Sight-seeing Hanoi

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30th June

So much for a good sleep on the night we arrived... Sharing a dorm with 10 girls (and a token boy, apparently a guest) and no air con lead to not much sleep and lots of disturbances (not just for us 😉 ).

On our first full day in the city we familairised ourselves with the area by walking around the old quarter, particularly down to Hoan Kiem Lake in the middle of the city. One of the first things we noticed was how manic the traffic was on every road and apprently a green man doesn't neccessarily mean that it's safe to cross... Following the example of the locals we took our lives in our hands stepping into the road and hoping the numerous mopeds and motorcycles would move around us..thankfully they did and crossing definitely feels a lot less risky.

Out first visit was to Ngon Son Temple in the middle of the lake. It contains the embalmed reamins of a giant tortoise said to inhabit the lake. The legend is that heaven gave the Emporer a magical sword to drive out the Chinese. One day a giant tortoise grabbed the sword and later restored it to its owner. Hence the translated name of the lake being 'Lake of the Restored Sword'. It seems to be quite a well known legend as tortoises are to be seen all around the city.

We next ventured to Memorial House, but finding it was still closed for lunch decided to have a break in the Tamarind Cafe where we shared a refreshing fruit platter and fresh juice. (Later, upon consulting the travel guide it said it was best to avoid fresh juice and ice due to their tap water content...) Once finished we went over to Memorial House which was a traditional of a Japanese style dwelling that housed five merchant families all together.

We then walked to Bach Ma Temple, the oldest temple in Hanoi. It was extremely ornate, with lots of red and gold and strange offerings of beer and biscuits.

This was all we had planned for the day but as we managed to get through it so quickly, we decided we would be able to fit in a trip to the Temple of Literature. This was a 3km walk, probably made longer by an accidental detour, but we did end up passing the military area, War Museum and lots of embassies, so at least we know where to go in case of any trouble. The Temple of Literature was huge with five courtyard complexes and highlighting 11th century architechture. It is a renound centre for learning and was named the first university in Hanoi. We were also there at the same time as a Vietnamese graduation!

After trekking back to the hostel and a quick turn around and freshening up, we headed out to Quon An Ngon for dinner. A popular semi-open air restuarant, with street-style food stalls which surrounded benches and tables in the centre. It seemed as popular with the locals as it was with tourists. The food was really good, as was the atmosphere! Then we headed back to the hostel and relaxed after a productive, yet very tiring day.

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1st July

Unfortunately we still didn't get a full night's sleep due to a thunder and lightening storm. It was definitely the loudest thunder we've ever heard by far, and woke everyone in our room up. But apart from this it wasn't too bad.

This morning our first stop was the Museum of Ethnology, which was a taxi ride away which, meant we experienced being part of the crazy traffic which included skipping red lights and driving on the wrong side of the road!! Thankfully we made it safely though. It was full of objects and displays from Vietnamese culture and customs which was really interesting as it also described all the different ethnic groups around the country.

Our next stop was the National History Museum, which housed pre-historica to modern artefacts. We didn't have much time to spend here though as we had booked tickets to go and see a water puppet show in the theatre; a Vietnamese tradition originally started in Hanoi. The traditional music and singing was live and all part of the story the puppets were portraying, although we couldn't understand it! Despite this, it was a fascinating experience all the same which lasted about an hour.

Our last stop of the day was back to the Tamarind Cafe to try something we had spotted on the menu the day before; a vegetarian curry rice dish presented in a carved out pineapple (we'll attempt this at home...). Then a tropical fruit and ginger crumble for pudding. Finally, we headed back to our hostel, strolling by the lake all lit-up which was really scenic, in order to have another relaxed night beore an early start tomorrow morning to go to Halong Bay...

In our past few days in Hanoi we've realised the high amount of Chinese influence in traditional and modern customs as well as the architecture, which we realised does make sense as we are close to the China border. Being two female westerners we seemed to attracted quite a lot of attention; from a girl asking to take a picture of us to boys shouting 'I love you' off their mopeds! The humidity is also something which is inescapable. 37 degrees on our first day, but no sun to be seen 😞

Tomorrow, Halong Bay awaits us...

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