It’s reasonable safe to travel with Soft Sleeper Class on Vietnam Railways. I read that the main consent was the belongings will get stole. But not in our case. In our carriage, there was a Vietnam Railways warden who slept on the carriage herself. Once the train departed from Ga Hanoi train station, she knocked each cabin, and demanded us to stored our luggage below the lower berth, and kept everything valuable under the pillow.
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Hanoi
Vietnam Railways Train to Lao Cai (Sapa)
We walked to the Hanoi Train Station (Ga Hanoi) from the Wing Cafe and Hotel in Old Quarter. It took us about 30 minutes to get there. It’s not too far, but we spent some time to ask for direction. The Hanoi Vietnamese was very kind that all of them whom we asked helped us in a way or another.
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Bag Keeping in Hanoi
Most hotel in Hanoi will allowed you to keep your bags there, hoping that when you return, you will stay there. When we took our train tickets from Thanh Vinh Tourist Hotel, they also offered us to keep our bags there, plus free usage of bathroom. However, I would like to try out other hotel, and also the fact that I was a bit disappointed with the Halong Bay tour package that they gave us, we rejected their offer instead.
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Sugar Cane Juice
It’s cheap here, and freshly made for just VND 2,000
Mien Luon
We had a Mien Luon for dinner at a shop at Hang Dieu before boarding the train, which costs about VND 7,000. Mien Luon also called eel soup with translucent noodles or eel cassava vermicelli in English. Mien (vermicelli made of cassava) threads are very long and tough, made from a kind of tuber plant called the cassava. The eel is chopped into small chunks and fried beforehand before being put atop, and the soup itself is clear and very lightly flavoured.
Thang Long Water Puppet Theater
Water Puppets, or Mua Roi Nuoc is an ancient art form that unique to northern Vietnam, which traces its origins to rice-farmer folk culture. Hanoi is the best place to watch Water Puppets performance which is origined from Hanoi. We watched it at Thang Long Water Puppet Theater at first-class seats which cost VND 40,000. There are second-class seats that costs VND 20,000. The differences being that first-class seats are in the front of the theater, and are given a CD that recorded musics played in water puppet performance. At the day we visited, there were show at 4 pm, 5.15 pm, 6.30 pm and 8 pm.
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Monument in Vietnam
Vietnam is a Communist state. So there are few monuments in Hanoi that represent struggling of the people. This Martyrs’ Monument is dedicated to all the soldiers who gave their lives fighting for independence. It’s located at the northeast corner of Hoan Kiem Lake.
Ngoc Son Temple
We reached Hanoi at about 3.30 pm. The train ticket to Sapa haven’t delivered to the hotel yet, so we decided to catch the Water Puppet show if possible, which is right beside Hoan Kiem Lake. So while waiting for the Water Puppet Show to start, we had a walk to Ngoc So Temple at Hoan Kiem Lake.
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Vietnamese Hospitality
Once in Hanoi, the first things that we did was to have a sinh to fruit shake again, as the weather was hot. Here we met a Vietnamese girl Dien who paid for our sinh to! What a wonderful ordinary Vietnamse.
Traffic in Hanoi Vietnam
Traffic in Vietnam was really crazy. Basically they still follow a rule – drive on the right and stop while red traffic light. However, bike drivers were not obliged to wear helmet, and they just didn’t have the habit to give way, to other pedestrians or other motorists. So what they did is (and they do have a great skill in) avoiding clash with other people or vehicles.
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