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Published: October 14th 2011
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Today (Monday 11th October, 2011) we had a bit of sleep in which was nice and breakfast was provide at the hotel, which by the way is called Hanoi Elegance Hotel and is about $50 a night (breakfast is included). So for breakfast you can pretty much order whatever you like. I just stuck to an omelette and croissant with apple juice, while Paul opted for eggs and pancakes with very strong coffee.
We then headed for the chaos and it didn't disappoint either! We decided we would do the walking tour in the Vietnam Lonely Planet Guide. We got lost, several time!! But it was all good and we eventually got back on track, if we didn't get lost we probably wouldn't have gone up some of the street did and we would have never seen streets of hanging lanterns, "junk" shops, sewerage systems (man do they stink) and bikes, bikes and more bikes. We can't believe the amount of bikes and cars on the road and we haven't seen one accident. You just honk your horn and slow down and dodge around everyone. It's actually very daunting when you first go to cross the road but it so
Street chicken
The chickens are so small here! true what they say - just walk at slow and steady pace and you will be right! But in all honesty.....I almost crapped myself a few times crossing the road....today a bus and a car nearly got us (well me (anyways)! We had a drink and a bite to eat at "Legend Beer" and guess what..........we ate frogs legs!! Yes we did!! They were actually really good and tastes just like chicken (don't we say everything tastes like chicken. LOL) If you didn't know what you were eating you wouldn't have a clue. So we washed those down with a few beers.
Scamers......we nearly got done!! This lady came up to us from out of nowhere and sounded very convincing telling us she was a student and worked for the Red Cross. I was ready to hand over money when we pulled out this book and told us to write our name and how much we were giving here (Paul was on the ball) All the writing was very similar and we told her no and then after getting the poops...went on her way and headed for her boyfriend who was waiting on a motor bike and they left!!
Man oh Man!!
In our travels today we've been to see the St Joseph's Cathedral which is huge, the biggest church we've ever seen. We also went and National Museum of Vietnamese History, it was 10,00 dong to get is, which is about 50 cents. It was very interesting seeing all the old artefacts from Prehistory (circa 400,000 - 3,500 years before present), the artefacts from Vietnam in the Period of National Establishment (circa 7th - 2nd centuries BC), the artefacts from Vietnam from 2nd century BC to 10th century BC and the artefacts from Vietnam from 10th century to the mid 20th century. From vases to drums to fishing hooks to thrones for worshipping and status of various shapes, sizes and creatures. It's well worth a look.
Next we headed off in the direction of the Hoa Lo Prison and this was again only 10,000 dong (50 cents) to get in and also had to buy a book about the prison for bugger all as well. It was very daunting in places where you could see how the Vietnamese were looked up and bound at the feet with shackles and you could actually see where their ankles
used to be from the divots in the concrete and the tiny prison cells that would have been home to so many Vietnamese people. Picture after picture of prisoners and displays of their clothes and other bits and pieces that they had. There was also a section about the American pilots that were held prisoner there as well and there was picture and displays of their belongings. A guillotine and the head catcher was on display and wasn't that an eye opener!
We caught a taxi back to the hotel and got a "dodgy" one! The meter would tick over a little too fast for how far we were actually travelling, so we told the driver we would get out and so we walked!
So it was off to dinner and then the Water Puppet Show which was really good and the music as fantastic. Off to bed and get ready for our next adventure.
Tuesday (12th October, 2011) we booked a tour to the Perfume Pagoda Tour which left at 8am from our hotel. It was about an hour and a half drive in a mini bus to the actual village where we had to catch a
boat to get to Perfume Mountain.
On the drive there we went through villages that were harvesting rice from the fields and drying it on the roads...what a sight this was! Rice everywhere and rice stalks drying on the road as well.
When we got the to the village where we had to catch the boat along the river, ladies came from nowhere and were at you to buy their goods and water and saying "you buy from me"! Man oh man....but hey....that's how they make their money.
The boat ride (mind you it was a poor little lady rowing 6 big people up the river) was so peaceful and you made sure you didn't move around too much or other wise the boat would trip over and you would be in the drink.
It took about an hour up the river to Perfume Mountain and once we arrive we had a Vietnamese lunch in the local restaurant. Fish, tofu, pork, vegies, spring rolls an rice...it was pretty good actually and I'm loving the spring rolls! lol
After we had finished lunch you could either walk up to the Perfume Pagoda or catch the cable car up. We opted
A great place to eat
The second story "Beer Lager"!! for the cable car because it was so hot and the sweat was just pooring of us already, so we paid our cable car fee and we were up there in no time. We sat in the cable car with an other Australian couple and an American guy....really great people and it was great to catch to people our own age!
The actual Perfume Pagoda was a cave with incense burning and shrines for the monks and village people to pray. You then walked down into another cave and there was more shrines to pray at. Very nice and a very slippery walk.
We opted to walk back down the mountain and man where their some stairs! By the time we got back down to the bottom we all needed a change of clothes and a very cold drink!! But what a great experience it was and it was well worth the $25 each to go and see it (this did included the bus, boat ride and lunch and tour guide - so pretty cheap in our books!).
We caught the boat back to the bus and headed back to Hanoi. The ride back took twice as long and there
were nearly a few "crashes" along the way...peak hour traffic!! Craziness is not the word really but we will never complain about the traffic in Australia every again.
It started to rain on the way back, no it poured in placed the road couldn't cope with all the water. The Vietnamese people were stopping everywhere to get out their poncho and keep motoring on! Very brave we say!
We made it back to the motel and we were so glad we got to meet some lovely people, dinner was not exception and we met Julie and Les from Cairns and Tom from New Zealand and we had a barrel of laughs.
We are off to Halong Bay tomorrow for some R'n'R!!
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Mum and Ken
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Hi guys, great to see you are both having a great time, love the photos and the blog, looking forward to the next adventure you have