Hanoi - and time to go home!

Finally, we leave the Fanxipan train, again, very early, after our trip back to Hanoi. We had slept well, the bunks were warm and comfortable (we'd heard stories of being cold, but not so) and the rattle of the rails had soon lulled us to sleep.

At 5.30am Hanoi is quiet - mercifully relieved of most of the motor bikes. Just a few people jogging or exercise tranquilly beside the Hoan Kiem (meaning Sword) lake. In the misty morning light it is quiet and lovely.

Of course most hotels can't offer a room so early in the morning so after breakfast we take  walk, revisiting some of the places of interest we had not had time to explore properly in the days before we left for Sapa. Top of the list were those cafes near to the hotel and this time we took a picture of the Weasel coffee which we discovered was the Vietnamese translation for kopi luwak.

Vietnamese love fresh bread. My theory is that they learned the techniques of making fine crunchy baguettes and croissants during their long years of French colonisation. While the memory of that time is not always pleasant, this is one thing that they have retained, and it makes visiting here very pleasant, I can tell you. These bread rolls appeared on  the street late afternoon just in time for dinner.

The lake is a very welcome green and airy space in the middle of this densely populated city. We took time to walk around it and while it looks large, it is just the right size for a quick walk around. People use it as a place to exercise, to sit and enjoy the slightly cooler air (for Hanoi can be quite hot and humid, although being 1700 kilometres north of HCMC it is still considerably cooler) or take an afternoon nap.

The variety of street food is enormous, most of it appearing in bamboo baskets such as this, often on long poles carried on women's shoulders. Vietnamese women are often slight of build and petite and the loads they carry seem enormous  for their size. Many of the foods are fried like this, little doughnuts or sticky rice balls, with a generic name of banh or 'cake' -but not always sweet - ideal to buy a few for a mid-morning or afternoon snack.

There are also many women carrying much heavier loads of fruit and vegetables and these must be extremely heavy. For many bike riders it is perhaps the only way they will be able to buy food for to take home as the roads are so crowded and finding parking must be a nightmare. Although parking rules seem not to be very strict. Footpaths are not for feet - that's where the bikes park. People walk on the roads, mixing it with the traffic!

And here is some of that traffic. There is not  the same 'give way' rule in Vietnam. Everyone crosses at the same time, weaving in amongst the other stream of traffic, pedestrians too, and the wonder of it is that it seems to work! Horns toot, people stride out into it, and bicycles get mixed up in it somehow too. Rarely is there a cross word or a bump. Don't ask me how.

While in Vietnam, I formed a habit of drinking Vietnamese green tea. It is much stronger and more bitter that Chinese green tea but I found it refreshing.

The old part of Hanoi has many restaurants, and some have been 'discovered' it appears, by the guide books - that's if you can believe the sign on this restaurant. We saw another with handwritten testimonials from diners: 'best place in Hanoi', that sort of thing.

Following a local tipoff (actually from the Vietnamese wife of the Australian owner of the Backpacker's Hostel next to our hotel, we just had to try something I had never heard of: egg coffee. ....read more. It was absolutely delicious and I just wish I knew someone making this version in Australia!

Almost everyone who visits Hanoi takes a side trip to Halong Bay. It's about a four hour drive each way on a bumpy road and we did the return trip in the one day so it was a long day. We stopped once on the way there and back with a welcome shopping break in a large tourist store which allowed us to see the amazing work of people making silk tapestries. The skill of the workers (in one of them disable people) was inspiring.

The boat we boarded was large and we had it to ourselves with a fine seafood lunch served as well. Before that, as a little aperitif we bought fruit from a passing boat.

These fruit are rambutans, found throughout south-east Asia and like a lychee inside.

Remember that the drago, especially a flying dragon is the symbolof Vietnam? So of course our boat had us protected by a carved dragon prow.

About a thousand boats ply their trade on Halong Bay and we were told that about half of them have sleeping quarters where tourists can stay overnight.

We travel for four hours on the boat  between skyscraper-tall formations. We pass boats like ours, occasionally sampans and sight fish farms squatting on  handkerchief of muddy shore. The limestone karst formations aregrey-white under their fuzz of olive green vegetation and point like fingers at the sky. Today we felt they were accusing it of being steel grey when we had so dearly wanted it to be blue and sunny.

After lunch our waitress transformed herself into a salesperson and brought out tray after tray of goods she hoped to sell us. The pearls were by far the most beautiful and said to be from these waters, and in a wonderful range of colours. When she had exhausted her stock, she showed her multi-skills and gave a manicure to one of our group.

Back to Hanoi, back to the hubbub and pandemonium of bike, but two places stand out. One is this fish restaurant which I had read about. Cha Ca La Vong. Over a century old and proudly proclaiming that the only dish they serve is fish - and it is true! 

Up the steepest stairs to a room packed with people, each group gathered around a cooker on top of which is a pan simmering with a yellow sauce. Into this the waiter brings cubes of fish and the diners add herbs and onions then as soon as the fish is cooked, it is dumped onto noodles in our plates and garnished with peanuts and dipping sauce. Simple but good!

The last day and we visit the French Quarter and its most famous hotel, the Metropole, over a century old, gracious, elegant and with a style that has endured. We came to this room, enjoyed a coffee in sumptuous surrounds, then went to the other extreme for a last lunch across town.

KOTO was founded by the passion and vision of Jimmy Pham. The name stands for Know One, Teach One and its restaurants assist young people from disadvantaged background to learn skills in the hospitality industry. The World Economic Forum (WEF) has recently recognised the work Jimmy Pham has done in lifting over 300 Vietnamese youth out of poverty by honouring him as a Young Global Leader (YGL). Here we enjoyed a magnificent meal, served beautifully by young people whose futures are turning around and are now full of hope.

It seemed a fitting and symbolic way to end this magical and magnificent trip to a country that is also finding its feet in the modern world and facing the decades ahead with more hope of prosperity than it has for most of its existence.