Around West Lake

On my recent business trip to Hanoi, we did most of our work in the afternoon. That meant that mornings were left for exploring and a little sightseeing.

We had planned to go cycling around West Lake one morning, but it rained really heavily the night before, so two of my colleagues and I decided to just go out for a walk and some coffee instead. I was really craving some Cà Phê Sữa đá!!!

West Lake is huge! It's the biggest of Hanoi's many lakes. The road encircling West Lake is  17 km (about 10.6 miles) around, and in the morning, it fills up with walkers, joggers, cyclers, and others out and about to make the most of the relatively cool early hours.

Something that's always impressed me about Vietnam is how active everyone seems to be in the morning. It was just after 5am that day, and the streets were already full of people exercising, doing Tai Chi and Zumba, meditating in groups on the big nearby lawns, and just enjoying the day.

It's a beautiful area, made especially beautiful by the colorful sunrise reflected off the still waters of the lake.

West Lake, called Hồ Tây in Vietnamese, is steeped in myth and legend - much like any beautiful natural feature in the country. According to the tales, the lake was formed during an epic battle between Emperor Lạc Long Quân, the semi-mythical King of the Hồng Bàng Dynasty of ancient Vietnam, and a huli jing (a mischievous shapeshifting nine-tailed fox spirit from Chinese mythology).

We took a walk along the riverside, watching a rowing teams practicing in the water while their coach shouted words of encouragement from her motorbike parked at a nearby dock. Local fishermen had waded out into the shallows to catch fish with their nets, and a beautiful tranquility permeated the area.

On our walk, we passed the Van Nien Pagoda. This 11th century Buddhist temple is hand-carved out of wood, and plays an important spiritual role on the observations of the first full moon day of the lunar calendar. The temple's name is fittingly poetic, meaning "Hope of Lasting Forever".

Of course, with a thousand-year-old temple, some of the history has been lost to time, but the legend goes that the pagoda has its origins in AD 1014 when a Zen master named Huu Nhai Tang was granted permission from the emperor to establish a Buddhist monastic order along the banks of West Lake.

The pagoda was recognized by the Ministry of Culture, Information, and Tourism as a national-level artistic wonder in 1996, and has since become one of the major sites to see in Hanoi.

While I did not get to venture inside (it was too early in the morning and the temple was still closed), I read a bit about it online. The temple is dedicated to both the worship of Buddha and the Mother Goddess.

The temple itself faces East; looking out towards the dawn and the sunrise over the river. This symbolizes dreams, hopes, and desires. I would have liked to have gone inside. Maybe next time!

Heading back, it was finally time for coffee! Most cafes in the area open around 7am, so we picked one at random (I really don't think you can go wrong with any cafe in Vietnam), ordered a trip of ca phe sua da (Vietnamese iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk), and took a seat outside to enjoy the fresh morning air.

I've always said that Vietnamese coffee is the best in the world, and I stand by that! I was so happy when the taste of that delicious, strong coffee touched my lips. I really got hooked on the stuff when Pinky and I traveled through Vietnam in 2018. I never cared too much for coffee before then, but we started every morning with a glass of ca phe sua da from our very tight budget. I spent three months in Vietnam, and have been craving Vietnamese coffee for four years ever since!

Read more: Why is Vietnamese coffee so good? (The World of Street Food)

The next morning, however, we were finally able to go out for some cycling!

I met three of my colleagues at 4:30 just as the sky was beginning to glow with the first light of dawn. Although neither of our Vietnamese team mates were from Hanoi originally, one of the girls had been living there for several years through university, and knew the area well. She loaded us all up in a taxi and directed us to a place along the banks of West Lake where we could rent bicycles. 

It was a great team-building exercise! As an executive and the #2 in the company, I covered the costs myself (it was just a few dollars) as a business expense. One of my biggest goals in helping our CEO put this workshop together was to build a strong team of friends to help our company grow and succeed.

We ended up cycling around about half of the lake, but some construction forced us to turn around. We ended up stopping for a water break (the bikes also came with bottles of ice-cold water) and to take some photographs at a beautiful lotus pond which had been planted in the mud along the banks of the lake.

It was still just barely dawn, and we took a rest and watched the sun come up over the lake. Even though it was going to be a hot summer day, it was still very pleasant in the cool, early morning. Once again, I was amazed at how many people were out and about so early! We were far from the only cyclists on the road that morning!

As we sat along the banks of the lake, we watched a local woman catching fish with a big net. She waved at us as she saw us watching. It was impressive how many fish she caught in the short time we were watching her! I guess West Lake must be a really healthy lake full of lots of fish.

As a matter of fact, there was barely any litter in or alongside the lake. It seems that the local people really care for their neighborhood and keep West Lake nice and clean.

We returned the bikes, and set off on foot back towards the apartment looking for a place to get breakfast and a coffee.

Our two Vietnamese teammates stopped us at a tiny little wooden stall covered in plastic sheets to protect it from the tropical rain. They placed orders for us, and we stepped inside a local coffee shop to sit down and eat.

We stopped in at Cộng Cà Phê, a cafe designed after Vietnam's prosperous 1980s. The word "Cộng" comes from the official name of the "Socialist Republic of Vietnam", and means something like "together" or "collective". The cafe is painted in a drab green, and looks like an old Vietnamese schoolhouse. Propaganda posters cover the walls - not as a political statement, but as a purely artistic act. Old school textbooks are also used as decorations; they line the staircases of the three-story building overlooking West Lake. They also make very, very good coffee!

I ordered a coconut coffee - iced coffee blended with frozen coconut milk. It was, of course, amazing!

Breakfast, which had been ordered by my wonderful Vietnamese colleagues, consisted of sticky rice with pork and fried shallots served in a banana leaf. It was also delicious! We sat outside on a balcony overlooking the lake to enjoy the morning and talk.

We also exchanged currency: I handed out 100 baht notes, and my colleague from India gave us some rupees. Then, my Indian and Vietnamese colleagues switched wallets (both were from local brands). It was so wonderful to see this very international group working and having fun together.

I feel so lucky to have the colleagues that I do. I hate to sound so much like Michael Scott, but I also feel very happy to have friends to work with again. Freelancing has been fun, but kind of lonely.

What a wonderful team! We all get along very well and are working hard to build something amazing together. Though we all come from different places, we share a similar mindset and a similar dream. I believe we are going to do great things!