thurs day 160

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Weds day 159 cont. Forgetting to mention yesterday that between leaving Irina and Tobias and catching the bus I did a boat trip along the perfume river to Thien Mu Pagoda. With just me ( and the Vietnamese family ) on their boat it was a pleasant journey. The pagoda founded in 1601 is the oldest in Hue and made international headlines in 1963 when one of its monks burnt himself to death in Saigon in protest of President Diems repressive regime. The monks car and the photograph is on display in the grounds of the 7 tiered pagoda. The well looked after grounds were lovely to walk around and to see the monks relaxing playing football in the late afternoon. Walking back to the boat I was taken back to town.


Thurs day 160 - As we were getting closer to Hanoi the turbulence was getting worse. Noticed most as we were coming into land - or so we thought! Until the pilot pulled up on the throttle and we gained height again. It pretty much woke the entire plane full of passengers up - until he tried again and thankfully succeeded to land - it seemed very fast and very bumpy but we were on land at least! Waiting for our luggage for over 2hrs as they couldn't get the hold door to open was the next installment! No one would have minded maybe quite so much if someone had actually come to tell us - instead of us having to go and find out! Walking out of the airport at 3am we felt pretty frazzled, getting in a hotel taxi the first stop was to the couples hotel, then to call another taxi to take me to my hostel! Arriving and booking in I got a key to a dorm - being very quiet I climbed onto my bed and fell asleep - what a journey! The flight itself was only 40 mins!!

Waking up at 11am I went to find my friend Hayley ( who I had previously met in the north of Laos - 2 months ago) Hayley has been in Hanoi for the last month teaching and who booked me a bed in the hostel she's been staying at. A familiar face was really nice to see, we headed out for a spot of late breakfast/early lunch and caught up on each others last 2 months. With Hayley then heading off to her evening teaching session, I walked down through the many windy streets of the old quarter towards Hoan Kiem Lake. The lake - although small ( it can be walked around in about 30 minutes) is much of a central point in the city for Hanoians as well as visitors. The lake is surrounded by cafes, hotels, manicured gardens and in the evenings many locals doing their daily exercises. From here I headed south to find the Women's Museum, after a very interesting wander around just before closing I then headed back towards the lake and back up towards my hostel. There was no sign of Hayley prior to heading out to meet Irina and Tobias for dinner, so I went out with another nice girl from the hostel - Vera - also from Switzerland - I was gonna feel a bit outnumbered at dinner! After a bit of difficulty finding their hostel and stopping on the way to ask 3 people for directions - we finally found it - and them! So opting for Cafe De Paris as Irina had eaten here before we eagerly awaited our dinner. Unfortunately the food wasn't as great as she remembered and a little overpriced, so after dinner we headed out for drinks. Trying to find a pub with outside seating was easy - trying to find one that wasn't full and where the passing traffic doesn't come so close to you to nick your drinks and run over your feet was a little tricky! The pedestrian is absolutely the lowest priority in this part of Hanoi at least! Traffic ( buses, cars, bikes, rickshaws - but mainly scooters) come from all directions, they don't stop at crossings, traffic lights or even at you! The pavements are non existent - literally or full of scooter riders who cant fit on the roads! So, yes they ride on the pavements - which are just crammed with stuff - shop goods, people sitting, rubbish and of course parked scooters! So leaving the only option of having to walk in the road - if you cant beat them, join them! Finally finding somewhere we had a drink and sat chatting ( well trying to over the traffic noise!) until about midnight - saying our goodbyes we headed back to our hostels for the night.

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