Hello, Hanoi!

We started the day off with another delectable (and offensively large) buffet at the Metropole. David was thrilled that they had dim sum here…and ate about 50 plates of it, before we all headed out to explore the great city of Hanoi, armed only with a map and a sense of adventure.

We walked around Hoan Kiem Lake (basically the life-blood of the city…think Central Park in Hanoi)…it’s a gorgeous lake accentuated by a beautiful temple in the middle of it and an ensuing legend of an Emperor and a majestic turtle who took the emperor’s sword for safekeeping into the depths of the lake. Apparently there are still tortoises in this lake, but we sure didn’t see any.

We then explored the shopping scene in the Old Quarter. It’s a bit overwhelming, to say the least. There’s hundreds and hundreds of stores upon stores and hundreds of people coming in and out of them.

One thing to point out before we proceed: crossing the streets in Hanoi. We’ve heard many a story about the brave souls who’ve crossed streets here and lived to report back about it. Needless to say, they do not exaggerate! Just picture a sea of motorcycles and cars flying at you at 50 miles per hour, with no traffic lights at all (ok, in all fairness: there are SOME traffic lights, but they really don’t serve a purpose, and motorists definitely ignore them.) Someone gave us good advice and it really holds true: walk diagonally across the street and, most importantly, do not hesitate and DO NOT back up. The idea is to keep walking, even if it seems you’re about to be mowed down by a group of Vietnamese hell riders. That moped may look like he wants to hit you, but he’ll swerve around you just in the nick of time. It’s a bit unnerving, but you kind of get used to it after awhile. Kind of.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way…as we made our way across Hanoi, we stopped to eat at a fantastic little café across the street from the Temple of Literature called KOTO. It’s basically a training program for underprivileged locals who want to get involved in the hospitality industry in Vietnam. They start them in this café/restaurant and they gradually learn enough to go off into higher paying jobs within the industry. Why does our country not do anything like this? Argh! Anyway, lunch was fantastic. We then headed over to the Temple, which had been highly recommended by just about everyone we know who’s visited this city—and it did not disappoint!

After an almost full day of walking around the city, we needed a rest, so we headed back to the hotel…but on the way back, we stopped at the Ambassador’s Pagoda; a pagoda David had read about and really wanted to see. Unfortunately, it was under construction, so we passed it about 3 times before realizing it was right in front of us. We got there, though, just as the women-only prayer service was starting. It was quite a magical moment to sit on the pagoda steps in silence and listen to their chanting—almost puts you in a trance.

We got back to the Metropole later in the afternoon and took a brief nap (and a brief afternoon cocktail—although we’re not sure which came first.) We then decided on a dinner at Green Tangerine before heading off to see the Water Puppet show. Green Tangerine is a French/Vietnamese place that we keep reading about, so we figured it was worth the trip. And boy was it! The food was amazing (I know, I know—we keep saying that in this blog…but we ‘re not lying--the food is fantastic so far!) and the emphasis was more on the French than the Vietnamese, which suited us just fine since we all needed a break from Asian food for a night.

The highlight of Vietnam so far came shortly thereafter: the Water Puppet Theatre, which we attended a performance of at after our delicious dinner. It’s pretty much THE thing to do when you’re here…and it’s a tourist trap to boot. But, the fantastic concierge scored us front row seats in front of all the clicking cameras and some scary German tourists with their knee socks pulled up to their thighs (who knew people actually still wore lederhosen?) and we settled in for an hour’s time to watch essentially the history of the Vietnamese common man told through amazing puppetry—which is somehow all managed through a series of underwater pulleys and lots of trickery which we couldn’t explain to you (or figure out) if we tried. The music was beautiful…almost reminded of us Cantonese opera. The puppets they use range from dragons and unicorns to fish and fairies. Hopefully the pictures can convey how cool the show was. We have video too, but we can show you all that when we get home.

Lights out for the night…we head to Halong Bay tomorrow, so we need lots of sleep for the long journey there! Really looking forward to reporting back on it once we’re back in two days.

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