Hanoi, Vietnam

We reached back Hanoi at 5 am in the morning and we were picked up to Hanoi Boutique Hotel. They gave us a room for bath and rest. When I booked the tour, I thought the city tour is optional, and I won't join it as there is no point joining tour to go around a city. However, it's part of the whole tour. So we think why don't we give it a try as we paid for it already and we regretted it.

10 Aug
The van picked us up at 8 am in the morning, go around half of the central Hanoi to pick up other guests, there were 13 people in the group, way too big for me. Once we got into the van, there is a fuzzy auntie there already. There were 4 local people who don't speak English at all, I don't know why they arrange non-English speaking people to English speaking tour, and when the last one got into the van, oh God, another noisy auntie. I directly had a bad feeling already.

The first site we visited was Tran Quoc Pagoda, which is located near the West Lake of Hanoi. The pagoda looks very Chinese, with all the Chinese characters on the wall. While the tour guide explained about the pagoda, the 4 locals who don't know English started giving furious faces. We didn't have much time in Tran Quoc Pagoda as we needed to rush to Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum which will close at 11 am.

Hanoi West Lake (Ho Tay)

Tran Quoc Pagoda

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum is kind of sacred place in Hanoi, lots of guards patroling around, no camera and bags are allowed inside. There is surprisingly a very long queue to go in. Beside the mausoleum, there are some places to see as well, like Presidential Palace and Old Residence of Ho Chi Minh. He is really a great leader of Vietnamese people. When the tour guide explained about Ho Chi Minh, again those people made noises, then the noisy auntie wanted to buy T-shirts etc etc.

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

Lotus Temple

After Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the tour brought us to a shopping place, oh God, I'm fed up! The itinerary of the tour doesn't include Hua Lo Prison, the place that attract us the most. So we decided to drop out of the tour, we took a cab to Hua Lo Prison and get another friend of mine, Linh, who happened to be in Hanoi that day to join us.

We had our first Vietnamese street food for the trip, it was glass noodle and very tasty. Only when a local accompany you, you can have the real street food. Hua Lo Prison is interesting, that is where the French lock up Vietnamese people and also where Vietnamese people lock up US pilots during Vietnam war. The cold walls are the witness for all the inhumane cruelty of the past.

Hua Lo Prison (Hanoi Hilton)

Temple of Literature is a nice place as well, and I found that Vietnamese culture are quite similar to Chinese. We end our trip in Hoan Kiem Lake and again we bumped into the tour group. I really pity the tour guide, he was like squeezed in between.

Temple of Literature

Hoan Kiem Lake with Ngoc Son Temple

The trip was really good, Sachini is a very nice travel companion, we had lots lots of fun together. Vietnam is nice country, the people there are friendly, except for the motorbikes everywhere. Crossing the road in Vietnam is like a struggle, motorbikes can come from any direction, even from a stair!I met lots of new people and all left a trace in my memory...