{"id":97,"date":"2025-01-23T07:21:44","date_gmt":"2025-01-23T06:21:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travel.thatmanmatt.com\/?p=97"},"modified":"2025-01-23T07:21:44","modified_gmt":"2025-01-23T06:21:44","slug":"day-4-minus-0-5-hanoied","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travel.thatmanmatt.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/23\/day-4-minus-0-5-hanoied\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 4 (minus 0.5): Hanoied"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yesterday was chill. I got up, had breakfast, had coffee, got a haircut, had two more coffees, watched a train pass within half a metre of my nose, went to a skyscraper and looked across a cloudy and polluted Hanoi, looked straight down at the ground 65 floors below, saw a cat, drank a coffee, ate Bahn Mi, drank a coffee, had a nap, had a crisis, had Pho, had a margarita, had a beer, met a guy cycling around the world, had some more beers, went to bed, couldn\u2019t sleep, shouted at drunk Americans and now I\u2019m on a bus waiting for it to move to Ha Giang. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think I\u2019d had my fill of Hanoi by yesterday. It\u2019s relentless: noise, fumes, horns, motorcycles, horns, cars, horns. There was a point where I was checking if I should just pack it all in and go somewhere quiet, like Bangkok. Then I realised I should probably eat and things got better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Train Street<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Hanoi has a thing where some streets are kind of dedicated to one thing: books, sweets, whisk(e)y, paper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Train Street is perhaps a little different because it\u2019s not a real street but a train track where a whole bunch of coffee shops have set up right next to it. Since trains are infrequent, it\u2019s a thing to do to sit with a coffee and watch a train rumble past your table. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
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The track. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The train.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The train but closer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Souvenir bottle cap squashed by the train.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is perhaps where my problems started because I had two incredibly strong coffees while all this went on. Anyone who knows me knows that I don\u2019t really drink coffee (and might therefore wonder why I\u2019m in Vietnam).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The view from above<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I am low-key obsessed with skyscrapers and their viewing platforms. When possible, in each new city I go to, I try to go up<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Hanoi, that means the Lotte Tower. At a little under 300 metres, it\u2019s not a super tall, but it\u2019s got a viewing floor and two<\/em> glass floors to test your mettle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ticket lady warned me \u2013 and showed a picture \u2013 that the view was pretty limited, but I\u2019m committed so up I go. And, uh, yeah. Nobody is going to take spectacular pictures today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
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What it won\u2019t look like. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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What it actually looked like.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Heartstopper.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Always an angel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Moar kwaffs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Back to the old quarter for lunch and more coffee. That\u2019s six now, and \u2013 who knew? \u2013 a recipe for sleep disaster. Still: there\u2019s a cat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eeepy void.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Minor crisis and Michelin Pho<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Surprisingly, I managed a mid-afternoon nap and then woke up all jittery grouchy. This, I decided, was all Vietnam\u2019s fault and I\u2019d be better off somewhere familiar like Thailand. Cue a wasted hour or so looking to see what I should or could cancel to make that happen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then I decided to get pho from the place I was recommended on Monday evening. The store is extremely unassuming, given that while it doesn\u2019t have a Michelin star<\/em>, it\u2019s been commended by them in 2023 and 2024. Personally I couldn\u2019t tell you the difference between Michelin-level pho and regular pho but it was tasty all the same. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only receipt I\u2019ll ever have from a Michelin-quoted restaurant.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Serious backpacking <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To round off the evening I went back to a little bia place near my hotel. I got talking to a guy called Fred, who\u2019s 27 and has spent the last eight months cycling <\/em>from the UK to (so far) Vietnam. He\u2019d just spent three months travelling across China and I was the fourth English-speaker he\u2019d talked to in all that time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cycling. Cycling. <\/em>Like, on a bicycle, with a tent, for eight months. It sounded like a lot of fun but I think there are people who thrive on that and people (like me) who\u2019d catastrophise the fuck out of it by Calais. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And after all that coffee:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I slept like ass. Lesson learned. <\/p>\n

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Yesterday was chill. I got up, had breakfast, had coffee, got a haircut, had two more coffees, watched a train pass within half a metre of my nose, went to a skyscraper and looked across a cloudy and polluted Hanoi, looked straight down at the ground 65 floors below, saw a cat, drank a coffee, […]<\/p>\n

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