Rough Guide to Vietnam - Jan Dodd [291]
Ha Long Bay and the northern seaboard | Haiphong |
Across the train tracks
There are a couple of sights of passing interest across the train tracks from Haiphong centre, both about 2km to the south. The more rewarding is Du Hang Pagoda, on Chua Hanh. In its present form, the pagoda dates from the late seventeenth century and is accessed through an imposing triple-roofed bell tower. Interestingly, the architecture reveals a distinct Khmer influence in the form of vase-shaped pinnacles ornamenting the roof and pillars of the inner courtyard – according to Buddhist legend these contain propitious cam lo, or sweet dew. Beside it lies a small, walled garden of burial stupas.
It’s worth going on to Dinh Hang Kenh, a kilometre east on Nguyen Cong Tru, if you haven’t yet seen a dinh, or communal house. This one is a low, graceful building with a sweeping expanse of tiled roof facing across a spacious courtyard to an ornamental lake. Despite the surrounding apartment blocks, it’s still an impressive sight. Thirty-two monumental ironwood columns hold up the roof and populate the long, dark hall which is also noted for its carvings of 308 dragons sculpted in thirty writhing nests – now clothed in the dust of ages.
Ha Long Bay and the northern seaboard | Haiphong |
Eating, drinking and entertainment
Haiphong is well endowed with a fair range of places to eat and drink. Apart from the big hotels, nowhere is particularly upmarket, but you’ll find restaurants serving good-value seafood and some increasingly fancy bia hoi outlets, including Haiphong’s very own microbrewery. In the evenings, the cafés and small restaurants around the theatre and along the boulevards lining the canal gardens – Tran Phu and Tran Hung Dao – make a great place to watch the world go by. Alternatively, join the throng promenading up and down, pausing at ice-cream parlours or beneath the flickering lights of popcorn vendors. If you’re looking for more action, there’s a clutch of live-music venues, though even these shut up shop at midnight.
Café 10 10 Dinh Tien Hoang. Inexpensive little local eatery whose decor is a cut above the competition. It serves a mix of Vietnamese and Western dishes, from noodle soups and omelettes at breakfast to sandwiches, spring rolls and beef curry for lunch or dinner.
Haiphong Club 17 Tran Quang Khai. The most appealing of Haiphong’s restaurant-cum-live-music venues thanks to comfy chairs and a bit of (fake) greenery. It serves drinks, snacks and main meals all day at moderate prices, though it costs slightly more after 4.30pm. The noise level cranks up at 9pm when local bands – of variable talent – take to the stage. 8am–midnight.
Hoa Dai 39 Le Dai Hanh. Ignore the similar-sounding place across the road and join the locals here for ultra-fresh seafood. There are no prices on the menu, so check before ordering, but you’ll eat well for between 50,000đ and 100,000đ per person.
Maxim’s 51 Dien Bien Phu. This restaurant-bar follows the same basic pattern as the Haiphong Club: all-day dining and live music after 8.30pm, though here it’s only the drinks that cost more after 6.30pm. 7.30am–midnight.
Pizza One 11a Tran Phu. Cheap-and-cheerful little restaurant serving a range of mostly Western dishes. Zero ambience, but the pizzas aren’t bad.
Truc Lam 3k Ly Tu Trong. This restaurant hidden on the second floor of the Maxim hotel (see "Accommodation") packs more style than most in Haiphong. The food is very tasty, too, with treats such as German sausages with garlic and herb mashed potatoes, lamb chops and a succulent beef bourguignon – they’re not always on the menu, so just ask. You’ll eat well for around 100,000đ a head. 10am–10pm.
Van Tue 1a Hoang Dieu. Gleaming vats, wooden tables and waiters bustling about with jugs of pilsner and great platters of food lend a real beer-hall buzz to the basement of this popular restaurant and microbrewery – the two upper floors are more refined but less fun. There’s a bewildering