Divanun Guide/ Vietnam

The Divanun Guide is a one pager of everything to eat, see, and do in Vietnam

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Historical

• Hanoi

  • Temple of Literature- hosts the first national university built in 1070

  • Tran Quoc Pagoda- The oldest buddhist temple in Hanoi

  • Old Quarter- a historic district

• Phong Nha

  • Caves- Phong Nha Cave and Paradise are the ones I explored but there are others here

• Ninh Binh

  • Hoa Lu- the ancient capital of Vietnam

  • BIch Dong Pagoda

• Hoi An

  • My Son- ancient temple complex

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Cultural

• Hanoi

  • Weekends in the Old Quarter- a great place to see how locals spend their time

• Phong Nha

  • Duck Stop- a duck farm where you can feeds ducks and make wishes.

• Hoi An

  • Museums- this city has tons of museums about history, art, and culture

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Food

• Hanoi

  • Bun Cha Ta Hanoi- bun cha is a dish comprised of grilled pork and noodles that is dipped in a soup with aromatic herbs

  • PIzaza 4P’s- amazing japanese pizza joint.

  • Pho Cuon Huong Mai- get the pho noodle wraps and other dishes using the pho rice noodles

  • Foodshop 45- a delicious Indian spot

  • Pasteur Street Brewing Company- amazing Vietnamese brewery make sure you try their passion fruit beer- its divine

  • The Hill Station- great cocktails made from Vietnamese rice liquor

• Phong Nha

  • D-Arts Zone- had some amazing bun cha here

• Hoi An

  • Madam Khanh The Bahn Mi Queen- the best Bahn Mi i had in Vietnam/ my entire life

  • Dong Au Restaurant Hoi An- really great noodle dishes

  • Lantern Town Restaurant- amazing dishes cooked in clay pots. I had this eggplant and beef dish that was phenomenal

  • Central Market- tons of little food stalls. Make sure you try the white rose dumplings

  • Boulevard Gelato & Coffee- really good place for an icy treat in the heat

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Miscellaneous

• Hanoi

  • Accomodation: Vietnam Backpackers Old Quarter- really easy place to meet people and its near all of the travel agencies for when you want to plan your trip.

• Phong Nha

  • Accomodation:

    • Gecko Hostel & Bar is where I stayed very clean and nice

    • Easy Tiger Hostel- this place was highly recommended and I would have stayed here if I was in town any longer

• Hoi An

  • Accomodation: Tribee Kinh Hostel- one of the best hostels I stayed at in all of SE Asia. The people were super friendly, they always have events, and they genuinely created a warm atmosphere

  • Tailoring

    • Bao Khanh Silk- this place is mid range price wise, however they have great quality and a really fast turn around. I would show them pictures of what I wanted and they would come out great. When it comes to alterations they really know their stuff.

    • Happy Day- this place is where you go for leather goods. I got a cute bag made and some shoes. My only advice is to ask them to stitch the soles instead of gluing them.

  • Really great night market across the bridge.

Hanoi

As a traveler, you realize that there is an insight that can only be gleaned by living in a place and molding yourself to its rhythms. When you flit into a city for days or weeks you might see the the forest but you often miss the trees. It is a blessing when a friend can show you around a new city. They can illuminate the places, moments, and interactions which make a city whole. Thankfully, while in Hanoi I was able to stay with a college friend and experience Hanoi through their eyes which only increased its beauty.

When you travel for a long period of time it’s easy to forget that people live in these places that you explore. Behind every tourist destination is a family trying to make ends meet. Nowhere was this more visible in Hanoi then train street. This street is famous because of the fact that train tracks run down the median of a street lined with restaurants, boutiques, and family homes. I made my way there because it was on the list of things to do in Hanoi. I had hoped to record the street rushing through this narrow street. The train never came, instead I watched as grandmothers hung their wet laundry to dry, as chefs lit their coal on fire to cook their next meal, and as a dog dressed in pajamas peak its head out of a nondescript door. I also saw many other tourists come and go for the spectacle completely missing the beauty of daily life that turned around them.

As we explored Hanoi I got to see versions of things I didn’t expect. For example there is a street in the north of Vietnam dedicated to variations on famous dish pho. Instead of being cut and laddled into soup the rice noodles were used as wraps (pho cuon) or deep fried into delicious squares and then covered with beef, gravy, and herbs. I’ll never forget the day I ate pho cuon for the first time, we woke up that morning and was confused by all the noise coming from the normally quiet street outside. When we peaked our heads over the railings we saw the street bursting at its seams with people huddled around haphazardly made rings. Once we left the house we saw that inside of the rings were cocks fighting each other. The neighborhood had been transformed into a street fighting headquarters. We settled into a booth at a nearby restaurant and watched them quickly turn a pile of rice noodles into the finished pho cuon. Patrons constantly streaming in and out to order food. Later that night when we came back the streets were empty- like it never happened.

My favorite thing about Hanoi besides the skyline was the Old Quarter. An interesting fact about this neighborhood is that it has 36 streets named after a specific trade or guild that used to sell their wares. Many of these streets are still dedicated to their namesake whereas others have evolved into different forms of commerce. On the weekends cars are not allowed in most of the Old Quarter so large groups of people roam around as street performers and food stalls give the area a fair like quality. Sounds of laughter bounce of the walls as the smell of grilled meat fills your nostrils. Hanoi was the only city in SouthEast Asia that I could see myself living in. It had that chaotic energy that makes sense to everyone but foreigners as well as enough touches of modernity like craft breweries and cocktail bars that I could find pieces of comfort.

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Hoi An

On the central coast of Vietnam lies the city of my dreams. It earned this title, not for its temples or lush green landscape but because it’s the center for tailoring in all of SE Asia. Hoi An is the city of a thousand mannequins where streets are lined with stores overflowing with fabrics ready to be crafted into whatever you want.

Hoi An is a tranquil town that used to be the site of a major trade port in Vietnam until Danang replaced it. Now the city is known for its well preserved downtown and its tailoring economy. On any street in Hoi An you will be able to spot at least 4 tailor shops. The outside are always packed with mannequins draped in dresses, pants, and shirts, beckoning you to come in and explore their offerings. Most stores offer most of the same but the real trick to Hoi An is getting them to make clothes custom for you. I scheduled myself a week and a half just to run around getting clothes made.

After I dropped off my luggage at my hostel I started walking around the city my peace was broken when a middle aged Vietnamese woman came up to me asking me where I was from. The point was to get me to come back to her shop and see her clothes, I politely declined but this was not the last time i had this interaction. In a city with so many options you really can’t just follow any old woman into a store. I looked up the best reviewed spots on Trip Advisor and then walked around them examining the fabric they had on offer, the prices for different outfits and the quality of their stitching. After gathering my info I whittled it down to three places and got custom outfits made to see what the process was like before I finally get all the rest of the pieces I wanted made. The entire process takes about 2-3 days for simple things like pants, skirts, dresses but it can take up to a week for complex items like suits.

When I wasn’t running back and forth between fittings I was exploring all that Hoi An has to offer. My favorite part of the city is the old town with its rustic yellow walls and paper lanterns strung across the street like ornaments. You could feel the history as you walked through the narrow alleys and along the banks of the river. Hoi An also had the best Banh Mi in Vietnam, with a stall aptly named the Bahn Mi Queen slinging some of the best ingredients between a french baguette i’ve ever had.

Sadly my days of getting clothes custom made and chowing down on Banh Mi had to come to an end. With a suitcase full of new clothes and a stomach full of food made with joy I headed back to Hanoi.

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Ninh Binh

My transition from Laos to Vietnam was marked by noise. It was faint at first but after an hour the soundtrack of the Vietnamese highway was reaching its crescendo. The beat which kept the tempo was the car horn. Whereas Laos was quiet, sleepy, idyllic; Vietnam was loud and brash even in the smallest villages that we drove through on our 24hr journey to Hanoi. Thankfully the journey was nowhere near as bad as the blogs I read titled “The bus ride to hell.” The only tense point being the crossing of the actual border at 6:30am in a dense fog. We were I dropped off in Hanoi at the southern bus station. Bonded by our journey we banded together so we wouldn’t get ripped off by the taxis circling around us like vultures. They tried to charge us double the price to head into the center of town but I haggled down so we only got ripped off by 25% instead of 100%.

I was only in Hanoi for 2 days before I headed south. My first stop was Ninh Binh Province, I was going on a tour organized by Vietnam Backpackers to save myself time and hassle since I had a tight two week window before I needed to be back in Hanoi. We arrived at the ancient capital of Vietnam- Hoa Lu to see some of the old monuments to the Le Dynasty. Hoa Lu was chosen because of the large limestone mountains that provided a natural barrier to everything except mountain goats. The temples that were rebuilt are in honor of emperors Đinh Tiên Hoàng and Lê Đại Hành, their sons, and Queen Dương Vân Nga.

I really appreciated all the detail they put into these temples. From the beautiful carved animals to the pillars and buddhist shrines. The tour took about two hours before we headed back in the van so we could see the Halong Bay of the Land- Tam Coc.

Halong Bay is famous internationally for its dramatic limestone mountains. Just as beautiful lies an area south of Hanoi called Tam Coc. A river winds between tall limestone mountains and rice paddies. The first thing I noticed when we got out of the van was the boats lined haphazardly against the dock. The second thing was the mountains green and sharp against the skyline. We were paired with a rower and a life jacket before climbing into the boats. The trip was smooth and languorous which was surprising given the boats are rowed by their feet which eases the strain on their back.

The boat goes along the Ngo Dong river and is 3km long. When I was looking up at those mountains I felt humbled by nature. The trip takes you through three caves that have been created by the convergence of limestone and water. One of the caves had a ceiling so low I could reach up and touch it, the stone cold to my hands. I asked our guide when the best time to come is and he said right before the rice is harvested, because then the banks of the river are a sea of gold and green. Unfortunately the rice is harvested twice a year once during the blistering hot season and then once again in the rainy season- so I’ll never get to see it in all its glory.

We ended our tour with a bike ride to see the mountains up close and see some burial grounds. Large bulls lay on the side of the road absorbing the setting sun as we biked along these dirt roads. When our tour concluded everyone got back on the bus and returned to Hanoi, I however stayed behind to continue south.

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