Still feeling full from last nights forced feast we skipped breakfast and set out into Hanoi. Hanoi is a little rough around the edges, to say the least, but you can still see some of its French elegance and influence in what's left of the buildings, if you look hard.
Vietnam doesn’t seem to be renowned for its cleaning! But we haven’t come to sit on a beach, we have come for an adventure and early signs are showing that's exactly what we are going to get.
When we arrived last night we didn’t see a single westerner from the crazy taxi until we got to the hotel. This was unnerving and made me feel like we could be a potential target. But after our initial stroll out from the hotel up the street this morning, it soon became apparent that, to my relief, we are nothing special at all! None of the locals are even batting an eyelid. Had this been Cairo, the only other place I have been to which is slightly comparable, we would be mobbed by now. Yes throughout the day people will try and sell you stuff, but its always with a smile, and never too forceful. Culture shock rating was down from 8 to about 6 out of 10 at this point!
I love the cabling, how anything works is a mystery:
We first hit the Temple of literature, decided not to enter at this point but laughed at this:
We decided to head towards Hoem Kiem Lake, as its one of the places to visit in our guide book. On our way we were checking out the strange, buzzy, grubby but friendly Hanoi. All the different trades could be found in shops ranging in size from small to tiny, some even managed to fit their whole mobile shop on a push bike! I saw a cleaning shop on a bike complete with mobs, brooms and buckets. Once we’d reached a more central spot, which was deemed by general business and seeing more westerners, we stopped for a cuppa Cha (tea). This is the view, with a commonly seen female fruit seller:
A Canadian chap joined us at our table. after a few minutes we started to talk with him. He’s a really nice guy that gave us some good tips, including that the top floor of the building across the road seen in the picture below did good food! It was called city view cafe, and can be seen here:
The view from the cafe, complete with a delicious Chicken curry. Ok so there were a few crunchy bits and too much skin in, but I don't think I’ll forget the flavour– absolutely divine! The Hanoi beer is also really good. Anna had already eaten her veggie rice!
The view from Sky View Cafe was really nice despite the fog/smog.
After lunch we headed over to the ‘turtle temple’ island which you can see above Anna’s head. Below is the bridge:
Entrance to the island:
Anna with the original mystical ‘preserved’ turtle:
A real turtle found wriggling around the place:
Some locals playing a game on the island:
We have only seen one cat and one dog since we have been here, and the dog was quite young!:
After ‘Turtle Temple’ we headed over to the Puppet show which is another must see attraction in Hanoi, according to our guide book. Water puppetry is a uniquely Vietnamese tradition, so gives an insight into the culture, here is a video I made of it!:
It was getting dark but we wanted to see the Old Quarter, so headed in the rough direction. We didn’t fancy wandering around Hanoi too much in the dark, we negotiated a ride with one of the many bike driven transports available! The most common one is with a ‘bulldozer’ type seat on the front with cyclist powering from behind! I made a video of this as well, its quite long, but gives a tour around the Old Quarter and ends up where we had out first cup of cha in the morning. It gives a taste of just how crazy the road system is (or lack of) and motorists are. Beep Beep!:
Finally on the way back to the hotel, I just have to share this last bit of craziness from the day captured on video:
