Hanoi marked a lot of firsts for me. The first time in “real” Asia (after being in Singapore for around ten days before), the first time seeing my girlfriend again after 5 months of long-term relationship. The first time Vietnam and the first time hanoi.

For me the whole experience started of great as my cab driver wanted to rip me off and I could bargain him down to 20€ which is still heavily overpriced.

For the equivalent of one week of accommodation, I could at least experience the bustling streets of Hanoi for the first time in my life, as we were driving more and more into the heart of the charming chaos.

On the sides, houseblocks – which looked like being a random creations of architecture software put together and seemed to have the goal of braking every convetional rule of architecture and safety – decorated the street.

Scooters were driving all over the place and probably broke more rules than the average European in their whole life time.

Hanoi – and Vietnam – seems like a place that just existes in the mind of screenwriters in 70s James Bond movies.

But with the difference that it transforms those fantasies into reality. And doing so in such a charming way.

The time still goes different in Hanoi. There is – AMAZING – street food on every corner, which is probably still not enough for the masses of people walking among the streets.

Scooters are everywhere and crosswalks and traffic lights just exist for the sake of it – nobody actually trusts or uses them.

On the first day, I arrived in this Tohuwabohu (using German for the loss of a better word :D) and checked into Mirtes and mine lovely hostel.

I immediately identified all type of travelers among the fellow guests, which I already saw in New Zealand – the yoga girl, the hippie, the partytraveler, the drug addict and the last and most popular category – which I count myself in as well – the German. Often you find that those categories are actually one and the same person.

All jokes aside, I was not feeling much like socialising after my 20h of travelling and decided to relax in my room for a bit, trying to curb the excitement of finally seeing my girlfriend after 5 months of separation.

Eventually, I saw her coming up the stairs, which was a very surreal moment. I couldn’t have been happier.

Together we explored the streets of Hanoi, awaiting the new year, with what felt like 10000 others per square meter. In this moment I understood the origin of the phrase “sea of people”.

Once you went outside you we literally caught by the mass and could just hope it would let you out where you wanted to go (alive). It is not exaggerated when I say that a piece of paper wouldn’t have fitted between me and the people around me.

Whereas moving through it alone was impossible, the mass itself now and then developed a dynamic and would wash you through the bright, spicy smelling streets.

Of course some scooters were still optimistic enough to drive right into the masses and while most got stuck, some of them were used as a battering ram by the locals, to build a path through crowd.

Concerts were playing and whole hanoi was on the streets to celebrate the new year.
Eventually we arrived at our final destination and saw the final fireworks, which were a bit disappointing compared to the amount I know from Germany and the Netherlands.

But nevertheless this was one of the craziest new year’s evenings I ever experienced.

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The next day Mirte and me went on a walking tour through Hanoi before we would leave towards our next stop.

We and Xin from America where the only ones at the agreed location and our guide arrived completely hungover around 5 minutes late.

Nevertheless it was a nice and entertaining tour and we got some interesting information about Vietnams capital – with various degrees of accuracy.

So he told us the story how Hanoi became capital (obviously it has to do with a dragon that appeared to the emperor around 1000 years ago –> Hanoi means rising dragon) and that Hanoi still celebrates itself for it. Every weekend (!) there is a festival which shuts down part of the city. Every. Weekend.

Apart from that he introduced us to egg coffee – when milk was scarce in post-war Vietnam a clever Vietnamese coffee lover (Mr. Giang) put egg yolk in his coffee instead. Egg coffee was born and made Mr Giangs cafe probably the most popular in Hanoi. They offer it with cinnamon and chocolate and even an egg beer which all sounds a bit disgusting but is honestly incredibly good. – and Banzao – a fried shrimp pancake with pineapple that I cannot explain a better way. – both of which might sound strange but are one of the best treats I had in a long time.

While guiding us through the colourful narrow streets, he showed us that 32 different industries have their own streets in Hanoi. So there is shoe street, doorhandle street, toilet street and even tape street in which you will almost unexceptionally find stores related to those products.

It sounds weird but it is true that all of a sudden you walk through a street and see nothing but tape.

Adding to this, appearantly many of the street merchants are actually government spies, which can make you dissapear. Maybe this was the reason our guide avoided politics almost completely and just said it’s getting better when we asked him about it.

After the tour we headed back to our hostel and took the bus to our next destination – cat ba island.

Cat Ba is the biggest island in the ha long area – the main attraction vietnams and inspiration for many fotocalenders.

When we arrived with our ferry on the island, the sun was already setting down. While the sky was turning from orange to black, we drove alongside the Rocky cliffs, deeper and deeper into the natural paradise we should explore the next days.