Lan Ong Street
This small street is only around 100 meters longs but the old traditions and atmosphere is hanging like a thick fog around this street.
Lots of Chinese men came to Vietnam in 1970´s for business and brought and one of the main export from China was herbs.
Still now in 2018, this tiny street is filled up with small Chinese shops that all offer different kinds of spices and herbs – you can easily smell it walking around this street.
Doing the daytime you often see them sleeping in the back of their shops.
Hanoi Train Street
This is a worldwide famous street and a very popular location for Instagram.
There are several locations to spot the train in Hanoi and obviously, the locals quickly found out that this was one of the most popular (free) attractions in Hanoi, which is also why there is now a numberers amount of “trainspotting cafes”.
However, you got to be aware that the time schedules aren’t all always correct and there can be lots of delays on the trains arriving/departing from the Hanoi Train station.
We chose the location showed on the map a bit south of the train station which seemed less crowded and we were only around 10 people waiting for the train to arrive and 1-2 of the trainspotting cafes.
Hang Khoai Fresh Market
Every bigger city has a market place and some of it more authentic than others. Hanoi has several marketplaces but this one really caught our attention, mainly due to the animals/things that was sold on the street was very different from what we are used to seeing on markets.
Live fish, frogs, chickens, flowers, species, fruits you name it they got it. The market street aren’t very big but it is perfect for browsing around and a perfect location for photographers with all the beautiful colours.
Long Biên Bridge
Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam with a population of 8 million people. There are thousands of motorbikes and apparently, they have all learned/not learned, how and when to use the horn. This can sometimes become a bit too much for our taste and we miss the fresh air and nature side, however, there is a perfect solution for this in Hanoi.
Just a few minutes walk from the marketplace and city center of Hanoi you will find the “Eiffel Tower bridge” who was built by the same Parisian constructers as who build the Eiffel Tower (Pille Clyde).
The bridge is only meant for trains and motorbikes but you can sneak your way over the bridge on a small walk path, if you are afraid of heights you might reconsider, there are a few dodgy steps on the way but the walk is all worth it!
After a few minutes on the bridge, you will see the massive contrast between the big city life, the poor side of Hanoi, and the beautiful green nature side of Vietnam. Massive ricefields and banana palm trees are everywhere on your walk, just watch out for the traffic!
You can walk down some stairs half way and cross under the bridge end head back the same direction if you want a smaller walk.
A lot of people attempt to walk on the railway at the bridge to take pictures, just watch out for the train – and I do believe it is illegal.
Uu Dam Chay
This was by far the best food experience we have had in Hanoi – the prices were also a lot higher that what we paid for a Banh Mi (sandwich) at a street kitchen, but without a doubt worth it!
The restaurant is an old apartment block that was completely renovated and made to this wonderfull 3 stories Vegan restaurant in 2016.
The design and
But most important is the food itself, we try to avoid these three letters but OMG! Everything we had was extremely fresh and had so much taste and
We paid 1.000.000 VDO for 4 drinks, 4 dishes and 1 massive dessert which was
Sunday fun at Hoàn Ki?m Lake
We spend 3-4 days in Hanoi and as every other major city with a massive population it can seems like all the locals are just living a busy life running from a-z on a daylight basis working their A.. off, which was propably why we enjoyed the Sunday street market so much.
Around the lake Hoàn Ki?m Lake, hundreds of people went for a walk with their dogs, kids playing, young people sjipping, groups of people singing and playing or doing breakdance. Older people doing salsa and workout in groups at the park, simply just a Sunday where everybody got together and celebrated life together. In Denmark Sunday is the best excuse for sitting at home and following a Sunday
Our perspective of the people in Hanoi completely changed after watching the Sunday street market.
