Ha Noi Train Street, Mausoleum Walk, and Decision Time

A slightly later start to our morning walk today, as we needed to sort a few things out. I say “later start,” but really it wasn’t — we started walking at 8:15 a.m. Not that late! Maybe it just felt late because I’d been awake since 3:30 a.m., unable to get back to sleep. Frustrating. My body takes ages to adapt to the time zone difference. I cheated the first night with a sleeping pill, and I’ll probably need to cheat again tonight.

Sorry, a bit of rambling there. 😂 Anyway, we walked to one of the most well-known and famous places in Hanoi — Train Street. Many people have seen or heard about it even if they don’t know exactly where it is. It’s here! We picked our way through the crazy, hectic streets to visit it. It’s very cool — the train runs right down past all the cafés and shops alongside the tracks. The tracks were there first, I believe, and everything else slowly built up around them.

We arrived with only 20 minutes to wait for the next morning train, which was good timing. The internet had suggested we wouldn’t have to wait long, but the times do change often. We took a few photos and then found a café where we could order a coffee and have a literal front-row seat to watch the train go past. Sitting next to us was a young couple from Melbourne, so we passed the time chatting to them. I ordered an egg coffee, and Sarah had a mango smoothie.

Yes, an egg coffee — that’s a thing here in Vietnam, and its origins are from Hanoi. The guy from Melbourne told me it goes back to when there was a milk shortage, and an innovative way to make the very bitter Vietnamese coffee nicer was to whisk an egg white and use that on top. It tasted great! I think they must also add sugar or condensed milk to the egg, as it was quite sweet. I’m definitely going to have another one before we leave.

When it was time for the train to arrive, a whistle blew to warn everyone, and the café owner walked along checking that our tables (and feet!) weren’t hanging over the faintly painted yellow line. The train didn’t speed through like you see on YouTube. I didn’t think it would — either those videos are exceptions, or they speed up the footage or get creative with the camera angles. However, it doesn’t go dead slow either, and it passes right in front of your face. It was also very long and took quite a while to go past.

Once it rumbled away, we finished our drinks and followed the train along the street, taking a few more photos. The street is colourful and picturesque even without a train — well worth a visit, but timing is everything. I’ll certainly never forget my first ever egg coffee. 😂

Our next point of interest was the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. We were never intending to go inside — not because of the cost, which isn’t expensive, but just because it wasn’t something we felt we needed to do. On the way there, we also passed the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long, which had an affordable entrance fee too. We kept walking, though, because we didn’t want to be out in the heat and humidity any longer than necessary. We mainly wanted to locate the places and catch a glimpse from the outside.

We’d hoped we could walk around the grounds outside the mausoleum. However, we somehow approached it from almost the longest possible route to the entrance! By the time we arrived, we were very hot and bothered — and seeing a line hundreds of metres long meant that a glimpse from the outside was enough. Standing in a queue for another half-hour (or likely longer) was not on our agenda.

We headed back to the hotel via our local Bánh Mì shop to grab lunch. We really enjoy escaping back into the quietness of our hotel room — everything outside the front door is such a shock to the senses. The almost 7 km walk in 30+°C heat with humidity thrown in was more than enough.

After recovering for a few hours, we went out again just around the corner to a street that supposedly had the oldest houses in Hanoi, including one you could pay to enter to see how people lived. Unfortunately, it looked like it was being renovated and was all boarded up. ☹️ So we simply completed a lap of a block we hadn’t previously explored and headed back again.

For dinner, we literally walked ten steps next door to a Vietnamese restaurant called Hanoi Corner. It was marginally more expensive than the previous night but still good value, and the portions were slightly more generous. Our choices were very tasty, and we couldn’t resist some French fries with garlic and butter — but no Wattie’s tomato sauce!!! Our waiter, Pyke, was such a nice young guy — super helpful and spoke great English.

Spoiler alert: We spent the rest of the evening booking and making arrangements to fly back to New Zealand. Today we made the decision to end our epic adventure here in Hanoi and head home later this week. A few final details still need to be locked in, but the decision is made and the plan is set.

It’s been an incredible four and a half months of travel, and we decided this was the right time and place to wrap things up. We’ll definitely come back to Vietnam again one day, but for now, it’s time to return to the place we love most — home! ❤️