Ha Noi, Vietnam | 2016 | The lovely capital

Hello! It's been a long long time since I published an english post so maybe now it's time for another hehe. I was in Ha Noi last weekend for work and even though I only spent almost two days to see the city, I think I fell in love a bit. I'll tell you the highlights of this trip cos frankly I forgot most of it haha. 

So you probably don’t know this, I own a men clothing shop, you can click to visit my shop's Instagram and Facebook. There was this really hot flea market in Saigon and they occasionally hold the event once every two month in Hanoi. The teenagers and young adults love visiting the flea market so I thought I should bring my products to them. It was a success haha! But it was not the only happiness I got from this trip.

In 2010, I had the opportunity to visit the Northern part of Vietnam with my mum and sister. To be honest, I hated Hanoi and its people. To me, they were one of the rudest people I had ever met in my life, if you came in a shop and didn't buy anything, you'd get scolded, well I got scolded at. If you ate at a store and ordered too many times, you'd get scolded erhmm. In short, Ha Noi did not treat me well, and I swore I would never come back unless it's for work.

But this time was different…

The city treated me much better, I no longer felt bitter thinking of Ha Noi, perhaps we had help from our local friends so the others couldn’t really bully us, but we did get warned once at a cafe, I’d tell you about the story later in the post haha. In general, Ha Noi was peaceful and so beautiful, I was surprised I didn’t get to see more charming parts of city 6 years ago.  

With the courtesy of a senior friend, whom I absolutely respect, I got so many amazing photos. I told her I have a travel blog, and she was like "Ok! I'll take good pictures so you can post them there hehe!". Thank you chị Somalyng haha! She has gorgeous Instagram and Clothing Shop if you might want to check her out. I also want to thank our kind friend who we only have known for a few months, but we really appreciate having her around. This person made me realise how fortunate I have been in life by hearing her difficult upbringing, and I do hope that things would get better for her, thank you Lan Anh nhé! And please do check her Instagram and Shop as well!

Delayed Airline

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We arrived at Ha Noi super late, predictable cos we flew with delayed airline haha. We booked a fairly more expensive tickets and should be arrived at about 9PM but in reality, we reached the hotel at almost midnight. Well my friend who works in Vietjet Air already warned us about it cos we flew during rush hour, best if you can go super late or super early so you wouldn't get delayed and the ticket would be cheaper (tip to travel with ease in Vietnam).

Us fooling around haha

Cơm Rang Dưa Bò

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Hungry and tired, after we checked in, our Hanoian friend brought us to eat “Cơm rang dưa bò”, hmm which is a quite popular dish in Ha Noi, it was rice frying with beef and pickles. At first, I was so hesitated to try, but it was one of the most delicious meals we had during the trip haha. You must try it!! 

Duy Hải

13, 15 Tống Duy Tân

The address of the place was 13-15 Tống Duy Tân, look for this name sign because there are many restaurants in the area, and I’m not sure if the food would taste the same. 

The damage was roughly 50.000VND/person, I couldn’t remember the exact amount. But man best 50.000VND I had ever spent. 

Temple of Jade Mountain - Đền Ngọc Sơn

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We woke up at 6AM sharp cos we only had one and a half day free to explore Ha Noi. The breakfast at the hotel was okay, we got to choose two dishes ouf of the menu, pretty plain but enough to make us full.

Next to Hang Be, the street where our hotel was located, was Hang Dau, filled with numerous shops selling replica Nike, Addidas shoes, and more popular sport brands. I bought one pair of Vans, and of course needed to bargain and the price was around 300.000, but honestly the quality was kind of crap, so I don't recommend buying shoes from here. 

We then walked along Hang Dau to Hoan Kiem Lake. Surprisingly, The Temple of Jade Mountain - Đền Ngọc Sơn was close to our hotel, like 2 minute walk. The Temple was built with dedication to national hero General Tran Hung Dao, who won the war against the invasion of Mongolian Emperor (Vietnam Guide). I can't really describe the beauty of the temple along with the surrounding scenery. My advice is to visit the temple early (they open from 8AM - 5PM) to witness the breathtaking view. 

Turtle Tower in the middle of the lake, can only be accessed by boat

We encountered a German man, who travelled by himself, I recognised his German accent and decided to speak German to him, and he didn't understand and even I couldn't understand what he was saying. So I basically wasted all the money I spent studying the language T___T. He wanted us to take picture for him in front of the temple, in return we did the same for him, then we took a selfie. At first, I thought he wanted to have my phone number, so I said I'd be here for just today :))), turned out he just wanted a photo with us (I'm so paranoid)!

The picture he took for us, I looked awful but this is proof haha!

St. Joseph's Cathedral - Nhà Thờ Lớn Hà Nội

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We then took a short walk along the St. Joseph's Cathedral - Nhà Thờ Lớn Hà Nội, the oldest church in the city. It is stated that this church had a similar architectural style to Notre Dame in Paris, and was built by the French colonial government in Indochina. To me, it was far more beautiful than the Notre Dame in Sai Gon, and for a few minutes, I thought I was in the middle of France. And I kept assuring my Hanoian friend that you don't need to go to Paris, Ha Noi is Paris right there, well without Eiffel Tower  and Sacre Coeur.

The interior was absolutely stunning with detailed structure. And for some reasons, I felt so tranquil sitting inside. Such a beauty! I was speechless for most of the time, and imagined what Vietnam would look like if we didn't win the war.

The side of the church

The cafés

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La Place

6 Ấu Triệu

Next to the church was this cafe place called La Place. The shop was cute and resembled Parisian or maybe European styled coffee stores, but I didn't like it one bit, and so did my friend. However, it seemed like the foreigners really like this place, cos the place was full of tourists, most were cute French guys hehe. We ordered two traditional cà phê sữa đá, they tasted okay but were a bit overpriced. The balcony had great view, but in the morning, with the direct sunlight, you'd get burned sitting there, so best if you could go in the evening or in winter. 

We were there for about 30 minutes waiting for Lan Anh to come but my friend didn't like the place so we decided to switch to another place where she could take photos for her Instagram's daily feed haha. I was kind of reluctant to change once I settled in but I was thankful she convinced me to. You'll know why :P.

Jouri Dessert & Tea

10 Khúc Hạo

The place we went next was called Jouri Dessert & Tea , and it was one of the loveliest places I have ever visited to chill in the entire Vietnam, well Reaching Out Tea House is always the first in my heart, and Jouri is currently the runner up. Click links to see my posts about these awesome cafés :). 

My friend then forced me to take pictures and I'm so glad she did, the photos were awesome I couldn't even expect to have haha. More pictures from the link above (click the name of the cafe to visit the post) ;).

Phở Cuốn

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This is the most typical Hanoian dish. It's basically a bowl of pho soup, but they roll the noodle into bigger rice sheet, and put inside the vegetables and beef. Then you would enjoy it with a deep dip in their special fish sauce. At first they tasted like heaven but my friend ordered too much, we had so enough of it. The tip is you eat just enough so you'd want more in the future. The way to order is to say the number of rolls that you want.

We ordered another dish call crispy fried pho with egg, tasted quite ok but I was not very fond of it. I couldn't remember the bill but it was not a cheap meal, partly because we ordered too much. 

I absolutely recommend anyone who wants to try a bit of Ha Noi's taste, and you should only eat at the address below, this is the best in town.

Phở Cuốn Hưng Bền 

 35 Nguyễn Khắc Hiếu

F.Lanh

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 Hanoi Rock City 27/52 Tô Ngọc Vân - Tây Hồ - Hà Nội

Then we finally went to Lan Anh's store in Ha Noi, the most beautiful fashion shop I've ever seen in Vietnam. It is so distinctively pretty and well organised, I did get to see through photos but it was far more amazing in reality.

Me wearing one of her designs

We chilled in her shop for a while, tried on all her clothes and bought nothing haha, I have too many pieces from this brand. As the sun slowly set, we went out to found the perfect background for daily random shoots, both of my friends dressed really well so must have OOTD pictures, wouldn't wanna waste a well-dressed day. Then my friend recommended this place that served amazing Italian gelato, I can say that the taste was almost as perfect as the gelato I had in Rome or Florence.

Gelato Italia

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 31 Tô Ngọc Vân, Quảng An, Tây Hồ, Hà Nội

Sorry for my crappy photo haha

The place was not photogenic, I did take frontal pictures of it but was not really nice so I deleted instantly (kind of regretted now cos the above photo is even worse lol). The gelato was uhmazing, it tasted almost the same gelato that I had in Florence, just so damn good. The price, however, was pretty pretty expensive, 2 scoops for around 70.000 vnd I can't really remember, so they offered this better deal, a 80.000 vnd dessert dish with a crepe, fruits and three scoops of your choice, smaller than the ordinary scoops btw but still tasted awesome. For me, I loved the mango flavour the most, it was rich and creamy and just delightful. We talked about anything we thought of for half an hour and headed back to the center for a night out in the old quarter hehe. 

You can read more about Hanoi HERE

Thanks for reading,

Love.