It’s been a while since her last postcard, but we’ve heard again from Ann in Vietnam. This time she’s reporting back from the nation’s capital, telling us about the most stylish places in Hanoi and assessing how accessible they are too:
Hanoi is a bit like Marmite…. you are going to love it or hate it. When we arrived it was a shock to be greeted by Mancunian-style drizzle and the need to consider wearing socks. My initial impression was that we’d suddenly been transported onto the set of Blade Runner.
They say that everyone gets lost at least once in the maze of streets that make up the Old Quarter, with its markets and street traders and hundreds of small hotels. It’s dirty, crowded, noisy (and a wheelchair nightmare), but ultimately you get a sense of the real Vietnam right out there in the streets. From stalls flaying and frying frogs, to high-end French restaurants with unbelievable wine lists, all life is here. At the edge of the Old Quarter is the lovely Hoan Kiem Lake, where you can watch massed rows of locals practising their T’ai Chi in the morning – after the hurly burly of the street life, suddenly there is water and space and calm.
What else to see? Well, if your taste extends to the historically macabre, you can get to see the great man himself in the embalmed flesh, at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum (unlikely though it seems, this is a huge tourist attraction) and there are the usual pagodas and temples enough to keep the most avid culture vulture satisfied.
Further afield, most people head off for a day or two to the coast to Halong Bay or Cat Ba Island to sail amongst the limestone karsts that rise dizzyingly out of the flat misty grey-blue water of the South China Sea.
Accommodation-wise, Vietnam’s capital city ranges from the exquisite to the execrable.
At the very high-end most people rave about the Sofitel Legend. It’s a bit of a Grande Dame of a hotel, with a long history, French Colonial ambiance and a big price tag (although when you compare these to London prices, it’s a steal). With historical beauty, in this case, comes some accessibility issues, but, if you can put up with some inconvenience, it’s probably worth the experience.
But for great accessibility AND great style, I’d head for Hotel de L’Opera by the Hoan Kiem Lake – right in the heart of what makes Hanoi tick. This great boutique hotel does a great job of pulling off a sort of French bohemian style glamour packaged into a very modern chic 21st century quirky opulence. It’s a lovely modern hotel with all the facilities you’d expect from a 5* boutique, including a great downstairs courtyard for late night drinks, and a fabulously decadent bar called the Fee Verte (Green Fairy…. That’s Absinthe to you and me). The beds are high, the rooms are roomy, and the bathrooms just right.
Eating and drinking opportunities also range wide, from the humble road-side noodle joint, via Bavarian breweries, to the full multi-national foodie experience. Here’s a few of the best in a consciously foodie city: I can’t promise you great disabled facilities at any of them… but you will get eager help, a welcome and an absolute ‘can do’ attitude.
Quan An Ngon on Phan Dinh Phng Street – Where all the street foods are brought into one pretty garden. Each stall concentrates on a specific dish.
La Verticale – With French chef Didier Corlou doing interesting fusion east-west cuisine and leading the foodie market.
Madam Hien – From the same stable as La Verticale above. Celebrity chef Madam Hien’s traditional Vietnamese street food has been up-graded from the street to smart dining rooms in a beautiful old French colonial villa
Ly Club – Try the downstairs bar here: another lovely building in beautiful surroundings- a relief from the rough and tumble, noise and street life of Hanoi
