Hanoi

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Our sleeper train rolled into Hanoi station two hours early so we turned up at the hotel at 5.45am & after a few attempts at ringing the bell we woke up the porter who was sleeping on the floor in front of the main desk & he managed to find us a vacant room. We had a delicious pastry & tea breakfast by Hoan Kiem Lake ever hopeful that we would catch a glimpse of the lucky giant turtles/tortoises that are supposed to inhabit its murky waters. We got to see a stuffed tortoise in a glass case on the island in the middle of the lake but it wasn't as good as the real thing.
Lunch was had at a mock meat restaurant where you could get everything from soya beef to shrimps made from potato, washed down with bia hoi.
Bia hoi is 'fresh beer' & it doesn't come any fresher, the first time I ordered a glass I had to wait twenty minutes as they were still making it. You argue with the price either, from bia hoi junction, a crossroads where you pull up a plastic stool (just like those found at any playschool) a glass of bia hoi costs 1500 dong or about 6p. As the beer will have been brewed that day it doesn't require any preservatives & as such gives a clean crisp taste. You won't know how strong it is until you've had a few & there's no labels to tell you ingredients or which brewer on the road brewed it but it's cheaper than water so who cares.
In the evening we went to see the Vietnamese Water Puppets performed by the Thang Long Water Puppet Troupe. Less than £2 buys a ticket in the front rows & they throw in a free fan, program & CD of the music. The puppets are amazing, they appear from the surface of the water & catch fish, dance, climb trees, ride cattle & if they are a dragon, breathe flames. We had been told to watch out for the mesmerised looks on childrens faces at the performance, but there were only about two kids in the whole audience. We made up for it by being totally enthralled by the whole performance.

Drink of the day: Bia Hoi

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Comments

[jesus]

cambodia/VNam
No piks of these places? especially the towns of Siem Reap, PNH, SGN. Loads of piks of statues wats, etc. Few peeple take picks of the towns. Dats wair the action is...