Hanoi

               (Hanoi, Vietnam, 1-3rd of February 2018)

The flight from Copenhagen to Hanoi was rather tiring. We started our trip by waking up at 4 AM to be able to catch our plane in Copenhagen and after 6 hours stop over in Doha we arrived at 1.30 AM (Swedish time) in Hanoi. It was then 7.30 o´clock in the morning in Vietnam and we really needed to sleep for some hours before doing anything else. Check in time was not until 2 PM but the fantastic staff at the Hanoi Era Hotel gave us a room already at 9.30. We slept until 3 PM and after that we were ready to have a look at the town.

Hanoi is a city that seem to be a mix of different Asian cultures. Of course you can see the Chinese influences in the streets but the people look a bit more like the Thai people. The streets are filled with motorbikes, street food and colourful things to buy.

We had some typical Viatnamese food for lunch. It was not as spicy as we had expected but overall both cheap and tasty. We got 4 dishes each for around 4 USD.

What was left of the afternoon of our first day we went for a walk around in the old city and around a nice lake.

A visit to the Hanoi prison the next day made us come closer to the time when Vietnam and Hanoi was under the wings of France and also the daily horrors during and after the Vietnam war. They have made a museum inside the remaining parts of the prison.

We strollled through the French parts of Hanoi and had a look at the pretty ugly Long Bien bridge built by Gustave Eiffel – the father of the Eiffel tower.

We were also lucky to be in Hanoi on a Friday night when the streets turn into market places. They close the streets for cars and motorbikes which makes moving around so much easier.

Normally the traffic is totally crazy in Hanoi and you have to watch out all the time – to cross a street you have to be a bit though and brave. The cars do not even stop when it’s red light!