In honour of International Women’s Day, we will be publishing a weekly feature introducing you to some of the expat women who make up Hanoi. Read on for some excellent recommendations on the best places to eat, what they miss the most about home and what is just so captivating about our city that they chose to stay.

Firstly, why did you move to Hanoi?

I moved to Hanoi in January 2015 and stayed for a year, left to travel for about 8 months and then came back late 2016. All in all, I’ve been here for about a year and a half. The reason my partner and I first came to Hanoi back in 2015 was purely financial; we spend some time deciding where we could go to work, make money, save and work on our own projects as well. Hanoi was the most logical choice. When we left in 2015, we knew we would be back soon, and not just for those financial reasons. We had truly fallen in love with the city (air pollution aside!).

Do you speak much Vietnamese?

Rather embarrassingly, no. I can get by with very basic situations and I am able to manage buying vegies and other bits and pieces from the morning market but given how long I’ve been here I should be much, much better.

What was your first impression of the city?

Before moving to Hanoi we had spent several weeks travelling through Vietnam. At the time, Hanoi was our favourite place in the country but we weren’t yet in love with it. When we first moved here, we were staying in a hotel in Ba Dinh and spent the first few days avoiding really talking about the decision to move to the city-we were bother suffering some pretty major culture shock. Fortunately, this wore off pretty quick and it didn’t take long before we fell in love with Hanoi’s charm & beauty.

What is it about Hanoi that you’ve grown to love?

I find this question really hard to answer because there is just so much! I love that there are flowers everywhere, I love riding my motorbike (!), the men playing Chinese chess on the side of the street, the lakes, the food and of course, the people.

What aspect of Hanoi is the most different from your home country?

I think when I went home after a year in Hanoi the thing that struck me the most is how closed everything is in England. In Hanoi, everything is open, people sit on the street, doors are open and there are always people outside doing things. In England, everyone is living behind their closed front doors and the streets just feel so empty!

What do you miss the most about your home country?

Cheese. And bread! Aside from food, I grew up on a farm in the countryside so I also miss the quietness and stillness of that.

What is a ‘must-do’ for when you have visitors?

Eat our way around the city, drink egg coffee and bia hoi. I love Vietnamese food and I enjoy taking visitors to my favourite places.

How would you spend an average Sunday in Hanoi?

I work a split shift on a Sunday, so I teach during the morning and again in the evening. During my afternoon, I like to have a lazy lunch and coffee with friends next to the lake. And after work drinks always go down nicely!

Favourite food (and location) Hanoi has to offer?

Although there is so much awesome western food available, like Chops and Anita’s Cantina, I love Vietnamese food, and find it impossible to pick just one. My partner and I also spent a lot of time exploring the street food scene in the Old Quarter and made a street food guide of our favorites. I think we’ve tried just about every pho & bun cha place we could find and then we chose the best ones to feature in the guide. (You can check out our guide here if you love street food as much as we do!)

Tricky one for you here! Is the pho better in Saigon or Hanoi?

I think I’m obliged to say Hanoi but I haven’t been to Saigon for about two years so I’d have to go back and try some to make sure!