Hanoi Highlights

Going to Vietnam? or Hanoi? I thought it was about time to write about my time in Vietnam, but today particularly Hanoi.

First of all, it’s hard to imagine how much life there is in the city. With so many motorbikes and people and noise, there is always something going on and everything about life seems different to how we Europeans view it. People seem to live in the street, by our hotel the locals even seemed to have their dinner on the street, with plastic tables and chairs! Everything is an adventure, even crossing the road – anyone who has experienced it will tell you that you can’t wait for the lights to change! You just have to pluck up your courage and walk across – or you’ll just watch the traffic go past for the whole day!

The way of life was one thing that instantly captured me. Then there was the food – the food was wonderful, everywhere we went. Sometimes I didn’t enjoy noodle soup for breakfast but at any other time of the day the food was superb. Especially if you like rice, noodles, and stir fried foods – which I do!

Then there are the sights…….

The City

The centre of town, just walking around here was amazing for me, soaking up the atmosphere and the way people live. Come back in the evening and visit the water puppet theater for a traditional evening of Vietnamese entertainment.

The Temples

Temples

Then the temples are really interesting, this photo is from the temple by the lake in the centre of town.

The Lake

And this one is looking the other way over the lake. A great place for a rest after all the sights and sounds of the city.

The Temple of Literature

Nice to see Hanoi’s oldest University and in the picture is also the symbol of Hanoi. A good tour and a very interesting place for a couple of hours (even in the rain!)

A Cyklotour

Probably my favourite hour in Hanoi

You should experience is a cyklotour of the city, just to experience what it must be like to ride your moped around town every day – and every day of your stay you’ll notice how many different things can be transported by moped.

The Old Town

And the side streets around the park and lake is a must for any travellers – even if you don’t want to buy anything, just to see what is going on and you’ll be continually surprised at how many mopeds can be in one city (well, I was).

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and house

And finally, who could visit Hanoi and not visit Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum and his house. Unfortunately it was raining on our visit there and there were quite long queues, but even the rain is different to British rain – it’s warm! and in a way it’s quite nice….. anyway, we were expecting some rain on our trip and it turned out that it rained much less than we thought (we travelled in the wet season).

In the picture I don’t look too happy but I was enjoying the rain…. honest!

Halong Bay

And then there is the wonderful Halong Bay. We spend just two day out on a junk, but it was fantastic. Such a contrast to Hanoi, but so close. And so relaxing. And the boat was certainly not ‘junk’, the crew cooked us some wonderful fresh fish and seafood and vegetarian dishes and we were treated like kings for the time on board…. another Hanoi highlight…..

I’ve only added one picture from the morning but I have so many I could’ve put on here.