29.01.-30.01.2018 Hanoi

I left Bac Ha for Hanoi to spend my last 2 days before my flight back to Amsterdam here. As much as I would have liked to discover one more place in Vietnam – weather was gonna be bad everywhere in the North and it felt like a big city is still the best place to be when it’s cold and grey. After a seemingly never-ending bus journey from Bac Ha, the bus company dropped us somewhere very far outside the city centre in the middle of a dusty construction site. It was cold and drizzling. Traffic was zooming past us, not knowing where to go or what to do. 3 Uber taxis cancelled on us given the crazy traffic conditions. Finally I managed to get us a Grab taxi, an app that is much more common here than Uber.

When I arrived at Buddy Inn & Travel I was cold, tired, hungry and miserable. I had a quick dinner and then fell into my dorm bed… where unfortunately I did not get any sleep. The mattress was very uncomfortable, and people in the dorm were loud, arriving and leaving at different hours. I also felt a bit like I was getting sick – so opted to switch to a double room in the sister hostel at noon where I slept until late afternoon. I then kicked myself out of bed to at least go out and try the famous egg coffee that I still had not tried. It was delicious!! The egg foam on top was sweet and light, the coffee underneath the typical nice Vietnamese coffee.

But I also realized that I was definitely sick, with high fever and generally feeling very weak. So I called it an early night (after trying Cha Ca – one last dish I had to try, again, delicious!) and stayed in my room as long as I could the next day. When I had to check out, I opted for a museum day – thinking that museums might be warmer at least than outside. While both of them did not have any heating, it was probably still the better program in my condition. I first went to Hoa Lo Prison Museum – an interesting museum, showing the prison conditions and life under the rule of the French, and also the American war later on. It was good to learn at least a little something about the history of Vietnam, before leaving the country!

I then continued to the nearby Vietnamese Women’s Museum – basically an ethnology museum but then only talking about women. The exhibition is very well done, reaching from marriage and pregnancies to stories about women acting as spies in times of war, as well as women’s clothing and beauty standards. I paid for an audio guide and just listened to the stories – of course, being sick, I was not super excited about anything, but it was interesting enough to hear some more things about Vietnamese culture.

After a last walk through the old quarter, I then called a Grab to take me to the airport. I invested my last Dong in the most expensive Pho noodle soup ever, which did not even look or taste like Pho, and off I was… Destination: Amsterdam! At this point, I was feeling very sick and very much looking forward to a few days back at home. Byeee, Vietnam!