10. Ha Noi: water puppet show and train street

people selling fish at ferry landing

Our homestay found a bus willing to take my cat and I to Hai Phong, the nearby main city where we could catch a GRAB to Hanoi. It left the town at 9 and picked people up along the way so our host helped us haul our luggage up to the main road and waited with us until the correct bus came (I got fooled by the first and second bus so I'm gad she was there or I'd be flagging down everyone). This took us to the ferry station where we all got off and took a ferry with people from the other busses, then after the ferry landed, we followed a lady and kids from our first bus to find the correct new bus into Hai Phong. About 2 hours after starting the trip, we arrived in Hai Phong. I ordered a Grab to Hanoi. It showed up, the guy got out, took one look at Cosmo, said "no cat," and left. The second one I texted about the cat ahead of time, and he cancelled the ride. The third Grab I texted said okay. Whew! Third time's a charm.

luggage on the ferry boat

Banks and other businesses decorate for the Tet New Year's

living room at our Somerset hotel room

2.5 hours later we arrived at the Somerset Grand Hanoi. It's beautiful. The doormen greeted us in Vietnamese with a cheery "Xin chao" (pronounced tsin chow) and opened the door every time we went in or out. Our room was a gorgeous 2-bedroom 2-bath apartment. My toilet had a seat warmer and bidet. And then we saw the washing machine...jackpot! It was a combo washer dryer all in one and we had plenty of dirty clothes.

our kitchen with washer/dryer

my bedroom

my bathroom with fancy heated
toilet seat and bidet

bedroom 2

definitely a hotel that
caters to westerners.
these two kids got into the
elevator and never looked
up from their phones

Two Phoenix made a baby Phoenix that popped out of the water

We walk 3/4 mile to the Thang Long Water Puppet Theater that we had heard rave reviews of and got tickets for the next show at 4:00. Tickets were only $4-8 depending on how close you sat. They have wonderful musicians playing Vietnamese instruments accompanying the puppet antics. It's all in Vietnamese, but there is a description of each mini play on the website and you can get an idea of what's going on just by watching.

The water puppet performers taking a bow

Dawne and I eating delicious street food

We walked around the Old Quarter very near the theater. There are tons of shops selling fake Adidas, North Face, and other stuff, soccer jerseys, and all sorts of souvenirs. Then the night market started up and they had a whole bunch of things for the upcoming New Year's celebration. Near the night market a whole street opened up with chairs and tables mostly from this one restaurant so we ate dinner there. Pretty good!

stands selling Tet holiday decorations in Old Quarter

Giant beer with tap at the
pop up street dining

pop up street dining tables

me walking down train Street

From there we headed over to Train Street which in 2017 was a rundown area where low income people lived since the train literally ran by 5-6 feet from their homes. Between trains, residents would set up tables and play chess on the tracks or drink tea. It was just their front yard. Then a young woman opened up a cafe, The Railway Hanoi, so tourists could experience the train passing so close. With the help of Instagram, it became a sensation within a year. Now there are tons of cafes all along the tracks where tourists can order a drink and watch the train go by. A few minutes before the train comes, they make sure to settle everyone back enough to be safe as long as you don't do something stupid like reach out a few feet and try to touch a train moving by. They say it's only going 6-9mph but it seemed faster to me. We walked along the tracks as a train had just come by a few minutes before we got there. People were walking on the tracks, taking pictures, and it was very lively, all lit up with strings of lights and music playing. The next train was at 9:15 so we went back to the hotel to do laundry since we had bought laundry soap, and came back for the 9:15 passing.

Me, Cosmo and Dawne relaxing on
Train Street before the train comes

It was so nifty. Cosmo came along since it was all outdoors and he is used to trains from back home where I live 40 yards from the tracks (I zipped him into the pack when it came just in case since I would be paying attention to the train). We sat at a little cafe where I drank an egg coffee (yum! very sweet with condensed milk) and chatted with our waitress who loves cats. She even held him for a bit after she fed him treats. The train passing was incredible! Seriously do this if you are ever in Hanoi. They only have one daytime train on weekdays but 3-4 night trains and more trains on the weekends.

waitress feeding Cosmo

Cosmo and I on train street

train passing

Train passing by

cool use of LED string lights