Hanoi

We flew into Hanoi on Thursday and arrived at a much bigger airport than the one we had left behind in Vientiane. Stepping outside the airport, we were met with what looked like absolute taxi chaos, with cars stopping in the middle of the road to pick up or drop off. Luckily our accommodation had arranged a taxi for us for free! It was just a case of finding our driver in the mess of people and luggage. After a short search, Will spotted our names on a whiteboard and we weaved our way over to the driver. On the taxi ride we got to see glimpses of the surrounding area, with the skyscrapers getting steadily closer as we neared the city. However, our progress slowed as we got more central and we noticed a definite increase in the number of motorbikes and scooters until, by the time we reach our guesthouse in the Old Quarter, we were surrounded! We were excited by all the hustle and bustle of the street, so once we'd checked in we were keen to explore. It was dinner time by this point and we were looking forward to trying Vietnamese food! We found a nearby restaurant that did a set menu of traditional dishes. It was a bit pricier than the street food options, but gave us the chance to try a bunch of different dishes without having to think about what to order. We really enjoyed everything we sampled and pretty much cleared the whole table!

Friday started with a cyclo tour of the Old Quarter, where we got to pass by St Joseph Cathedral, Dong Xuan Market and The Opera House. It was a bit nerve racking being peddled face first into oncoming traffic and our driver did not seem to adhere to the traffic rules all that well, but fun to be in amongst the locals as they went about their day. Our ride ended at the Water Puppet Theatre where we purchased tickets for a show later on in the day. We made our way back to our accommodation by winding through the Old Quarter streets, grabbing lunch along the way and trying not to get run over. After the heat had subsided a little bit, we re-emerged and retraced our steps back to the Water Puppet Theatre. The show was unlike anything either of us had seen before, but we soon got into it and were laughing along with the crowd. There were several stringed instruments that we didn't recognise, varying from guitar-like to harp-like. We were particularly impressed with a one stringed instrument that the women plucked with one hand and controlled the pitch with her other hand. These cultural traditions are a really great way to get to know a new country and we always try to get involved when we can.

On Saturday I managed to convince Will to go to the old French prison, where political prisoners were kept before Vietnamese independence. Will doesn't usually like these kinds of activities as they often depict depressing stories of the horrible ways humans treat each other. He prefers to experience a city as it is today and enjoy it's modern culture, rather than dwell on the mistakes of the past. In contrast, I believe it's important to understand the history of a place and how it might have influenced the city. This time my viewpoint won out and off to the prison we went. After spending a couple of hours there learning about the prison conditions and hearing stories from prisoner's memoirs, it was time to leave. We grabbed lunch on the way back to our accommodation for our usual early afternoon hide from the sun. The rest of the day was spent chilling and in the evening we had a video call catching up with some friends back home.

The next day we walked to Hoan Kiem Lake, near where we saw the water puppet show a few nights before. During our previous visit to the area, we spotted a pretty red pedestrian bridge leading to a temple on an island in the lake. On the way to the temple we were approached by a group of school children and their teacher. The teacher explained they were learning English and asked if we would be willing to stop and talk to them so that the students could practice . Thirty minutes later and we'd talked to 5 kids between us, having had the same conversations about sport and animals multiple times and we were ready to move on. The teachers thanked us and took our photo with the students before leading them away, probably off to find more tourists to engage in conversation. Once we'd paid our entrance fee, we were allowed to cross the bridge and explore the temple, where we learnt it was dedicated to a national hero. Nearby we spotted a city bus tour kiosk and spent the next couple of hours happily watching the city from the window of a mini bus, with the onboard guide pointing out sights of interest. In evening we took a food tour in the Old Quarter for dinner. This introduced us to new food that we probably wouldn't have picked from a menu ourselves and gave us the opportunity to meet other people on the tour. The tour ended at the famous Train Street, where we had a refreshing drink on the side of the track and watched a couple of trains go right passed our faces!