Happening Hanoi

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We arrived in Hanoi early in the morning and headed straight to a hotel recommended to us by JD & Abra, which was very nice so we decided to stay there, and also reserved a room for Simon and Tor (Jake's parents) who were arriving that night. We spent most of the day wandering around Hanoi , getting our bearings and investigating the different tours to Sapa and Halong Bay on offer, of which there were many, and they all seemed to be same same but not different.
We were feeling pretty tired after our last few days of travelling and extremely early morning, so ended up going out for dinner very late after a sleep, and Hanoi seems to go to bed quite early, by the time we went out some of the only places open for dinner still were street stalls, so we experienced our first noodle soup with rather dubious chicken (Bun Ga) which Jake regretted the next day! Oh well you live and learn, and it was very tasty! Just after midnight, Simon and Tor arrived, and we had a quick beer on the street and catch up with them before finally hitting the hay.
The next day we allowed ourselves a lie in, thinking that Simon and Tor would need it after their long day of travelling, however it was them knocking on the door to wake us up! After breakfast, we headed to the travel agency just up the road to book our tours - they seemed to have a good Sapa tour with a homestay, and we thought it would be easier to also book our Halong bay tour here (a decision we later regretted!)
We spent the morning wandering around the old quarter, then went to the water puppet theatre in the afternoon. The water puppet show was quite fascinating - unseen puppeteers made the elaborately decorated puppets dance and jump around on the water, combined with the traditional instruments accompanying them, definitely worth the $6 each we paid and highly recommended!
The nest day we ventured further afield, to see Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum, which was a rather surreal experience! Hundreds of people were made to walk along a path about 1km long with armed guards stationed along the way, and once inside the mausoleum you had to walk in single file, hands by your sides, not talking, and see the embalmed figure of Uncle Ho, looking rather like something from Madam Tussuad's wax museum! We also visited his old house and the museum in his honour, which was full of rather abstract propaganda.
We then went to the temple of literature, which is an ancient temple where scholars once studied and took the royal exam, and those who passed each year from the 1400s have their names inscribed on giant Tortoises!
That evening we had our first experience on a sleeper train as the start of our Sapa tour. The train itself was quite pleasant, and we had a cabin for the four of us, although we did have a vodka drinking Canadian visitor for much of the trip who regaled us with stories of his travels so far. We also had a rather interesting experience getting onto the train - they had obviously run out of room on the minibus we were all supposed to be getting, and the woman who came to meet us was on the phone trying to arrange a taxi in very angry Vietnamese! The 4 of us plus bags piled into a tiny taxi with her following behind on motorbike, shouting directions at the driver through the window. When the taxi stopped we still had no idea where the station was, and she abandoned us. with Jen left holding her flag! Eventually a minibus of people arrived, and we all followed her onto the station, with directions being screamed every few metres. When we arrived at the station she checked our tickets, and we were literally herded onto the train, over the train tracks. Only in Vietnam!
We arrived at Lao Cai station at 5am the next morning, and started our Sapa adventure....

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Comments

[Leah, Pete, Jacob & Some]

Yum
Swan on the menu - don't they know it is bad manners to eat your parents !!