When we spend a week in a single place, we like to try and shoehorn in a day of rest, so we don't become burnt out and to catch up on 'admin' such as blogs, photos, communication with home and watching films. Today was one of those days, we got through a few films after breakfast. While we had been away from the hotel in Ha Long bay the wifi had gone down, so it only really worked while we're sat in the lobby. After we'd watched one film, we dashed out to the supermarket to pick up some instant noodles for lunch and retired to the comfort of our room. With one more film finished we decided to head downstairs to actually be productive on our day of rest. Blogging took up most of the time, while Charlotte tried uploading some photos. Before we knew it the day was almost over, so we're planning to head out to a restaurant and pick something up. It was now Charlotte's turn to feel a bit on the poorly side. We relaxed on the bed and before we knew it dinner time was long gone. A second night with no dinner, we needed to pull our fingers out and get back into a routine.
Monday
Monday
It was time to be keen again, get out and see what Hanoi had to offer. After breakfast, we browsed the map and drew up a plan for the day. First up, was Tran Quic pagoda. We followed our squiggly line on the map as best we could but the map itself was terrible, missing out loads of the minor roads in the city. After dodging thousands of Motorbikes and Scooters, who seem to make up their own road rules as they go, we stumbled across our destination. The pagoda is located on as island, off a road dividing 2 lakes, West Lake and Truc Bach Lake. As we got on to the road dividing the lakes, we were accosted by a local selling fruit from her carrying pole. Before I knew what was happening, she had the pole on my shoulder and also her rather stylish pointy hat atop my head. She was obviously after a bit of money, so Charlotte and I both took pictures of one another, then she tried to sell us half the fruit she was carrying. A bunch of bruised bananas and an entire pineapple made their way into a bag and shoved into our hands and we were told they would cost us 100,000 dong (£3). Forever the grumpy ones, we said no way, not really in the mood for loads of pineapple and rather bruised bananas. We negotiated the deal and just went for her 2 best looking bananas and the photos we'd taken and gave her 50,000 dong for her troubles. We carried on along the road slightly taken aback by what had just happened. As we were walking to the Pagoda, we passed another couple, of which the lady was carrying a bag of bananas and pineapple, nice to see we weren't the only ones to get caught. The pagoda actually turned out to be rather underwhelming, it had a nice location but compared to previous ones we'd seen it was quite small. Still worth a visit though, we got some snaps and headed back the way we came.
Anywhere you go in Vietnam, you can't get away from 2 names. Nguyen (40% of the population have this surname and I'm pretty sure there are people called Nguyen Nguyen, I'm not sure even Smith reaches these lofty heights back home) and Ho Chi Minh (that's not his real name mind, no prizes for guessing that that contained Nguyen). Ho Chi Minh was a communist revolutionary, former president and prime minster of North Vietnam. So revered was he that not only did they embalm his body and put him on show in his own mausoleum (similar to Lenin and Mao (I'm noticing a pattern here, I wonder if Fidel Castro will get one in Havana) but they renamed Saigon Ho Chi Minh City after the end of the Vietnam War. Anyway, Mr.Minh was currently out of town, receiving "restoration" in Russia, so we only got to admire the outside of his rather impressive resting place. It is located in the square where Ho Chi Minh read the Declaration of Independence in 1945. There wasn't much to see here, apart from the mausoleum, obviously, so we carried on round and saw what looked like a huge sports stadium. We started to approach it but were turned away by someone who said it was closed on Mondays so we had no choice but to turn around. We consulted our map and found a route back into the centre of town, that took us past the old citadel, intentionally skirting it as that was our prime stop for our next stop in Hué. Lunch had been and gone by this point and we were starving. As ever, the recomended places to eat are a fair stroll away but we picked one and went for it. On our way we walked down one of the main shopping streets, which seemed to be focused on tourists. We took the time to have a thorough look for a pin badge. In a communist country it's pretty easy to find a pin badge but not necessarily ones with 'Hanoi' written on them. In fact, we weren't surprised when the majority portrayed Ho Chi Minh and his big, cheesy grin. We left the shopping street slightly disappointed but still knew we had one more day to try and find one. Our lunch choice wasn't as we had expected it to be. It was just a cart on the side of a quiet street selling Banh Mi, a Vietnamese sandwich. We took a seat on the tiniest chairs ever and waited for our sandwich to arrive. It only cost us 20,000 dong ( under 60p) for a good sized baguette with ample filling and we even had a free black tea thrown in as well. When we left the owner said "see you again" and he was correct, he would. With the sun quickly descending, we made a break for the supermarket through the chaotic rush hour traffic. Picking up the usual suspects of water, mixed with the occasional treat like a bag of Haribo. We made it home just about, despite a few near misses in the traffic. Dinner that night was our local one, 16 foods, plumping for marinated meat and rice, while Charlotte went for a fried rice dish.
Tuesday
In a desperate bid to find a pin badge on our final day in Hanoi, we took one of our other ones down to the receptionist to ask her if she knew where we might find one. She didn't have a clue and for the first time since we'd been in the hotel, she seemed slightly grumpy. We headed out still hopeful we'd pick one up. Our itinerary wasn't huge for today so we wandered down towards the central lake in the direction of the French Quarter. After we'd crossed the melee that is a Hanoi roundabout and made it to the lakeside, we started round in our intended direction. Suddenly, Charlotte ran off to a gift shop. Out of the corner of her eye, she had glimpsed a collection of badges hanging from a piece of card. Somewhat fortuitously we managed to pick up a Hanoi one, with an image of the logo of the temple of literature on it. Despite the shopkeepers protests on the price already being as low as she could go we insisted on bartering as they were quite expensive compared to most others we'd picked up. She tried to persuade us to have a look round the rest of her wares to try and recoup some dong but we were already on our way with our purchase. The French Quarter was at the other end of the lake, so we skirted half of it and left it behind us. The good thing about the French Quarter was that it contained walkable pavements, so we weren't mingling with the mopeds on the roads all the time. The bad thing about it, was that there was hardly anyone around. We had a look at the Opera house, which was the main draw and then decided to find a cafe to get lunch and have a cold drink. After that, we walked around looking for things to do but couldn't really find anything. We found a bakery inside a deserted shopping centre and had a sweet treat after our lunch. We weren't surprised to see the mall empty as all the shops were top of the range designer ones, which 99% of people at home can't afford, let alone in Vietnam! Unimpressed by the French Quarter we decided to leave it behind us and mingle once more with the littered streets of Hanoi in search of the temple of literature. It turned out to be more of a trek than expected but we had a spare afternoon, so we stuck with it. We paid the entrance fee and started to have a nose around. The temple is almost 1000 years old and also hosts Vietnam's first national university. The first couple of areas consisted of just gardens and what we later discovered was called "The Well of Heavenly Clarity". It was a nice area to have a wander in, away from the dinh of traffic noise despite being in the centre of the city. The final area was the temple itself. Before we had a look around we went into on of the shops at the side to buy some more water and a cold drink each. We tried paying with a 200,000 Dong note (about £6). Some kind person had punched a hole in Ho Chi Minh's face though and the cashier absolutely refused to accept. We asked why but all she could say back was no. We went to the shop opposite and tried again. We got the same result there. We got a bit angry at this point as it was a perfectly good note, with just a small hole missing. We were never going to prevail though and decided to give up. We did have stalled money but refused to use it as there was nothing wrong with the 200,000. We were annoyed now and it affected us in making the most of the temple. We were also completely out of water so only had a quick look round and headed back in the direction of home and a supermarket. Along the way we popped in a small shop to try our luck again and get a cold drink. This time, without hesitation(I'm not sure she even looked at it), the cashier took it and it was out of our hands. After a supply run to the big supermarket we headed back to our hotel for the final time. We visited our usual restaurant that night and we were pleased to see the recptionist from our hotel there as well, in a much cheerier mood than earlier that morning. It is always reassuring to see locals who recomended a place eating there as well.
James and Charlotte
No comments:
Post a Comment