Broken Tooth in Hanoi: How My Vietnam Trip Started

I'd flown from Slovenia via Istanbul, and I was tired and very hungry, with dinner still a while away. So I did what hungry travellers do: I opened the bag of nuts I still had from the trip and ate a few to survive until we got to the restaurant. Pookie and I were about to go out for dinner.

Then I bit into one of them, and my tooth broke.

So how did I end up in Hanoi, with a friend from Bangkok, hungry and one tooth short? That's a Madrid story.

You can plan a trip for months. The universe waits until you're hungry.

It started with a five-day friendship

In April, in a hostel in Madrid, I met Pookie. Our stays overlapped for five days, which is long enough to become friends and short enough that nobody gets annoyed with anybody.

We did what travellers always do when they like each other. We promised to visit. I have to come to Thailand! Everyone says it. Almost nobody does.

Then summer ended, and Pookie sent a message with a better idea. She was going to Vietnam for three weeks in October. Did I want to come along, instead of Thailand? And there'd be someone else: Fefe, an Argentinian guy she had met in Barcelona, where he lives.

So we planned it, the three of us, in three different countries, on WhatsApp. Chats. Video calls. A trip assembled by a girl in Bangkok, a guy in Barcelona and me in Slovenia, held together by one group chat and a lot of optimism.

By the end it had exactly one fixed point: we would all land in Hanoi on the same day.

It was either a great plan or three adults trusting a group chat. As it turned out, both.

Landing in Hanoi's Old Quarter

Pookie and I found each other at Hanoi airport, the first time we'd seen each other since Madrid. Fefe's flight would come in later that evening, which left us a few hours to be two friends in a brand new city.

We were staying at Old Quarter View Hanoi Hostel, on Nội Miếu lane, a few steps from the middle of the Old Quarter. The staff were friendly, and the kitchen was great, which in a hostel is the equivalent of a good personality.

We had booked a 4-bed room for the three of us, and the fourth bed went to an Italian guy none of us knew. Dorm roulette: you book a bed and the universe assigns you a stranger. Ours was Italian, and he stayed in the story.

A small tip, no numbers because prices change: I compared Booking.com with the hostel's own website, and the cheaper one wasn't always the same. Check both.

That's where I was, with a bag of nuts and a few hours until dinner, when it happened.

"I think my tooth just broke"

That's what I told Pookie. A piece at the back of my mouth had broken in two.

The good news: I could still chew on the other side, which is the kind of luck you only notice when you've just lost some.

The next thing I felt was not panic. It was a strange, calm urge to do research.

If this was serious, I didn't want just any dentist. I wanted the best service I could find, ideally a clinic that did operations and implants too, in case things were worse than they looked. And I had already seen the dental offices on the streets of Hanoi. You wouldn't want to end up there either.

So, hungry, tired and one tooth short, I became a dental reviewer. Google. Reviews. Photos. The works. No chatbot to ask, just me and a lot of scrolling.

Then I asked the guy at hostel reception to help me call and book an appointment as soon as possible. He was as nice as it gets. He made the call and translated everything I said to the person at the clinic.

It was Saturday evening, and I was ready to wait until Monday.

They gave me an appointment for Sunday.

I felt so lucky. And so relieved that Pookie and I finally went to dinner, with beers, more than one, to start the holiday properly and forget what had just happened to my tooth.

On Sunday my tooth was repaired well enough to wait. On Monday I walked out with a new one. Vietnamese people work hard, and I got the proof. Two days, start to finish, and it cost less than it would have at home.

It was not the last souvenir that trip gave me, but that's a story for the end of the series.

What it cost: around €300 for a brand new tooth, with a few years of warranty. (October 2024, my own price, so check today's.) Not medical advice, just my story. If it happens to you, choose a clinic online and ask the price first. This is the dental clinic in Hanoi I ended up at.

The insurance twist: my travel insurance only covers first aid for a tooth, not a brand new one, so in the end it paid for none of it. Read what your policy says about dental before you fly.

Most people bring home a fridge magnet. I brought home a new tooth in my mouth.

The street crossing final exam

With a temporary tooth and a permanent appetite, my first real lesson in Hanoi was not about food. It was about getting across the road.

Act one: you stand at the kerb and wait for a gap. Act two: you realise there will never be a gap. Act three: you walk. Slowly, steadily, no stopping, no sudden moves, and the scooters flow around you like water around a stone.

Crossing the street in Hanoi is less about speed and more about commitment.

Eating Hanoi street food, carefully

On the other side of the street there was always food, and I stayed on the conventional side of the menu.

Banh mi won me over: crunchy bread, and you choose the filling, which is a rare kind of freedom. Fried noodles with vegetables or meat were my real love. Fried spring rolls: yes. The fresh ones, wrapped in rice paper with herbs: not for me. I like my food crunchy. Frog, fried, tasted like chicken, so I can't claim any bravery.

Then there were the snails, sold on the street, an apparent delicacy. I walked past. The market stalls with geese heads and dried fish did not tempt me either. If you're the brave one, tell me how it went.

And when you get fed up with local food, go to Pizza 4P's. It was one of the best pizzas I have ever eaten.

Coffee was where I got adventurous. I tried egg coffee, but it was not my cup of tea: too thick and too sweet. Then I found the one that changed things: coconut coffee, my favourite coffee of the entire trip. I also loved the Vietnamese black coffee we drank on the Ha Giang loop, but that's the next story.

Egg coffee, market delicacies and a whole hall of bargains: Hanoi keeps the surprises coming, even when you stick to the safe side of the menu.

Hanoi Train Street, where the train is always late

We found Train Street on Google Maps. We sat down at a cafe, I ordered a coconut coffee, and we waited.

The train is always late. This is a rule. Then the alarms start, long before anything appears, and the cafe owners, who know exactly how this goes, begin to rearrange the seats away from the tracks like a very polite game of musical chairs. By the time the train rolls through, everyone is exactly where they should be.

Then the whole street exhales.

It runs several times a day, so ask at the cafe for the next one and arrive early for a good spot. (This was October 2024. For how it works now, just check Google.)

It was an amazing experience, and I'd recommend it. It's something to see, and it's a collective moment: everyone there, all watching the same train at the same time.

The train is always late. The whole street still knows exactly when to move.

Ninh Binh: a different Vietnam

One day, Fefe and I booked a Ninh Binh trip through the hostel: an organised bus tour, a full day. A boat ride, caves, a climb to a viewpoint, and we rode bikes too. It was nature and a very different kind of Vietnam from Hanoi, and I loved it.

We booked ours through the hostel, so compare it with booking a Ninh Binh day tour online before you go.

Everything else in Hanoi, quickly

The rest of the week was walking, watching and a lot of sightseeing.

Hoan Kiem Lake was lovely, with great vibes. Go to Ngoc Son Temple there too. Hoa Lo prison was interesting and scary: you can only imagine what went on in there by visiting. We only passed by Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, but there are lots of museums and sights, so there's no shortage of things to see.

My favourite was Tran Quoc Pagoda and West Lake (Hồ Tây): lovely atmosphere, and the best sunset.

For shopping I went to Vincom Center Ba Trieu, nice for fancier shoppers, and I loved the local brands there too. For cheaper shopping, go to the market: clothes, food, everything you can think of, and it's a bargain. (I only looked at the food.) Then massages, and Grab for everything: rides, scooter taxis, even deliveries. I loved it, and I'd recommend discovering the wider area by Grab scooter, not just the Old Quarter.

Four countries, one street food table

The Old Quarter was crowded and loud, and I felt safe in it. I loved the stools on the pavement, the street merchants, the strange market views.

One night we went out in the Old Quarter, ate our way through the street food, and ended up on the party street.

The photo says it better than I can: Slovenia, Argentina, Italy and Thailand, around the same food, in Vietnam, becoming friends. And it kept happening. We kept meeting new people.

The card I lost (and the two I didn't)

I also lost a credit card in Hanoi. Not a disaster, just one of those things that happens.

The first ATM I tried didn't work, so I put the card in my pocket instead of back in my wallet. Somewhere between the prison, the market and a brunch that day, it disappeared. I walked the same route again and asked around. No luck.

So I froze it in the mobile app and moved my money to a different wallet. Nobody tried to use it, so it was lost, not stolen.

And I had two more cards with me. I always travel with spares.

Always carry a spare card. It's the cheapest insurance you'll ever buy.

And then we got on motorbikes

I started the week with a broken tooth. I ended it with a new one, one less credit card and three friends from three countries who had met in a group chat and finally in a city.

On our third day, Flaco, a friend of Fefe's from Germany, joined us, and suddenly there were four of us with one plan.

So naturally, we decided to do something sensible next: four days on motorbikes in the mountains. Pookie, Fefe, Flaco and me, heading for Ha Giang.

What could possibly go wrong?

Several things. The Ha Giang Loop story is here. You can also explore the Hanoi destination page and the Vietnam overview.