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Anyone been to Hanoi, Vietnam?

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FreeStateDeac

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Going there on business in March. Would like any travel tips, dos and dont's, etc., you have to offer.
 
Actually I have. Interesting city and very different than Saigon. I was there for about a week ironically enough during the Obama-McCain election.

We actually stayed at a hotel/condo type place in downtown and when I asked where the POW prison was, the bellman pointed to the wall and said "right here, we built this around/over the prison".

The prison itself is a good tour for no other reason than the communist propaganda. We also did a water-puppet show which is a big "thing" in Vietnam and it was sort of interesting. Our best activity was a day trip to Ha Long Bay. That place very beautiful and unique if can make the day. We also did several of the war museums and a few other shrines that were neat.

One funny Hanoi story was going to a place to eat that had several huge tanks in the lobby holding fish, turtles etc. There's this guy sitting there and the chef comes up, points to a turtle which the guy gets, then he sticks his finger in the turtle's ass and out comes its head only to be immediately chopped off. Um, so what just happened? Then the chef took the dead turtle back to the kitchen.

Definitely eat from the street vendors. Wonderful pho.

Vietnam is so unlike the US that just walking around is kind of the experience. So very unique.

Plus, their currency is the "dong".
 
CHDeac said:
Actually I have. Interesting city and very different than Saigon. I was there for about a week ironically enough during the Obama-McCain election.

We actually stayed at a hotel/condo type place in downtown and when I asked where the POW prison was, the bellman pointed to the wall and said "right here, we built this around/over the prison".

The prison itself is a good tour for no other reason than the communist propaganda. We also did a water-puppet show which is a big "thing" in Vietnam and it was sort of interesting. Our best activity was a day trip to Ha Long Bay. That place very beautiful and unique if can make the day. We also did several of the war museums and a few other shrines that were neat.

One funny Hanoi story was going to a place to eat that had several huge tanks in the lobby holding fish, turtles etc. There's this guy sitting there and the chef comes up, points to a turtle which the guy gets, then he sticks his finger in the turtle's ass and out comes its head only to be immediately chopped off. Um, so what just happened? Then the chef took the dead turtle back to the kitchen.

Definitely eat from the street vendors. Wonderful pho.

Vietnam is so unlike the US that just walking around is kind of the experience. So very unique.

Plus, their currency is the "dong".
Click to expand...

Did you get enough dong while you were there?
 
CHDeac said:
Actually I have. Interesting city and very different than Saigon. I was there for about a week ironically enough during the Obama-McCain election.

We actually stayed at a hotel/condo type place in downtown and when I asked where the POW prison was, the bellman pointed to the wall and said "right here, we built this around/over the prison".

The prison itself is a good tour for no other reason than the communist propaganda. We also did a water-puppet show which is a big "thing" in Vietnam and it was sort of interesting. Our best activity was a day trip to Ha Long Bay. That place very beautiful and unique if can make the day. We also did several of the war museums and a few other shrines that were neat.

One funny Hanoi story was going to a place to eat that had several huge tanks in the lobby holding fish, turtles etc. There's this guy sitting there and the chef comes up, points to a turtle which the guy gets, then he sticks his finger in the turtle's ass and out comes its head only to be immediately chopped off. Um, so what just happened? Then the chef took the dead turtle back to the kitchen.

Definitely eat from the street vendors. Wonderful pho.

Vietnam is so unlike the US that just walking around is kind of the experience. So very unique.

Plus, their currency is the "dong".
Click to expand...

This is pretty much Hanoi in a nutshell. The only thing I would add is go to a cobra farm. Not really PETA friendly but it is pretty awesome to eat cobra six different ways. They also serve some pretty awesome rice liquor/moonshine that they mix with blood and bile.
 
Buy a motorcycle and ride to HCM but not before training to Lao Cai and trekking in Sapa.
 
One interesting thing I saw was the split that still continues between North and South Vietnam. South Vietnam was vibrant, open and very pro American. Hanoi was much more reserved, comically full of propaganda and less lively. Really different 40 years after the fall of Saigon.
 
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