Thursday 17th November 2022
It wasn’t the best start to the morning, as we woke up to find out our hotel (Hanoi Cristina Hotel) had no cold water. Unless you turned the temperature right up (so it was unbearably hot), no water would come out the shower. We let the hotel know, waited about half an hour for them to try to fix the issue, and then eventually gave up and went out.
The Cristina Hotel is in a small alleyway, and at the entrance of the alleyway is a small street food vendor frying corn fritters. They looked and smelled very good as we left our hotel this morning, so we decided to give one a go.
To be honest, it was a bit disappointing. If it had some chilli or seasoning it’d be very tasty, but unfortunately was pretty bland.
We walked through the old quarter, and then had lunch at Bún Cá Sâm Cây Si. We ordered one portion of the Bun Ca and one fried fish roll to share. It was quite tasty, but also lukewarm – if only it was piping hot, we’d have enjoyed it so much more.
After lunch, we walked to Hoa Lo Prison. This prison was originally used by the French colonists for political prisoners, then later by North Vietnam for U.S. prisoners of war during the Vietnam War.
During the French era, the prison was overcrowded and conditions barbaric. The museum claims that the American prisoners of war were treated very well, and has photos of the sharing Christmas dinners and looking happy (although this slightly contradicts American accounts of mistreatment and torture).
Outside is a monument that acts as a memorial to all the Vietnamese political prisoners that suffered and died at the prison.
All in all it’s an interesting museum, and if you want more detailed information you can hire an audio guide there. We didn’t bother, as I think Pete was still slightly traumatised after the audio guide at S21 prison in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. There’s quite a lot of English informational panels, so you still get a lot out of the museum without the audio guide.
We next went to the B52 Victory Museum. It looked quite a lot like a construction site when we arrived, but we were beckoned in, so entered with high hopes.
As we approached the building, it still looked very much like work in progress. There were a couple of guys dressed in army khakis coming down the stairs, Pete gestured to them / asked if we could enter, they said yes and seemed happy for us to enter the museum. Not sure why though, as the building itself also was very much under construction.
At least we got to see a downed B52 bomber and a couple of S-75 air defence missiles in the grounds outside.
From the museum, we walked to Huu Tiep Lake to see another downed B52 bomber. This one is still in the same position as when it was shot down.
The streets around this area are all very narrow and interesting to explore, with lots of local shops and food stalls.
We walked back towards the centre, and stopped for a cocktail along the way, at Puku Cafe & Sports Bar. The drinks were ok, not the best, but we were in need of a quick break by this point so it was a nice reprieve.
We then continued walking to Ô Bún Chả: đặc sản Hà Nội for dinner. The meal was tasty enough, but didn’t blow us away and we’ve definitely had better spring rolls in Vietnam than the ones we ate here.
As we were walking back to our hotel, we passed a lovely looking Bahn mi place, Banh Mi Nhé, so obviously couldn’t resist sharing one between us. We ordered a pork Bahn mi, which was amazing, definitely one of our contenders for top Bahn mi in Vietnam. So we had to give the chicken a go, which was equally as good.
With very full tummies, we went back to our hotel for a couple of episodes of Manifest on Netflix before going to bed.
Emma and Pete’s Asian Adventure 