of the amazing sights and just simply taking it all in. Ha Long Bay was so beautiful and breathtaking and I was so glad I was able to experience it. Good thing the junk had an upper deck, I had to climb up and take more amazing shots there.

A few hours later, we stopped by a floating village and we had the option to do some kayaking. I have never done any kayaking before, and as I mentioned the last time, I don’t know how to swim. I’m scared of the water. But since this won’t probably happen again, I told myself to go for it. I went with Jeany, and just like me, she doesn’t know how to swim as well or have done kayaking before. Before jumping in the kayak, our guide briefed us first a little about it. And yeah, that briefing was very helpful indeed ugh. I asked him what’s going to happen if we fall off or if the boat stumbles upside down or something. He just said: you pay for the kayak. Wow. Very helpful indeed. That thought actually scared me since I don’t think it would be that easy to get off if the kayak turns upside down since our legs are actually being inserted inside. It’s not like the usual small boats that you can just maneuver easily on your own. But I’m always into adventures and trynna conquer my fear, so I had to do it. So when we were already rowing, I’m not even sure if we were doing the right thing, I could barely move from the fear. If I turn around, if I move a little bit, I was scared we’re gonna fall off. Jeany and I were able to go as far as we can, but not too far, since working that kayak was just so hard. I have no idea how to work that thing and there were junks and boats everywhere, we almost got hit by one while kayaking. I have to tell you, I was busy praying the whole time we were inside that kayak and I was seriously scared out of my wits inside. But the experience was all worth it. After a few minutes, we decided we were done and went back to our junk.

We had to wait for some of the other tourists to return to our boat since they all went kayaking on their own as well. We decided to hire a small mini-boat to drive us around the area and into some more hidden islands as well, that our main boat could not get into. I was so glad we did that since we were able to see more amazing sceneries and had the chance to take some more great shots. I felt like I was in another kingdom, there were more villages and more people, it was like they have their own little own world here. Ha Long Bay also has their own currency by the way, aside from the actual Vietnamese dong of the country.

Another highlight of the trip was exploring the Dau Go Cave. After a few hours, we were on the other side of Ha Long Bay and had to get out of the junk for the last part of the trip, which was, to visit the Dau Go Cave (in Vietnamese writing: Đầu Gỗ Cave). The place was stunning! Preserved stalactites, stalagmites and limestones, in a plethora of various colors glistening from every side of the cave, greeted us as we walked in. That was definitely one of the best locations I’ve been to and had a blast taking shots after shots of every possible nook and cranny of that place. There were walls and rocks, sculpted in the form of animals, from goats to lions to elephants and a mix of other stuff as well. And oh yeah, there were a number of phallic symbols there as well. And I wonder what were those for.

After a few hours, we headed back to our boat and back into the Ha Long Port, and another four more hours back to our hotel. I really had a great time visiting Ha Long Bay and it’s one more destination checked and done from my bucket list. We spent the rest of the night roaming around Hanoi again, and I’ve got to say it, I really, really, really love Hanoi.

On our second day in Hanoi, we were scheduled to go to Hoa Lu and Tam Coc. These Vietnamese people have a thing in breaking syllables into words. Have you noticed? It’s like one syllable = one word for them. I was able to book this with our hotel to arrange an entire day’s tour to Hoa Lu and Tam Coc. We woke up early and we had the van pick us up at our hotel at around 8am for a 2-hour drive to Hoa Lu. Our first stop was the Temple of Dinh Tien Hoang, which was located on the grounds of the former main palace of the royal citadel. Situated with a river to the front and a mountain at the back, I don’t know what’s with it, but it has something to do with feng shui.

The second temple was the Temple of Le Dai Hanh, which was just beside Dinh Tien Hoang. I have no idea what’s the deal with all these temples since I was not paying attention to our tour guide. As always, my main concern was to take a whole bunch of pictures with all these amazing sights rather than be bothered by the history of the place hehe.

The scenery outside the gateway of the temples was absolutely stunning. We really didn’t care about the pesky Vietnamese vendors out there because the weather and the views were just perfect. I also had a great time buying a bunch of trinkets here at a very cheap price. Haggling is a must and I bought myself some good finds here.

We then went ahead to have lunch before heading to our next destination, the Tam Coc River. This was one of the highlights of this trip, riding the sampan boat along the river and passing through a number of caves and grottoes with many stalactite and stalagmite formations, which I believe was created almost a thousand years ago. We chit-chatted with our Vietnamese “rowers” or whatever you’d want to call them and I felt sorry for them with their way of living. Imagine yourself rowing back and forth this river for eight hours or more, making sure tourists get the most of the experience. Most of them we’re actually using their feet instead of their hands when they were rowing. Maybe because their hands and arms are too tired from doing this every day.

After this amazing boat trip, we then went ahead to bike around the mountains within the area. I was a little bit concerned because it has been like ten years since I rode a bike. But all was well since I was able to enjoy it and take in the wonderful views of the mountains around me. I seriously did not want it to end. But it did end. At around 5pm, the tour ended and we were brought back to our hotel, getting ready for the much-awaited Ha Long Bay trip the next day.

We woke up around 7am the next day, had breakfast, paid our hotel bills and got ready to be brought to the Tan Son Nhat Airport’s domestic terminal for our morning flight to Hanoi. This is actually the first time for me to fly on a domestic flight in a foreign country, so I was also excited about the process. Their domestic terminal even has free wifi! Now they really beat Manila and even Bangkok for that. I was able to take a quick nap from that 2-hour flight to Hanoi. Yeah, it took us 2 hours to fly. Hanoi felt like another country. It’s actually farther than Cambodia from Saigon since Cambodia is situated right in the middle of Vietnam.

Once we stepped out of the plane after arriving in Hanoi, I knew that this place is gonna be different. It’s really cold here. The exact opposite of the Saigon weather. I think mainly because it’s near the boarder of China already. Our hotel pickup was there and it was a really loooong drive back to the main city center of Hanoi. I think it took us about 30 minutes to finally arrive at the Prince Hanoi Hotel. I had already booked our tours for the next two days with the hotel before we arrived so that our itinerary was all planned out already. We decided to do the Hoa Lu and Tam Coc tour the next day, which was a Sunday and placed our Ha Long Bay trip on Monday. Sunday is definitely going to be a busy day so putting the Ha Long trip on a Monday was a really good idea to avoid the many crowds when we get there.

After settling in our rooms, we just washed our faces and decided to explore the city ourselves. One thing’s for sure though, from the moment I stepped out of the hotel, I knew I was gonna be loving Hanoi more than Saigon. Aside from the weather, the place just looks so different and it feels so cozy to stroll around the streets. It took a while for us to familiarize ourselves with the area, then we arrived at Hoa Kiem Lake, my favorite place in Hanoi. The lake, surrounded by a park, is definitely one of the most scenic and relaxing spots in the city. There were people playing, exercising, running around, biking, just about everything. This is definitely the perfect place to unwind and de-stress from the bustling streets around it, with motorcycles everywhere. Oh yeah. Vietnam is never going to be Vietnam without those motorcycles. Even little kids have their own bikes as well.

We decided to go grab a bite and eat, so we walked around the city to go look for a mall, but can’t seem to find one. We then came to the conclusion that, yeah, there were no malls in Hanoi. We saw the popular Fanny Ice Cream diner across the lake and decided to eat there. I’ve read from some blogs how much they highly recommended Fanny Ice Cream in Vietnam. And I was not disappointed at all. Their ice cream was definitely delicious, and was presented in a number of artistic ways, from sushi designs to other cute little presentations. After we’re done eating, we decided to go to dinner, and that, folks, is another story coming.

So after our little Fanny ice cream moment, the guys decided it’s time for us to have dinner. Naina recommended this snake restaurant she read from a magazine from their Jetstar flight from Singapore. Um yes, SNAKES. They were pretty serious about trying this restaurant out. Naina had listed down the address and we decided to go look for it. We told the taxi driver to bring us to that address and that’s when we realized that it was located in the outskirts of Hanoi. The drive was around 30 minutes and the driver dropped us in a dark compound, where there were no establishments, no stores or anything. Just a bunch of vendors selling some street foods and a number of Vietnamese guys drinking at the side of the streets. Some of those guys were actually drunk. We asked some locals for the location of the restaurant listed on the piece of paper that Naina had, but could not point us at the right direction. The language barrier did not help at all since a lot of these guys do not know how to speak or understand English. We went back and forth around the area, until we were finally directed to the place we were looking for: the Quoc Trieu Snake Restaurant.

Once inside, we were greeted by a young Vietnamese girl that ushered us to go upstairs. There were displays of snakes everywhere. From snakes inside jars, to actual cobras inside small aquariums, to snakes inside their cages. The place actually looked like an old Chinese mansion and has this eerie feel to it. There were a number of customers there when we arrived and I felt like I was in a Chinese gangster movie. We decided to sit ourselves near the balcony, all the while, trying to observe if there were any snakes around us that might just pop out of nowhere. The waitress, who was having a difficult time speaking in English asked us if we would like to have ratsnake or cobra for dinner. I was like, let’s just try the ratsnake. Obviously, we have no other choice. I wouldn’t dare go ahead and eat a cobra right away!

So while we were waiting for dinner to be served, the unthinkable happened. A guy all dressed in black came to our table, stood beside me, with the waitress right behind him, carrying a tray filled with shotglasses, partly filled with rice wine. Mr. Man In Black was carrying something wrapped in a blue clothing. At the back my head, my heart pumping so fast, I was already thinking of so many things. That’s when I suddenly whispered out loud: Is that actually what I think it is???? A few seconds later, Mr. Man In Black removed the blue covering and booyah! It was a real live snake! We immediately stood up from our table away from him and just watched in horror as he slit the snake open with a knife while the waitress was holding the snake from the other end to control it. He then took the snake’s heart (it was still pumping), then took the bile, squeezed the blood from the snake and mixed it to the shotglasses of rice wine. He also did the same thing to the bile (this one’s colored green). The waitress then asked us to drink it. We of course hesitated, but after too much coaxing from each other, we all took turns drinking the blood bottoms-up! I did try the bile as well, but the waitress told us not to drink it straight but drink it little by little since it’s too strong.

After that, they then served us a seven-course snake meal which ranged from snake soup, snake skin (that seemed like Philippine chicharon to me) to one that reminded me of a lechon kawali. It wasn’t that bad. I was not that all excited either. Audrey then proceeded with swallowing and eating the snake heart, after we requested to fry it. No one would dare eat a pumping snake heart right then and there on our table. After an hour or so, we requested for a taxi to come pick us up at the restaurant since we do not know how to find a taxi on that semi-secluded place to drive us back to the hotel to take some much needed rest.

So I’m back home now from an absolutely amazing vacation in Vietnam. But I wanted to share this short story that happened to me in one of the markets in Hanoi that really touched my heart and caught me offguard from where I was at that moment.

I saw this cute Vietnamese bag in one of the stalls there and asked the old man who was selling it how much it costs. He said it’s for 200,000 Dong (about P400). I asked if he can give it to me for 100,000 Dong instead (P200), he said no, so we literally haggled. Well, it’s more of an argument with me, since I really love to negotiate and haggle. After some haggling, we agreed to meet halfway at 150,000 (P300). I said, okay, it’s a really cool bag anyway.

I wanted to reach for the bag but the short guy that I am, cannot grab it from where I stand. The old man said, in broken English, “I get for you”. He stood up from his high chair and realized he was skipping to get the bag. Then that’s when the shock came in. The guy had no right foot! I was so speechless and felt the noise around me disappear. Seriously, my heart broke for him. All this time, I had argued with this old man, just to get a discount for that bag, and he had to earn his living selling inside the market, with only one foot.

I felt so bad that I gave him 200,000 Dong instead, the original price he quoted me. He saw me looking at his foot and he said, “from war”. I just smiled and nodded my head and thanked him and walked away. That feeling inside me during that time, my eyes watering a little, is something I will never forget.

I travel to enjoy the world, to shop and experience another culture. But it’s the people you meet along the way that makes you appreciate your life more and more everyday.