Hanoi, Vietnam
Our journey began with long flights from Dusseldorf to Hanoi, connecting in Qatar, which was all of our first time experiencing a minuscule taste of the Middle East. We arrived as the sun was setting and were treated to a breathtaking golden light draping the expansive desert and modern skyline of Doha. After a brief exploration of the massive and expanding airport, with a four hour layover, and no sleep on the first seven hour flight, we managed to rent "sleep pods" for each of us and catch a few winks. After a pit stop for breakfast (or dinner?) of tabbouleh, pita, smokey baba ganoush (not Oliver's favorite), and other tasty Mediterranean treats, we boarded the next long haul to Hanoi. None of us were stoked on the long journey but Qatar airlines was surprisingly comfy, for coach travel, and we arrived in Hanoi as the day began.
Hanoi itself was a feast for the senses, with a vibrancy and energy that was exhilarating and a perfect introduction to Vietnam's beauty, rawness and general sensory overload. Arriving a few days before New Year's Eve gave us the opportunity to witness the city's preparations for the celebrations around the old town and Hoàn Kiếm lake, where we enjoyed a tranquil Airbnb apartment for the three day stay. Wrestling jet lag, we spent whatever waking hours we found ourselves in wandering the streets, exploring hidden alleys and delighting in the vibrant foods, local kindness and perfect "winter" warmth.
Without any real plans for our stay we decided to put our faith in local guides and went on a local food tour our first night and a more expansive tour of the major sights of the city the second day. The all evening food tour stuffed our bellies and gave us the perfect entry into enjoying local dishes that we would have otherwise been a bit too shy to try had we been left to our own devices. We wound up with a nice Australian military couple (the woman a fighter pilot and young man an attack helicopter pilot!), a friendly young Chinese man who studied at NYU and an incredibly kind guide, Trung, who walked us all over Old Town to hidden gem after hidden gem.
The next day we did our own thing, attempting to get lost on the twisting side streets, eating more amazing food and napping off the exhaustion. The following day (New Year's Eve), our last day in Hanoi, we hired a knowledgeable and patient guide and driver (Mr. Chung) to show us the many historical and significant sights within the city. We visited the ancient Tran Quoc temple and pagoda, learning about it's more than thousand year significance as the former Buddhist centre of the Ly Tran Dynasties in Thang Long Citadel (now called Hanoi). It's location on a small island along the West Lake and, although fairly busy with tourists and Vietnamese visitors, it felt calming to pay respects at the alters and stupas holding the remains of the monks that have lived at and cared for the grounds through its thousand year history.
From there, with Oliver's keen interest in anything related to war history steering our tour, we visited Ho Chi Minh's revered monument and tomb (at which we didn't wait the three-plus hours to pay respects to uncle Ho) and both the War Remnants Museum and Hoa Lo Prison (the "Hanoi Hilton"), where John McCain and a group of American Air Force pilots were held captive for six years during the American occupation of South Vietnam.
The experience of learning more about the US involvement and early arming and training of Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh soldiers, and seeing the carnage wrought on the Vietnamese people under false pretenses, definitely stirred feelings of guilt for the choices made by our home country all those years ago. Fortunately with the passage of time and the graciousness of the people here, it doesn't seem that grudges are deeply held and we feel welcomed everywhere we went, even when wandering into small back alleys to find remnants of a downed B-52 that are still lodged in a small lake where locals sport fish and relax.
Our adventure in Hanoi ended with the celebration of the end of 2023 and beginning of 2024, which we planned on enjoying in the throngs near the stages that we watched being set up over the course of our previous few nights by the lake. After another delicious dinner of Bun Cha (grilled pork, rice vermicelli noodles, veggies and sweet and savory sauce) we dutifully made our way towards the celebration area adjacent to the lake. As we navigated the throngs of revelers, local and foreign, we became increasingly claustrophobic as the density increased steadily as we attempted to reach our destination. At a certain point we nearly lost our ability to move independently, becoming part of a larger (and quite frightening) organism created by too many people in too little space.
Deciding we'd rather survive to see 2024, we retreated and were lucky to find a free table at a very nice, and equally loud, restaurant just across from the lake. While sipping wine (and ice cream and whatever tasty beverage equivalent Oliver chose) we basked in the spectacle of terrible live cover music, people watching and the joy and general chaos taking place in the streets. Just before midnight we paid the bill and found a nice area on the edge of the lake, joining a sea of other folks hoping to ring in the new year with a waterfront view of, what we hoped would be, a great fireworks show over the lake. As the countdown ended the fireworks began and we were rewarded with an underwhelming display (apparetnly they save the good stuff for the Lunar New Year celebration in February); thankfully, we still had front row seats to the beauty of the skyline and had a wonderful time chatting with group of young Vietnamese adults, some visiting home over break from studying in Canada. We really couldn't have asked for a more uniquely perfect start to our trip and to this new year.
