Buzzing Energy On Vietnam Travel With Motorbikes and Black Coffee

When I travel into a new country, like Vietnam in this instance, there are always new things that I notice immediately.

I am from the laidback and chill Cagayan de Oro and here are what I noticed during my first time travelling to Vietnam.

Their hospitality

I have not been to any other place that gave the warmest hellos and goodbyes every time we arrived and left the hotel we stayed at in Hanoi.  Unmatched.

Colourful high energy in the early morning

It is always exciting to see a new country's energy in the morning.  In Hanoi, it seems like all the people are out and busy in the morning to start their days early.  Very different compared to Nagoya's quiet surroundings.

I could see colourful fruits and vegetables in the back of pedal bikes, on shoulder poles, and even on the back of motorcycles.

Difficult to cross streets due to so many motorcycles and scooters

I documented the first time I crossed a street in Hanoi.  I have never seen so many motorcycles and scooters in my entire life.  I am not joking.  

There were so many that it became exciting to cross the streets!

And mind you, they drove faster than motorelas in Cagayan de Oro, so I was challenged.  The drivers are experts and they're chill though, nobody in my company got hurt, thank God!

Intense coffee

Coping with the energy of Hanoi and adrenaline-rushing street crossing was a little bit too much for me so I decided to try their coffee in one of the cafes.  Coffee was served first, so I added a teaspoon of condensed milk and stirred it before I took a sip.

Ahek ahek.  Woah!  That was intense. haha!

I stirred five more teaspoons of condensed milk.  I still was not able to finish my coffee, but I was AWAKE!

Baguettes on the streets (Banh mi buns)

I had a Vietnamese baguette sandwich or a "banh mi" to pair with my coffee.  

When I first saw it, I thought it was a sandwich as colourful as my first Hanoi morning in the market.

The bread used in banh mi are called baguettes, and are also sold on the streets.  It was something unusual to me.

I was used to peanuts, kwek-kwek, proven, fishballs and other fast fried street food in CDO.  

"They had baked single-serving version French bread on the streets.  Amazing!"

So yeah,

That's it.  Those were the first things I noticed on my first time travelling into Vietnam.  Watch out for more travel stories, tips and foooooood.

Catch you on my next munchtrip!

Bye bye my fellow munchters.

Shoni