Yesterday, I contacted an organization called Hanoi Free Private Tour Guide at my hotel’s recommendation, signing myself up for a half-day walking tour of theirs that supposedly occurs every morning at 9am, which would take me around Hanoi’s Old Quarter. This is not at all the tour I ended up going on, but that was for the better!

This company’s tours are free because they act as a chance for Vietnamese students to practice their English and communication skills while advertising Vietnam’s sights. I would absolutely have paid for the quality of my tour, but in the end I only paid for me and my guide’s various entry tickets and food – as well as giving my guide a few American bills for his foreign currency collection at the end of the day. This was an amazing deal.

My tour guide, San, was waiting for me in my hotel lobby at 9:00 this morning. San is a university student studying tourism and hospitality, and he is spending his summer vacation working at a nearby hotel and giving these tours. He was so informative and so much fun; we clicked right away!

Đình Yên Thái

Our first stop of the day was – you guessed it – a Buddhist temple. We could have gone to any temple, but this one was two steps away from my hotel, and San wanted to use it to point out some common themes and motifs that we’d be seeing a lot today.

This temple feels totally different from the many I saw in Thailand and Laos. Everything here has a lot more East Asian/Chinese influence, and more female imagery. San talked to me about this, as well as yin and yang, the symbolism of the flamingo and the turtle, dragons, the five elements, and more.

Hanoi’s Train Street

We next walked over to Hanoi’s trendy Train Street, where cafés and shops line train tracks that run through the center of the city. People like to sit here enjoying their coffee while the train goes by mere inches away from them. We would have ordered a coffee here to experience this, but this morning’s train was running with an hour-and-a-half delay, and we still had lots to do and see!

On our way to the next stop, we passed by some women selling sugar cane juice. San was talking about how delicious it was, so I bought us some, and it was really nice. But this was the first time I had looked at my Vietnamese currency, and I definitely made a fool of myself handing over bills that were first way too small, then way too big, for what we were purchasing. I eventually got a handle on the money situation today, but it took some time!

Hỏa Lò Prison

We then spent a good chunk of the morning at the museum which remains at the site of the Hoa Lo Prison, which tells two distinct stories:

Most of the museum’s exhibits were about the prison’s use up until the 1950s, focusing on the Vietnamese struggle for independence from France. This was a site of torture and horror for that period of time, and the exhibits included “death cells” for those prisoners sentenced to die, shackled to a concrete surface in a dark room for months at a time; and a guillotine that was used to behead Vietnamese revolutionaries.

The other portion of the museum was about the American pilots who were incarcerated at Hoa Lo during the Vietnam War (or here, the American War), when it was ironically nicknamed the “Hanoi Hilton.” Here, there was a focus on telling the story of the impact of the war here in Vietnam, along with telling individual stories of the Americans who were kept here. (There were many photos and anecdotes about John McCain, whose flight-suit was on display from the day his plane was shot down and he was captured.)

Hoàn Kiếm Lake (Sword Lake)

We then had a beautiful walk in the park surrounding Sword Lake, where lots of people were out enjoying the day. Here, San told me the legend of this lake, wherein an emperor was presented with a magic sword by a turtle god who emerged from the lake. He used the sword to become victorious in his revolt against Ming China, and then returned the sword to the lake.

In this lake is the Temple of the Jade Mountain, connected to the land via a beautiful red bridge. We sat looking at it and talking for a little while, but the temple was so packed with tourists that we decided not to visit.

Food tour!

Then began the long and delightful food-centric portion of the tour.

We started by going to the renowned Cafe Đinh (which we got to by going through a nondescript entrance, down a hallway, and up an unmarked staircase) to have a cup of Vietnam’s famous egg coffee. This very sweet drink is prepared with egg yolks, sugar, condensed milk, and robusta coffee.

There are apparently a couple of cafés that are known for having the best egg coffee recipes, and some of them (including Cafe Đinh) are run by various members of the same family.

San insisted I get some ice cream when we were back in the park, though he didn’t join me in this. I chose an egg-banana ice cream, and it was perfect (even though I apparently did a very poor job of taking a photo of it).

We passed by and admired the Neo-Gothic St. Joseph’s Cathedral on our way to lunch. The French colonial government opened it in 1886, and it was built to look like Paris’s Notre Dame.

We ordered on the street but then sat inside to eat at our lunch stop, Quán Gốc Đa. This super casual spot provided soup and greens to pair with our spring rolls, fried shrimp cakes, and other fried items. (I was too excited to eat these things to really question what they were!)

At this point, I was feeling super full, but San took me over to a bahn mi spot that he loves so I could experience one of these sandwiches. I got one with pork, eggs, greens, cucumber, and a great bit of spice, and it was divine! Unfortunately, I was so stuffed by then that I couldn’t even eat half of it!

Temple of Literature

We took a twenty minute walk over to the Temple of Literature, which is a Temple of Confucius that was built in 1070 and was the site of the Imperial Academy: Vietnam’s first national university.

We began our tour just south of the Temple at Literature Lake, where scholars would come to discuss literature and poetry, and where students would come to take their exams.

Then we crossed the street to enter the Temple of Literature itself. The space is structured so that you pass through various gates leading to five separate courtyards before getting the the main temple building. Each gate and courtyard has a separate and elaborate symbolic focus. One of the courtyards includes the Stelae of Doctors, which is a collection of stelae resting on the backs of stone turtles (a symbol of longevity and wisdom) that document the names and birthplaces of 1,307 graduates of 82 triennial royal exams spanning from the 1400s to the 1700s. (I think this is a pretty cool way to be remembered as an aspiring academic!)

In the main building are alters to Confucius and to three kings who contributed to the foundation of the temple and the academy. It also has displays about Confucian education in Vietnam, including historical students’ garments, book carriers, textbooks, pens, and more. There was so much to see within the vast space that the temple occupied that we spent multiple hours in this area.

San then suggested we head to another stop. At this point – in the late afternoon after coming into this expecting a half-day tour, and after hours of walking around in 36°C (97°F) heat – I suggested instead that we head back to the hotel, which is what we did. I ordered a Grab ride-share car for us, and San saw me back to my hotel. (…where I immediately downed three bottles of water and had a cool shower!! Dang, I’m bad in the heat.)

This was an incredible day of seeing many sites that were on my must-see list in Hanoi, along with some that were not. And I was so glad to have San to show me some of the best food in the city, even if these were simply cheap street foods. I could not have been more perfectly introduced to this city.

(Clearly, I was too distracted by conversation today to take any really good photos. Sorry, all!)