We booked a long weekend – which is enough for a first visit – and promptly researched what options there were.

The City

The city has many things to do, it is really fun!  We moved around mostly walking and on taxis, and as in other cities in Vietnam, the streets are super crazy. On the night we arrived, we were quite surprised that it was much colder than we expected, so immediately we had to buy some jackets there.  It was a very big contrast in temperature to our previous Vietnam experience, so definitely research what the temperature is if you go!  The best area to stay around is near the old quarter, where you have lots of charming places and access to fantastic food.  We stayed at one of the Rising Dragon Hotels, which honestly was just average.

The food

The food here is very good!  Its quite easy to get some typical vietnamese food, and the variety is amazing.

Food Tour:  We took a food tour organised by Hanoi Street Food Tour.  This was a great experience, as we got a bit of food in about 5 or 6 restaurants, ranging from local fish and chicken in a proper sit down place, to pancakes in a street cart and Bo bia from a lady on a bicycle(Mariana looooved this).  The tour ended with some delicious egg coffee and a beer in the very famous international beer corner (in a Bia Hoi shop).  If you have a sweet tooth, the egg coffee must be tasted!!!  This experience was lots of fun, and let us taste many things that we would not have tasted otherwise.  We we also in the same tour as a Brazilian couple, and it was fun to meet them and chat.

Other food: We were quite looking forward to having some other vietnamese food, and a definitely highlight is the Banh Mi. This Vietnamese Sandwich is filled with different types of meat. After some research, we found a place called Banh Mi 25 which was amazing!  You sit on the street on small benches, mostly surrounded by locals, and it is a really fun and local experience.  The lady cooking as well as the folks bringing out the food were very nice and accommodating even though the place was quite full! The 3 of us really enjoyed this!

Attractions: There are quite a few nice places to visit in Hanoi, but just walking around is fun! The whole area around Hoan Kiem Lake is very nice, with many attractions around. We watched a typical puppet theatre performance which was entertaining.  Going a bit further, the temple of literature/National University is also a great place!  We were lucky as there were graduation ceremonies happening, so we got a chance to see it all live!  One more place we enjoyed was the area around the Hanoi Cathedral, lots of locals having beers and even being chased by the police occasionally!

Shopping:  Vietnam is an amazing destination to get some custom clothes really cheap!  Mariana found a shop which managed to make a couple of dresses for her in 1 day, and they were very well priced and high quality!  The suits are supposed to be very good as well, but definitely need to do some research before buying!  We used Bambou Silk and definitely recommend them.  The lady there was very helpful!

Halong Bay

One incredible attraction in the region (but it is a few hours away) is Halong bay.  We had heard this was amazing, but words do not do it justice.  We booked a single day trip, which was definitely very stressed due to the very long journey.  Unfortunately my mom was not feeling great for this day trip, so she stayed around the hotel area and had a relaxing day.  Meanwhile a few hours away, we actually had a pretty large boat all for ourselves, which was quite entertaining.  Again, the weather was still quite cold and foggy, but the place is really unbelievable.  This is a must for people in the region!!!

It was really fun to have my mom here and to travel with her, showing her how we live and what we like when we travel.  I think she was quite surprised that I now eat pretty much everything, while in Mexico I definitely had strong negative opinions about some food – what Asia does to you. Without a doubt the Asian experience has broadened by gastronomic horizon (either that, or being in my 30s)!

We really enjoyed showing her many of the fun places in Singapore, as well as travelling to Vietnam, I think it was a trip that showed 2 very different sides of the region!

Enough of the romance, let’s get into all the things we packed into one weekend: – A O Show at the Saigon Opera House: this was an amazing find. Acrobatics on bamboo sticks and wicker basket. Pure talent from the dancers showing a little bit of vietnamese life in the countryside and city. Super cool. After that we had an incredible meal at Hoa Tuc which by the end offer cooking classes too – next time – Cu Chi Tunnels: we were not 100% bought into going but we ended up getting a tour with the hotel agency and went there on a private tour. It was actually quite nice to see the tunnels. We didn’t do the shooting. There is something slightly weird about shooting on a site where thousands of men, women and children died. In fact, that is the sound effect throughout the tour… a bit scary.

– War Remmenants Museum: a little gory but interesting to see Vietnam’s side of the war story. – Reunification Palace: we didn’t even know that the Palace was open for visitation but it was a pleasant walk around.

Now, on the less tourists path, we took a friend’s recommendation and took a Saigon after Dark Vespa tour.  It was an amazing experience! The tour is super well organized and it has all the transport, food and drinks included. It basically took to parts of the city we couldn’t even imagine from District 1 to District 4 where very few tourists go. You get driven by a motorbike/ vespa driver through the crazy streets of Saigon praying for your life. Eventually we started to enjoy the view and the incredible moment of being on the deep end of what this city is all about. We ate amazing seafood but the highlight of the night was banh xeo in a corner shop. We went to a secret cafe to listen to live music in, what I would describe as someone’s living room in a little alley somewhere and then went to a rock bar. Quite bizarre combination but it worked nicely. We had a great time!

On our last day we took our first Triip tour. This is basically a broker website for local guides. Tam was our lovely guide to take us through the main markets in the city like true locals. She took by public bus to Binh Tay Market in District 5 to see a true local market where they sell food and everything else. The market is located in China town so we stopped by a couple of pagodas as well. It was interesting to see these religious buildings with incredibly intrinsic carving next to bit old horrible looking buildings. After that we did a quick stop at famous Ben Thanh Market to then reach the best moment of the day: eat a proper banh mi! Tam took us to the ‘joint’ where she has very snack in the afternoon during work days. PS: that is after she took a siesta on a mattress that she leaves in the office. Anyway, banh mi is a super sandwich with pork or chicken meat and a salad. It sounds much duller than what it is. It was fantastic!!!

Only one weekend but enough for us to fall in love with Vietnam. We will definitely be going back!