Bangkok was just an extended layover on our way to Hanoi. Recharged, we hopped on a short flight and landed ready to go. We have been here before but left the city for Ha Long Bay last time. This time I planned to do some sight seeing in Hanoi, enjoy a unique meal and then head out of Hanoi to the mountains of Ha Giang for a motor bike tour. We began our tour at the Hoan Kiem Lake. The lake was very beautiful and clean with a bridge that led to a temple in the middle of the lake. That would have been worth the visit alone but what really made it fun was the festivities that are set up around the lake. They had skating exhibitions going on and stages set up for dance shows. Vendors selling all kinds of snacks and local crafts. Families and tourists everywhere. After sampling too many sweets we left that area and walked across the city to Train Street. It’s a narrow street lined with shops and cafes and several times a day a train passes through. It’s similar to the train market in Thailand however here the city has closed the street down to tourists. If you want to enter a cafe’ you get escorted in from the back and can watch the train pass by from inside the shops. The city had to close the street because to many tourists were getting hit by the train while posing for pictures. We didn’t wait around for the train to pass through because it wasn’t due for 3 hours. Maybe later this week we will see it. Next we went to the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long. This complex is a UNESCO World Heritage site full of 11th century buildings originally housing the ruler of the Ly Viet Dynasty. After they lost power the complex was turned into a military complex and later a school where students came to study the teachings of Confucius. Now it’s a museum and Instagram hotspot for locals. We saw hundreds of kids in traditional ceremonial dresses posing everywhere.
Most of our day was spent just wandering and taking in the vibe of the city as well as munching on snacks including Bahn Mi. You can see the French influence all over the city but the greatest thing they left behind is the baguette. The crunchy shelled bread with its soft inside makes the Bahn Mi here taste great no matter what you get inside it. I always go Pork but we have sampled Tuna and Egg as well. For dinner that night we headed just outside of the city and had our Cobra feast, a meal we will never forget.
The plan was to now head north to the Chinese border to do the motor bike loop through the mountains but Vietnam is currently experiencing unseasonable cool temps and the forecast is calling for rain everyday for the next 2 weeks. The Loop is something I have been wanting to do so bad for years now and the thought of suffering on a bike through cold wet conditions just wasn’t going to be worth it. We have plans to return to SE Asia later this year so we decided to cancel the loop for now and make a new plan. We were planning to head home after the loop but when we tried to reach out to family, our agency and facilities no one responded. Everyday we wait to buy a ticket home the price gets ridiculously high so we decided last minute not to return home. We bought a flight back to Bangkok and have rented an apartment in Pattaya for a month where we plan to explore the last corner of Thailand we haven’t been to yet as well as work on the mountain of content we have made for Youtube. Alyssa is just finishing up the videos from Europe including Greece, Spain, Portugal, Andorra, Germany, Nice, Monaco and Prague and we can now focus on Jordan, India, Thailand and Vietnam. When we are traveling we film almost everyday and have to schedule days to just organize footage and work on videos. It’s more work than you could imaging. Youtube videos, shorts, IG reels, Facebook, Tik Tok shorts, Patreon content and member live streams, writing blogs and finishing up the book. Aside of all that social media stuff, we have to plan where we are going, staying, eating and what we plan to do while we are there. It’s 2 full time jobs and as you can imagine staying healthy while traveling is not easy either. We have learned over the years that exercising and watching our diets while traveling as well as just taking time to mentally recharge is super important. It used to be that we would just explore everyday with the idea that we would rest when the trip was over but when the trips last 3 plus months at a time that doesn’t work out well. Now we plan down days each week where we work all day and relax each night. Having an apartment in Thailand means we can have a kitchen and not have to hunt for food each day. We can set up a work area and complete projects. Join a gym and jog on the beach each morning. Enjoy sunset walks along the shore. We can hop on our scooter for weekend adventures without lugging our giants bags everywhere. A vacation from our vacation. The adventure continues only at a slower pace for now. Thailand has so much to offer it may be hard to slow down but we are going to give it a try.
