Hanoi

Hanoi is a very traditional city with lakes, parks, and French colonial architecture.

We stayed in the center of town at the Oriental Central Hotel. There was a slightly weird mix up where one of their hotels was under construction so they walked us over to their other hotel.

On our first day our concierge directed us to a restaurant where we had some sort of egg, rice, pork dish. I have no idea what it was called but they basically had a massive pot with a sort of omelette that they sliced off small shards of into a rice bowl with pork and other things in it. We sat upstairs next to a bunch of dead chickens in plastic bags.

We walked around Hoàn Kiếm Lake a lot, particularly beautiful at night.

Vietnam is filled with lots of food stalls and restaurants and Hanoi is no exception. We often wandered around when we were hungry and found a place that looked pretty full. Every restaurant has tiny stools that you basically squat on to eat. With the temperatures and humidity, you can pretty much expect to be hot and sweaty 24/7.

Bahn Mi 25 was definitely our favorite food stop (we went a few times in our short stay in Hanoi).

We did a little shopping and found some awesome shoes that were super cheap. We also got massages at a bizarre place our hotel recommended. It was basically one big room with curtains dividing each massage table and you had to walk past them all to get to your table. Weird but the massage was good.