Ha Noi First Morning Orientation Walk, Sarah Finally Gets a Haircut

We enjoyed a nice hotel breakfast — a real treat to have someone make scrambled eggs for me, and they were cooked perfectly. There was also bacon, toast, and a few slightly unusual items such as fried squid and pork on a stick of lemongrass. I tried one but not the other. Passionfruit flavoured juice and a couple of cups of good coffee rounded things out nicely.

We then ventured out to explore a bit further than we had last night. Navigating the streets wasn’t too bad — you just need to stay focused. We first went to the nearby Hoan Kiem Lake. It was lovely in the shade of the big trees, and lots of people were out exercising, doing tai chi, or dancing in groups.

We circled to the opposite side and then entered the French Quarter. This area has much wider, boulevard-style streets and a number of beautiful French-influenced buildings. We missed seeing the Hanoi Opera House, so we may need to pop back to check that out another day. We did stop at the Ly Thai To Garden, which had an interesting sculpture that was the feature of an Earth geocache. Today we just did a vague loop of the streets and then came back to the lake.

A brief bit of more recent history: The French colonised and occupied Vietnam from 1887 until 1954. Japan also occupied the country during World War II, from 1940 until 1945. The First Indochina War was fought from 1946 until 1954, when the French were defeated and Ho Chi Minh declared independence for Vietnam. The war with the Americans — which we mainly know from the American side of the story — started in 1955 and lasted until 1975. Interestingly, here it’s known as the “American War.” Anyway, it’s good that the country, even though still run under a communist regime, has now enjoyed peace and started to flourish over the last 50 years. The people may not have all the freedoms a democracy might provide, but at least they now live their lives without war.

Back at the lake, we paid 50,000 dong each (about $3.30 NZD) to cross the Red Bridge and visit Ngoc Son Temple — also called the Temple of the Jade Mountain. It’s set on a tiny island and is known for the large sword turtles that used to live in the lake. There are a couple of embalmed turtles on display inside the temple buildings. One weighed 200 kg when it died. Only a handful of these turtles now exist, and sadly, none live in the lake anymore. 😢

We had been out long enough, so we headed back to the hotel, stopping briefly for an ice cream on a stick each. It was time to shower, relax, rehydrate, and figure out our plans for the coming days and weeks. We need to decide where we’re heading next, how to get there, and make some bookings.

Just after 1 p.m., we walked a short distance along the street to a bánh mì place the hotel recommended. A bánh mì is a classic Vietnamese bread roll — a small baguette filled with chicken or pork and vegetables. We chose BBQ chicken which, along with the filling, was warmed up. We dodged traffic back to the hotel to eat it there. Just before we arrived, it started to rain — big, heavy drops. All the scooter riders suddenly stopped to put on rain jackets. It looked very well choreographed! We got inside before getting too wet, though I’m sure there will be a day or two when we get the timing wrong and get soaked.

The bánh mìs were very tasty!

After more trip discussions and planning in the afternoon, it was time to venture out again — this time for Sarah’s first foreign haircut (and first in over four months, other than me trimming her fringe). Hopefully, they could fix that! 😂 While she was doing that, I went looking for an ATM that didn’t charge crazy withdrawal fees and also for a micro SD card. I struck out on both — more Googling required. We definitely need more cash, as many businesses here don’t take cards (the hair salon included). The haircut cost 400,000 dong, about $26.50 NZD, including a wash, shampoo and blowdry. However, the 2 million dong I took out at the airport won’t last long, so we’ll need to get more.

Haircut successfully completed, we went in search of an ATM. I wonder if the haircut was cheaper because the salon owner let her 15-year-old son cut Sarah’s hair. 😂 You think I’m joking, right? He’s sitting in the background of this picture!

More car and scooter dodging at 5 p.m., which seemed even busier than earlier today. ATM located, and another 5 million dong acquired — hopefully that’ll last us a couple of weeks… or more? 🤔

We went out to another hotel-recommended place, but this one had more “normal” food. It was on our street and called MẸT Vietnamese. We ordered a fried chicken with cashews and rice dish plus a rice noodles with chicken dish. Both were nice, though not as good as the food we had in Thailand — we were hoping to find something similar here. We’ll keep looking. With a Sprite for me and a mango smoothie for Sarah, the total cost was 375,000 dong ($25 NZD), which would be cheap at home, but I think we need to find where the locals eat to get better value. 😉

After we finished dinner, we wandered back to the lake to see the bridge and pagoda lit up. It was quite pretty, but not amazingly so. There was a large and very loud free concert going on — all in Vietnamese. Gosh, it was loud! Or else I'm getting to old for concerts! Quite possibly. 😂