A complete week in Hanoi
- Josiah Marquis
- Jun 18, 2017
- 3 min read
A full week has gone by for me in Hanoi, Vietnam. What are my thoughts of it, you ask? I totally love it.
As a first-time traveller, I was told that the transition from Canada to Vietnam would be quite significant. I definitely experienced some culture shock coming here (especially the point in time where I landed at the airport, to the point I stepped foot inside my apartment building), but I've found the process to be quite manageable so far.
Overall, my first week has been fantastic. And, I'm quite confident in saying that the travel bug has officially bitten me!
Front entrance to my place (on the righthand side):
The quality of food here is amazing. It's one of my favourite experiences in Hanoi so far. Everything from my new favourite G7 gourmet instant coffees, to the street food (choosing vendors that are the busiest), or the fresh lychees and chef-prepared lunches (thank you, HealthBridge!)... the flavours are incredible!
SO GOOD:
As a part of my rental agreement, there's a woman who comes by to clean my apartment twice per week. She doesn't speak any english. I came home to her on Thursday giving my floors a nice scrubbing, so I decided to take a walk around the Dong Da Lake by my apartment; it was a good opportunity to do some further exploration around my neighbourhood. I stumbled across a family owned clothing store, which had some really high quality merchandise. And pretty good prices, too! This t-shirt cost me 120,000 Dong (around $7 CAN) - a total bargain. To top it off, the mother of the family basically forced me to sit down with her to eat grapefruit and biscuits with some green tea. It was quite pleasant, but she couldn't speak a word of english.
New t-shirt:
After a full week of work, I went out with my new friend to explore the French Quarter of Hanoi. It was a blast! We walked around for a few hours. There's so much to do and see. And there's also a lot of good eating to be done!
Friday night French Quarter exploration:
I tried my first egg coffee yesterday morning (Saturday). I was told that Giang Cafe serves some of the best egg coffee in the French Quarter of Hanoi. I honestly think that this is the best thing I've ever consumed in my life. This thing kept me buzzing all day!
Giang Cafe:
Public health note: Smoking in public spaces continues to be an ongoing thing here in Hanoi. Advocacy and policy work has been achieved in recent years to help reduce rates of smoking in public restaurants and cafes, for instance. There are many places that have voluntarily adopted no-smoking policies. However, quite often, there is little-to-no enforcement of these no-smoking rules. Smoking remains quite prevalent here in Hanoi, which appears be "nicely paired" with a good cup of Vietnamese coffee. Coffee connoisseur, beware!
After grabbing my egg coffee, I dropped by the LB Skate shop in the French Quarter. I picked up a new skateboard for my time here in Hanoi, and I made a contact in the process. I was told to be at Lenin Park for 3pm. In other words: 3:45pm in "Joe time". There's a great skate scene out here! I met a bunch of local skateboarders. I also bumped into a group of four individuals that I had met earlier that day while grabbing my egg coffee. With the park being over 2km away from the cafe, and there being over 7.5 million people living in the city, it was a bit of a serendipitous encounter!
Skateboarding in Hanoi:
After skateboarding, I had intended on meeting up with my new group of friends for dinner. Sadly, I was exhausted, and I passed out instantaneously after coming home (I slept for 13 hours straight!). Looks like I'll have to catch up with y'all in Malaysia! #HelloMalaysia #ComingSoon #Fall2017
Here's a few video clips from my skateboarding session at Lenin Park:
As for today (Sunday), I took it easy. I've been feeling slightly "under the weather" today. I decided to finish off the weekend with some coffee and beautiful views of the city at Aries Coffee - just a 5 minute Uber from my house (ie. about $1 CAD).
Aerial views from Aries Coffee:
I'll be doing my best to give updates throughout the week! I've been collecting some video footage, so I'm hoping to make a video soon. I've also accumulated some Snapchat videos from my Story... so I might put together a bit of a montage at some point.
Feel free to ask me any questions about my experiences! If you're considering travelling to Hanoi, do not hesitate to send me a message. Alternatively, if you're familiar with Vietnam and have some recommendations for site-seeing, please let me know!
Looking forward to whatever's next to come in this wild city.
Talk to you soon!
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Instagram: josiah_marquis
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