On Thursday, we started our morning lounging around in slightly rainy Hoi An. It was weird to see rain as we realised that this was the first time we had since Kaikoura in New Zealand, at the end of January! Imagine 2 months without rain in UK??? It was quite nice to see the old droplets to be honest. However, it was not cold... Around 30 degrees C still.
Our taxi picked us up and took us to Da Nang to get our flight to Hanoi. It was all so lovely and civilised and before you knew it we were in Hanoi airport getting picked up by our waiting guest house taxi driver. We chose to arrange this as we've read about many taxi scams at the airport where you tell the quite authentic taxi driver in the taxi rank you hotel name and address and they take you to a completely different hotel, charge you loads for the taxi and then they try to force you to stay in said hotel. Bugger that for a laugh! It took about 1 minute to arrange with our Hanoi Guesthouse so it weren't a problem.
We had expected to get lunch on the 1 hour flight, (we did ask and were told "yes", but I think the default answer in Asia if they don't understand). As we didn't we were super duper hungry and had to gnosh down some fake Pringles pronto in the airport arrivals.
Once on the road into crazy old Hanoi, we hit some pretty static traffic. We thought, this must be the way it is, but as we progressed slowly up the road we saw this procession! All very strange and spectacular but remained totally unexplained to us. It's not for us to know about I suppose! The guy almost looks like he is addressing, perhaps saying, "Welcome to Hanoi, Foreigner".
With that, we rolled up to Hanoi Guesthouse, in the spectacular Old Quarter, and was immediately greeted by 2 hyperactive young ladies carrying our bags into the guesthouse. We were given a glass of water, our room key and some big smiles. A few kind things like that go a long way with me and Ame! The room was lovely and had a little balcony. We dumped our stuff and got out and about.
Just a side note, it is about 20 degrees C here in Hanoi so Amy thinks it is about -20... And she would like you all to know that she had a tan, and it may be gone after the coolness of Japan... ;-)
Hanoi is about as hectic as Saigon, with moto madness mayhem! After throwing down a quick lunch at 16:30 we found ourselves in a Lonely Planet Recommended bar Legends to watch the crazy traffic from the balcony and the couples walking romantically around Hoan Kiem Lake. We enjoyed a well deserved 1/2 litre of beer (well it's nearly a pint...)
It was fantastic watching the sun go down and the lights coming on. It was such a pleasure to know that for twice the price of a bus ticket we had saved ourselves the pain in the ass (literally) of a 15 hour night bus or train from Hoi An (well Da Nang) to Hanoi. It was nice to be buoyant and well rested for an arrival to a new city for a change!
So with that, we got along to Hang Be, a fairly well set up street but by no means to a standard like Siem Reap, and had a blooooming good Hanoi beer in the Le Pub.
We then had a gorgeous Indian curry opposite at Tandoor. All round it was a real relaxing fun introduction to Hanoi. It all felt very natural.
On Friday, we awoke to the noisy roosters on the opposite balcony. Even in the city you can't escape the old ways. God knows what South East Asia would do if Bird Flu in humans developed. It would spell trouble... We received our free brek and got down to Ocean Tours to discuss a few options with them. We found them on TripAdvisor with super good reviews. We arranged a Sapa Mountain Trek two day tour with them leaving on the Saturday night. It was good to be doing something exploratory in the last few days of our trip.
We then went to the Ngoc Son Temple in the middle of the Hoan Kiem Lake. It was enjoyable enough.
It had some really nice shrines to the General Tran Hung Dao who defeated the Mongols in the 13th century.
We then embarked on our own romantic stroll around the lake. We particularly liked the strange Thap Rua (Tortoise Tower). I love the old and the new contrasts of cities.
Then it was time for some real sight seeing (and lunch) so we hopped into a taxi to the Temple of Literature. Before entering the main sight, we had lunch in, where else, but a non-profit cafe that trains up street kids. Asia is so good at helping it's own. The food was absolutely fantastic! I had bun cha (a pork grilled pork noddle thing) and it's probably one of the best things I've had in Vietnam.
We then got into the Temple of Literature. It was Hanoi's first ever University in the 11th Century. It was beautiful, amazingly built and incredibly well maintained over the years.
The whole complex is in a walled off rectangle area with lots of impress buildings and courtyards. It even asks you to dismount your horse upon entry (a very old sign you see!) We did as it asked of course.
It was chocker with what seemed like teenage school trips. It made for very interesting viewing watching the teenage girls run around and have pictures taken with the single white men. I was not chosen as I had this pesky girlfriend next to me... Then suddenly they were all obediently lined up for prayer. Quite amusing really.
It looked a little like the Vietnamese water puppets on sale...
We spent a good hour or so here, wrote some postcards, wandered about, and admired it all.
That evening, we had a quick dinner a few drinks then back for a good sleep.
On Saturday, we checked out and went to the Fine Arts museum. You weren't allowed to take your camera in, hence no photos. But it was enjoyable walking around looking all the different art styles of the centuries.
This afternoon, we've mainly been sitting doing a few jobs waiting until our night train goes this evening for our 3 nights 2 day Sapa trip. It should be really exciting. We're back to Hanoi on Tuesday morning when hopefully Grant and Christian from our Volunteering experience (remember that??) arrive. Later that week all of us and a couple more volunteer friends Steve and Jack who are catching up to Hanoi, are booked on a Ha Long Bay trip, where we stay on an island for the night, not a boat (thank God - my sea legs have had enough!) So hopefully it should be a good last week in South East Asia before our (expensive!) finale in the land of the rising sun!
No comments:
Post a Comment