Hanoi | Traveling Humans

/ DESTINATION #51 /

Hanoi

/ OCTOBER 18–24, 2017 /

We heard through the grapevine that Vietnam was a good place to visit. What an understatement! It turned out to be one of our favorite countries.

We booked this apartment for three nights, then kept extending for a whole week!

Looking out from our balcony

A very rare crosswalk — which no one pays attention to. To cross the street in Vietnam, you find a small gap between bikes and start walking. The other bikes zoom expertly around you.

A lighting store

It's hard to find space to walk, since the sidewalks are taken up by people eating dinner on tiny plastic chairs, the roadsides are filled with parked motorbikes, and the streets themselves are in constant rush hour.

Bahn mi

Bahn mi is a reminder of French colonialism with its mashup of Vietnamese flavors (pork, cilantro, other delicious stuff) and French bread, which always seems to be really fresh.

A shop worker burning offerings in the street. Vietnam is largely nonreligious, but most people practice ancestor worship.

Headed down "beer street"

Tiny plastic stools

At the first bar, we bought a balloon full of nitrous oxide. Apparently this is a thing here. Maybe we didn't inhale enough, but we were disappointingly non-giggly. It really didn't do much.

Sitting on the street is super common, and apparently illegal. A group of policemen stands just off the street, and whenever they feel like it they walk around and do an inspection. There's some kind of warning system in place, so all the shop owners frantically upend their customers and gather up all the little stools and tables. You're left standing with your beer in your hand until the police disappear and everything is put back into place.

Sitting just outside this restaurant in the street. We only got displaced once during this meal.

If you ask me to name the best food I had on the whole trip, this is my answer: chicken skewers with fried lemongrass. It cost probably $2, I have no idea what they did to make it so delicious, and I will always want to go back here and eat more.

Beer Street is a crowded place.

Another good dish: beef skewers

I asked to use the restroom at the place where we got the chicken and discovered that the restaurant is also the family home. This is super common; often the bathrooms have laundry hanging to dry or dishes stacked under the sink.

The policemen

Brandon ordered an absinthe

Our first egg coffee. That's condensed milk on the bottom, then coffee above it and egg yolk foam on top.

Fancy passionfruit breakfast

Beer flight at a hipster brewery

Headed down an alley to get some bún chả

Beer is served warm with ice. We made the mistake of dumping the ice out this time.

Bún chả is a lukewarm bowl of grilled pork belly and sausage floating in fish sauce broth. To eat it, you dip rice noodles and fresh herbs in the bowl with your chopsticks.

It is REALLY GOOD.

The noodles are sort of tough to handle if you're not used to it.

Dishes piled in a restaurant bathroom

This bathroom had a stove in it.

Delicious fresh juice

Exploring the night market

A vendor asleep in her shoe display

$1 bowls of pho

Tiny puppy!

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