Exploring Hanoi

One of the best parts about making friends overseas is that we all move around, and then there are new places to visit with friends to stay with and show you around. Our friends got a big place in Hanoi's old town area, and we had so much fun exploring with them.

It's just a couple blocks from the famous "train street" where traffic stops as a train cuts through the city. Viv and I decided to join the crowds and try to get a picture.

When it's not train time, the street is relatively calm and scenic. Our friends told us that in Hanoi, life happens on the sidewalk, and the one in front of their home is no exception. You could get your hair cut, grab some food and a beer, and just hang out.

They also live near "light street" which is a series of shops selling lights all in a row. it's really pretty at night.

We even found a nightlight for the bathroom we were using, so that the girls didn't turn on all the lights at night.

Our friends took us on a walk around the neighborhood. There were lots of restaurants and massage places on "pedestrian" streets, but motorcycles go everywhere.

We also went down some of the shopping streets, which are clearly geared to tourists. One mission was finding sunglasses for me and Vivian, but Elena got in on the action as well.

She could play cool as much as she wanted to, but once we saw an ice cream place, she went full kid again.

We took a walk around the lake, which seems like a common Sunday thing to do. Many people were wearing traditional outfits. Motorcycles were not allowed in, so the motorcycle parking was dense.

Unfortunately, the air quality was pretty crummy the whole time we were in Hanoi, so we couldn't get really bright pictures, but Jeff tried his best.

Our friends took us to one of their favorite places for lunch, an "American" club near the lake. The food was good, and there were lots of places for the kids to play while we ate, so everyone was happy.

They even had special lunar new year's 7-Up.

We had our adventures to Halong Bay and our food tour. Unfortunately, something disagreed with the girls, so they were down for a day not feeling well, but when they were feeling better, they had plenty of play time with our friends' younger kids.

On the last night, we did a grown up final night on the town. We split husbands and wives for pre-dinner drinks, and then met up for dinner. My friend and I did some walking around the old town area. It's chaotic, but I really enjoyed it. 

My friend took me to a place called The Halflington. As I was discovering, it was in a very typical Hanoi location. The only indication that there was a fancy restaurant were the two gentlemen standing outside the passage.

One of them escorted us down the passage,

through the apartment courtyard, and up the stairs,

where we eventually came to a skylit room with a giant whale skeleton hanging above it.

There was no way for me to properly capture the room, so I found a picture on the internet.

It's quite a space, and it was all decked out with Christmas decorations. The theme was definitely Victorian naturalists club. Even the drinks menu had flair.

We tried some adventurous cocktails.

Then we got a Grab, picked up Vivian, and met the husbands for a steak dinner.

We got vegetables too.

It was a fun way to end our trip. Hanoi is a fascinating city. I wish we had time to explore more of Vietnam. It's definitely a place I would like to go back to.