Exploring Vietnam 🇻🇳 - The Country Capital Hanoi Part 2

This post has been lying stagnant in my drafts for over a year now, I visited Vietnam back in September 2023 and had the time of my life there but I just couldn't find the time to write about my journey. Well anyways my resolution for the year is to be more active on this platform and what better way to start than to clear out my drafts and get them out there haha.

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We started the day off by 7 AM and our hostel provides free breakfast buffet in the morning at a particular time that I can't recall at the moment (Probably From 7 - 9 Am) but we decided to skip breakfast because we want to have something outside something local perhaps so I just got a banana for myself and the two of us booked individual GRAB Bike Taxis to our first location for the day which is the Hoàn Kiếm Lake also known as The Sword Lake

This lake is a lovely place to explore during the day. You have a lovely temple on an islet in the lake called Ngoc Son Temple which means Temple of the Jade Mountain and the entry fee is 30,000 VND (Rs 103), It will take you about 20-25 minutes to cover this place and learn about it's history and the story about Hoan Kiem Lake.

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Walking down by the lake you may find older women dancing to random pop music from the 90s/20th century and working out and you are more than welcome to join them because my friend did and it was a delight to watch! 😂

Mind you, we haven't had our breakfast yet and we were pretty much famished by the end of it. So we decided to just take a walk around the place and find something nice to eat and that's when we came across Take Taco, You can find the exact location Here, We just randomly found this place and walked in and we also happened to be the first customers of the day. Once we ordered our Banh Mi & Coffee Oh boy were we in for a treat ! This was the 2nd best Banh Mi that i've personally had in all of Vietnam, It was truly exquisite and filling as well and The Iced Coffee ! that was a tight slap to the face early in the morning. My gosh that was one strong Robusta Coffee and it gave me an instant caffeine high 😂 Vietnamese people take their coffee to damn seriously.

A thing to keep in mind is that typically people in Vietnam don't really have breakfast from my observation at least. They just have coffee in the morning and if you were to go out just randomly in search of food, it would be a bit difficult at times so it's best that you research in advance for places that serve breakfast and not just coffee because a majority of the places in Vietnam just serve coffee.

Our next stop for the day post breakfast is St. Joseph's Cathedral, which is a 19th-century Gothic Revival church that serves as the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hanoi and is also a popular landmark and also tourist attraction. We didn't do much here apart from admiring the architecture of the place.

The next stop which is The Temple Of Literature happens to be at a distance of 1.2 miles which was what ? about a 25 minute walk so we just decided to take a walk there and on the I found this small flower store selling a lovely range of flowers and I knew that I had to get myself this beautiful Sunflower.

The entry into this massive place is 30,000 VND (Rs 103) and since this place has a lot of information to pick up upon we decided to get ourselves an Audio Guide as well which was 10,000 VND (Rs 35) and this place took us over an hour to complete.

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This UNESCO World Heritage Site is not merely a place of historical significance but also a symbol of national pride and identity. Its well preserved architecture, featuring stunning pavilions, serene courtyards, and intricately designed gates, reflects the elegance and sophistication of Vietnamese culture. The Temple's five courtyards are adorned with beautiful gardens, ancient trees, and stelae mounted on stone turtles, each inscribed with the names of successful scholars who passed the royal examinations.

On the 1st Floor of the Thai Hoc Hall I found this balcony like place where I had a good view of the surrounding structures so I decided to spend some time here and finish off the rest of the audio guide.

Once we got done with this place, we quickly freshened up at public washroom, grabbed ourselves, a bottle of water from the vending machine nearby and immediately booked ourselves a cab to the West Lake it was about 2 PM when we reached the lake and took a stroll around the place towards the Tran Quoc Pagoda which is a temple situated on a small islands on the lake.

This Temple takes about 10 to 15 minutes to cover it's not much to do but it is a beautiful temple that you can visit when your near the West Lake apart from that you can just take a walk around the lake but mind you this is a very large lake.

The two of us work were famished by the end of it so we decided to head directly to The Note Cafe if you would research about Vietnam i'm pretty sure you would definitely have come across this care, this place is a well known tourist attraction and we went here just for the sake of it.

Note Café is nestled in a French colonial - Era building, and what makes it stand out is the decor. The walls and furniture are covered in colorful, hand written notes and messages left by visitors from around the world. They have about 3-4 floors and the above offer a great view of Hoan Kiem Lake, which is a beautiful spot in Hanoi, making it a picturesque place to enjoy your coffee making this place very Instagrammable. P.S only their croissants and avocado smoothie was enjoyable you should definitely skip out on their Banh Mi's.

We planned out our day accordingly so we could vist the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre for a 4:10 Pm show, the show is about an hour long and the Front Row Tickets Cost 200,000 VND (Rs 676) & Balcony Costs 150,000 VND (Rs 507)

Water puppetry involves puppeteers behind a bamboo screen controlling wooden puppets that appear to float on the water's surface. The performances feature music, singing, and storytelling, often depicting scenes from rural life, folklore, and history.This was definitely a wonderful experience and was a total delight to watch.

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Once the show got done, we decided to head back to the hostel and rest for an hour or so to get ourselves recharged for all thats to come tonight.

So fast forward say maybe 2 hours into the day and it was time for unlimited free beers at hostel which was one of the perks of staying here. Everyday between 7-8 Pm you can have unlimited house beers. I got ready and went down to have myself a beer or two while Neeta was getting ready to head out in a bit and she's taking her sweet time in doing so as she doesn't like beer 😩💔

Once she joined me downstairs we went out for a round around Ta Hien Steet which is know as Hanoi's Infamous Beer Street where you can get beers for as low a 1$, it was about 8pm and the streets were packed with travellers and locals alike and it was insane, for an Indian this is pretty much a common sight, we are used to seeing a crowd like this 😂

We kept walking and walking until we found a nice little place on the side of the road to just sit down and eat. I had a nice cold beer and some fried chicken from this place and it was just amazing. We were here for about 30 minutes, just watching the hustle and bustle of everything around us and post this, we went back to the hostel, just in time for the pub crawl that was being hosted by the property.

Well the night was pretty intense. There was about 25 to 30 people or more most probably that joined in from the hostel and we went to about five pubs nearby, everyone was dancing on the tables and drinking like their liver could take it 😂 and also started raining in between which is where me and Neetha decided to call it quits and head back to the hostel and called it a day.

We certainly did have a really interesting day 2 and it was a lot of fun for sure. I loved Vietnam so much that i've already booked my tickets for next month haha, it's going to be an incredible trip this time and hopefully I put up everything about last trip to Vietnam by then. I still have to cover Da Nang, Hoi An and Ho Chi Minh!

Anyway's here's Part 1 of the Hanoi Series incase you've missed it or want to just fell like going through my journey.