Hanoi

Day 1 in Hanoi started off with a visit to the famous Perfume Pergoda - about 2 hours out of Hanoi. A bus drove us part of the way, and then we boarded a tin rowing boat with about 16 other people which took about another hour. The boat ride along the river was amazing - the scenery was lovely. Traditionally women row the boats - and it looks a pretty hard work, but it is highly sought after job in that region. When we arrived we had a basic lunch then took a cable car up to the top of the mountain where the Perfume Pagoda was. It was possible to walk up the mountain, but it had just been raining the night before so it looked pretty dangerous. We were dissappointed that our english speaking guide stayed at the bottom and didn't come up to show us around and give us information on what we were seeing - especially as we later learnt there was a whole other section that we hadn't known about and missed (as did the rest of our group). But moaning aside - it was nice to have a trip out to see some of rural vietnam.





Day 2 was spent searching Hanoi itself. There is much to see here - the Ho Chi Minh Mausaleum, Museum, Presidential Palace, Temple of Literature, Turtle lake......then the buzzing old quarter for market stalls and bamboo laquer shops. At the Temple of Literature we were lucky enough to see a couple having wedding photos taken. The bride looked so beautiful - we took a photo of them while we were there. It is interesting to see that they wear very similar wedding outfits to us. In India the women wear lots of colour and robes and jewellery. The vietnamese brides wear long flowing white gowns and simple makeup and head dress.






After exploring the old quarter (which involved lots of walking) we headed to the lake to see the famous Water Puppet show. It was pretty cool - hard to follow the story line as it was all narated in Vietnemese (through song) - but still entertaining to see the puppets on the water - dragons and fish, with fireworks and music. I would recommend going to see this - the tickets where so cheap and it was something a bit different.







Each night in Hanoi we have picked a 'recommended' restaurant from our Lonely Planet - all of them just steps away from our hostel. We have eaten some really delicious food here (duck, crab, noodles...so tasty). So the Lonely Planet has been spot on each time. We also noticed a lot of 'french style' cake shops dotted around on the streets. We caved in to the temptation and bought two cakes afer our meal - very nice. The French seem to have a lot of influence in Vietnam (obviously due to their history here). For the first time in Asia we have seen baguettes, cheese, delicate cakes and lots of garlic!

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