I often receive travelers’ questions about Vietnam. To be honest, I’m not a typical local Vietnamese person, I don’t know much about my hometown and I also haven’t travelled much within Vietnam. I’m definitely not a travel expert, but below are some of my personal experience:
Hanoi
Cool facts
- The old quarter of Hanoi comprises of many streets that are named after commodities sold in the past. For example: “Cotton street” (Hàng Bông) is where cotton and fabric were sold (it’s now still a fashion selling street), “Silver street” (Hàng Bạc) was and still is the place to buy jeweleries. My family’s house is located on Quán Sứ street, meaning “Embassy street”. It was where many diplomats were hosted as they come to Vietnam in feudal time. It’s cool that my family has some diplomatic background and we have a home in the Embassy street
Food
Here are the dishes of Hanoi that delight me. In case I can’t show you in person, go enjoy yourself!
- Chả Cá (grilled fish with noodle and dill): the street is named after this food. Check out the original restaurant on 14th Chả Cá street
- Bún chả (grilled pork with noodle): a lady sells Bún chả on 49 Thợ Nhuộm street from 11AM to about 2PM. Her restaurant is not well known but the food is delicious and my family has been eating there for 3 generations now. You will eat in her house which is a tiny place, looking traditional. Her phone number: 0946653153 (she doesn’t speak English though)
- Bún bò Nam Bộ (mixed noodle with beef): the funny thing about this is the name in Vietnamese means “beef noodle from the South” but people in the south region just dont know of this dish, so I have no idea where it comes from. Many travelers love it as I introduce it to them. The most famous location is Bách Phương restaurant on 73 & 75 Hàng Điếu street
- Bánh đúc (rice cake with pork): 28 Hàng Bè street. It’s a traditional food which has somewhat lost people’s attention but still very delicious. There was a very famous fiction story about Vietnam’s 1945 famine relating to this dish: A lady almost starved to death agreed to marry someone because they promised to give her 4 dishes of bánh đúc. The restaurant is run by very old people (the woman is 85 years old at year 2024) so you better hurry!
- Trà chanh (Hanoian original ice lime tea): There’s nothing so special about lime tea, it exists everywhere! But Hanoi has a culture of sitting down and chit chatting with friends on the sidewalks while having a cup of ice lime tea, and it originates at 2 Đào Duy Từ street. It is very near the famous beer street, so give it a try!
- Quán Ngon – 18 Phan Bội Châu street. In case you want to try everything at once, or you have many food restrictions, this could be an ideal choice. They have specialties of all regions of Vietnam, location is well decorated. It is touristy, most of the time crowded and the price is higher than other restaurants.
- Marou Chocolate: recently this bean-to-bar chocolate brand has become the pride of Vietnam. Very well formulated, designed and decorated. Ethically sourced and manufactured. My dear Couchsurfing friend Matcha, who is the co-author of this very cool book about chocolate, says that Marou is among her top 5 brands of the world.
Ninh Binh
- How to get there: I recently took the Trang An limousine from Hanoi to Ninh Binh. The price was okay, service is pretty good. They pick you up at your place and will get you to your desired destination. Hotline of Trang An limousine: 19000336
- Accomodation: Try Chez Beo homestay: it’s by far my best experience in Ninh Binh. Infrastructure are not of greatest quality, but the location is just amazing. In fact, in one of the bungalows, the bathroom is like inside the cave, the walls are actually real mountains. There is a river and boat for you to row free inside the complex. By the way, if you call/text them directly, they may give you a better deal than agoda/airbnb/booking. (PS: its bike rental price is twice as of its neighbor)
(to be updated)