Lacquer Road

The First Face in Hanoi

The First Face in Hanoi

The Journal · Dispatch · Hanoi to Luang Prabang, Day 01

The First Face in Hanoi

Day one of a cycling journey from Vietnam into Laos. The bikes can wait. Today is for landing, resting and a good dinner.

Words & photographs by ThuậnHanoi, Vietnam1 Nov 20262 min read

A woman in a pink shirt and sun hat cycles along a tree-lined Hanoi street, with parked motorbikes on the left and a scooter passing on the right.
Hanoi. Low sun at the end of the street, a bicycle among the motorbikes.

I flew north from Saigon this morning, timed to land in Hanoi alongside the group. I wanted to be the first person they saw in Vietnam. Marta has become a friend over the years, and this is her third journey through Vietnam with me.

Their first trip ran through the Mekong Delta and across the border into Cambodia. The second took us from Saigon to Huế, through the Central Highlands and along the central coast. Between every trip, the same question comes back to me: what’s next?

I.

The Road North

A narrow corner building in Hanoi with vines and dry creepers spilling over its upper floors, above a green pharmacy sign at the corner of Yên Ninh and Nguyễn Trường Tộ streets.
Ba Đình, Hanoi. Layers of signs, vines and patched tarpaulin on the corner of Yên Ninh and Nguyễn Trường Tộ.

This journey, from Hanoi across the border to Luang Prabang, is my answer. It is also how I like to shape a cycling trip for a group: towards new frontiers, where the people, the cultures and the landscape are all new to them.

Many of Marta’s friends are on their third trip with me too. I owe this route to their confidence, their trust that wherever their imagination takes them, I can find a way to make the adventure possible.

Who knows what comes after this one?

Between every trip, the same question comes back to me: what’s next?

Thuận
Profile of an older man in a wide-brimmed felt hat and glasses, in front of a weathered wall and a green door painted with a no-parking notice in Vietnamese.
Hanoi. The door behind reads Không đỗ xe trước cửa, “no parking in front of the door”.
II.

First, Recovery

Back to reality. On arrival day my priority for the group is clear: recovery. I want everyone at their hotel as soon as possible, settled in and resting. A hearty, comforting dinner is waiting for them this evening, and that is all the day needs.

There is still work to do before the first ride, bike fitting among it. That can wait until tomorrow, when the group has slept off the long flight and spirits have lifted.

A maroon Honda Dream motorbike with a wire basket parked outside a shopfront at number 44, where a woman sits on a red plastic stool and pork is being prepared inside. Close-up of a bowl of chicken phở heaped with spring onion and dill, a spoon resting in the broth and a cup of iced tea behind.
Left: Number 44. A Honda Dream, a red plastic stool and the day’s pork being prepared inside. Right: Phở gà. Chicken phở with spring onion, dill and a cup of iced tea on the side.

Follow along as we ride from Vietnam into Laos. Day two is next.

Thuận

More from the day

A woman in a striped jacket and black skirt walks past two old bicycles parked against a wall on a street corner, beside a shuttered shopfront.
Nguyễn Trường Tộ, Hanoi. Two old bicycles parked on the corner.
Two young men talk beside a parked motorbike in front of a weathered wall and a laundry sign at number 101, a black van at the kerb.
Nguyễn Trường Tộ, Hanoi. Outside number 101.
An older man in a striped shirt opens a dark gate painted with the words Không đỗ xe trước cửa, set in a stained wall with patterned clay vents, at number 32 Yên Ninh.
32 Yên Ninh, Hanoi. The gate reads Không đỗ xe trước cửa, “no parking in front of the door”.
A narrow phở shop with a red sign reading Phở Gà Ta, its shutter half raised over a steel counter where cooks serve bowls, a woman washing dishes on the pavement.
Ngũ Xá, Hanoi. Phở gà ta at number 2 Ngũ Xá.
Inside the phở shop, cooks in caps and aprons work behind a counter with a large basin of chopped greens and plates of boiled chicken, the street visible through the half-open shutter.
Ngũ Xá, Hanoi. Behind the counter: chopped greens, boiled chicken and the street outside.

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