Fifth month with Remote Year, so fifth country – Vietnam.  This is no where near South Africa, so I had a chance to find out if I actually have skills for long haul flights, or if the enjoyable 11.5 hour flight from Paris to Cape Town had been a fluke…..I think I did alright with Cape Town-Dubai-Hanoi, even having already acknowledged that the malaria pills were making me a little prickly.  And when it takes 19 total hours to cross 5 time zones (only five???!), who knows what jet lag even means at that point!  I had to stay somewhat focused to navigate the free-for-all of getting through the crowd blocking the first few customs windows, to find dozens more windows, still with lines – it is worse than guessing which line to pick at the grocery store.  But once truly into Hanoi, I greatly appreciated being fully taken care of by the local team – giving me my new SIM card and taking me right to the door of my new apartment to start the next adventure!

Where is it?  Vietnam through its long history, seemed to focus on capturing and maintaining coastal lands.  When looking at a map of Southeast Asia, it’s the country that clings to the west side of the South China Sea (making Laos landlocked.)  In recent history, the “American War” as it’s known locally, was between a divided Vietnam – North and South.  Hanoi was the capital for the North.  (Saigon was the capital for the South, but renamed Ho Chi Minh City by the victorious north, for quite a fascinating leader.) Hanoi is about a two hour drive from the coast, and about two and half hours from China.

What does it look like?  In the city, it looks BUSY!  About 8 million people live here, and it seems like everyone owns at least one motorbike.  Where there are sidewalks (which seem rare), I was dodging in and around parked motorbikes, restaurant stools, and sidewalk displays.  And until recently, there were no crosswalks either!  It is indeed a right of passage in Hanoi to step into the street with full confidence and a predictable pace, to get to the other side. At least near where I was, I had the help of crosswalks for the busiest and craziest six way intersections.  As for colour, there is A LOT of red and yellow – sometimes the national flag, sometimes vendors leveraging lucky colours in signage.  And there are a lot of pagodas – ranging from truly grand, truly ancient, quite small, and modern.  Outside of the city, there are incredibly scenic hills and farms, with farmers truly wearing the straw conical hats, proving to be incredibly practical when planting endless rows of rice seedlings.  

Is there a major ‘claim to fame’?  Pho.  You know, the warm soup that you can’t quite pronounce right?  You may have had it in a Vietnamese restaurant sitting at a standard table, having ordered it from a menu.  But in Hanoi, it has been a street food for over a century.  I had it just by sitting on a tiny plastic stool, on a sidewalk, with no ordering; it’s just implied that I want one bowl of the only thing they’re making.  And on an equally tiny table, I have an array of toppings, including sriracha, onions, limes, fish sauce, cilantro…. The true classic is a particular dried noodle soaked in a beef broth with beef, but different vendors might offer chicken, or snail!  It wasn’t until after the reunification of Vietnam in 1976, did awareness of the dish start to stretch to the country’s south as well as the rest of the world.  And in 2011, CNN put it on the list of the “World’s 50 most delicious foods.”  And it isn’t restricted to a particular time of day – it is pretty easy to find even for a delicious breakfast!

What else is it known for?  I had no idea, but Hanoi is obsessed with coffee.  Once the French introduced it, growing the plants became a major part of the economy. Vietnam is the second largest exporter of coffee IN THE WORLD, producing just over half of what Brazil does, but more than twice what Colombia does (which is third on the list.) Culturally, sitting with friends for hours at cafés is a major part of daily life.  There are cafés on every street corner, and often in between as well.  One specialty is an “egg coffee” which involves whipping an egg yolk with evaporated milk and sugar, to pour as a layer on top of brewed coffee.  (I chose not to mix it together, but enjoyed the top part on its own.) Another specialty is “coconut coffee” which appeared more like a yummy cold coconut mocha smoothie to me.  And the classic slow drip, filtered coffee has the full presentation of the tin press over a cup, with the (incredibly) important mini-pitcher of sweetened milk on the side, ready to combat the bitterness.  I’ll say, as a non-coffee drinker, with enough sweetened milk, anything can taste great when you are hanging out getting to know new friends.

Any surprises?  I happened to arrive in Hanoi, at the very beginning of the Tết holiday, aka Vietnamese Lunar New Year, aka the most important celebration in Vietnamese culture.  The advantages were amazing: seeing the city heavily decorated with banners, sculptures, and flowers; having fewer motorbikes to contend with as I learned to cross the street (because many people leave the city to spend the week gathered with relatives in their home villages); and learning traditions of visiting pagodas and attending festivals (which were more like carnivals, including ‘pop’ the balloon games!) The disadvantages were unexpected: wondering what to eat when grocery stores were closed for the first four days I was living in Hanoi, and I didn’t yet know how to read street vendor signs and most of the recommended restaurants were closed; and regularly seeing various images and sculptures of rats because it is now the Year of the Rat.  Overall, it was pretty special to be included in the biggest party of the year.

More on Hanoi ahead as I figure out the difference between pho bo and pho ga.