Hanoi

Despite my bus from Hue to Hanoi being by far the longest of my 3 night buses north, I actually got a fair amount of sleep and it went really quickly. Unfortunately I couldn't check into my hostel early as it was fully booked, so I dropped my stuff off and went straight out exploring. I firstly went and found a nice cafe though just to sit down and recover a bit after my bus journey, and to work out my plan of action for the day from there. Hanoi is the capital city of Vietnam and from what I understand Northern Vietnam where it lies has a completely different climate to rest of South East Asia whereby they don't have a monsoon season. It was still incredibly humid though.

I decided to focus my day round the cities Old Quarter, heading first to the Hoan Kiem Lake nearby. Upon arrival however I was approached by some young Vietnamese kids who were learning English, and I ended up agreeing to teach them English for a while. It went from me asking them simple questions to playing duck duck goose where they kept picking on me. It was quite a laugh though. The lake itself was pretty picturesque, legend saying a future emperor received a sword from a magic turtle on the lakes edge which he used to drive the Chinese out of Vietnam. There was a small pagoda sat in the middle of the lake, and a red wooden bridge leading to the Ngoc Son Temple on this small island at the northern end of the lake.

I then headed into the Old Quarter which was where I was staying, and home to much of the shopping and eating opportunities in Hanoi. Apparently centuries ago each street specialised in the production and sale of one kind of handicraft, with each street named after what it produced. This included streets dedicated to silk, medicine, and tin amongst many others which was still evident as I explored the narrow maze of streets. Within the streets were several pagodas which like in Ho Chi Minh were engulfed by the modern age, but still fascinating to explore. I particularly liked the smells of the food with some real interesting looking things on offer. Other highlights included the Hanoi Cathedral. I was glad when I was able to check into my hostel and lie down though, later going out to watch the Brazil v Costa Rica and Nigeria v Iceland games which were both good games.

On Saturday I went and explored some of the historical buildings and museums, heading first to the Imperial Citadel. The walled area which included these 8 gates and 3 forts round the perimeter was now primarily a museum. The site displayed several archaeological sites and relics on display from throughout Vietnams early history. The buildings that remained however were from the French colonial era, and many of them were used during the Vietnam War, with a couple of underground bunkers you were even able to explore. It was a very interesting museum with so many parts of Vietnams history taking place there.

I then headed to the West Lake where I checked out a couple of pagodas, before heading to the Ho Chi Minhs Mausoleum. Apparently his body lies preserved inside, although you weren't allowed inside the Mausoleum and the nearby museum with them both being closed because it was the weekend. You were still able to explore the surrounding gardens which housed his old house and this one pillared pagoda. Next door was the Presidential Palace and Botanic Gardens, although there was a high military presence there so you weren't allowed there either!

Next stop was the Lotte Tower, the tallest building in Hanoi where I went for lunch. I would have gone to the top but it was really expensive. From there I visited the Temple of Literature which was another interesting museum dating back to the 11th century. I particularly liked this handicraft village on site. Come evening I went out to the Water Puppet Theatre, which celebrated the old Vietnamese tradition whereby the rice farmers used to perform puppet shows in the rice fields during monsoon season. Operating the puppets behind this black curtain, they used bamboo sticks under the water so that the puppets performed on the waters surface. It was actually really good despite everything being performed in Vietnamese.

The following day I went and checked this mosaic mural situated on the side of the motorway, which was apparently the longest continous mosaic in the world. It certainly went on for a while as I joined it somewhere in the middle and followed it for a good hour and didn't make it to the end. I went to the Lotte Tower again for lunch, before heading to the so called railway street in the afternoon. The railway line basically ran through the middle of this narrow street which people lived along, and I soon found out it was a working line after having to dive into someone's house when a train passed. Come evening I went out and watched the England v Panama game.