Hanoi

Hanoi is a short flight from Hong Kong, making it a convenient weekend destination. We departed Hong Kong on Friday afternoon on a Vietnam Airlines flight. We were pleasantly surprised by VA - the plane was relatively new and a full meal was served despite the fact that the flight was only 1.5 hours. Upon arrival in Hanoi, we were able to clear immigration and customs quickly and found a taxi to take us to our hotel. The taxi ride was a chaotic - the driver sped past people on bicycles and scooters, trucks and other cars, honking pretty much the entire way. There were only a handful of traffic signals that we saw.. at intersections everyone just kind of picks their way through cross traffic. Most people in Hanoi drive scooters and they are everywhere! Just crossing the street can be a challenge.

Our home for the weekend was the historic Sofitel Metropole. Normally we do not splurge on 5-star hotels, but prices in Hanoi are very low compared to other cities, so we decided to go first class. Our room featured classical furnishings, hardwood floors, a garden bathtub, a plasma TV, and silk robes and slippers for lounging. We could get used to this!


Relaxing in the Metropole


The tropical fruit bowl included a mango, grapes, and a green orange... evidently most oranges in Vietnam are green on the outside.

Pretty much all stores and street vendors accept Vietnam Dong or US$... one Dollar = around 15,800 VN Dong. We went to the ATM and withdrew 1 Million Dong.. and we thought it would take decades to make our first million.


Millionaire (in Dong)

After unwinding in our hotel for a couple hours, we headed out to find some dinner. We walked a short way to Hoan Kiem Lake, the center of Hanoi. There we found several restaurants, and we picked one that appeared to have a good number of customers... I ordered beef cooked with garlic, which turned out to be a questionable decision because I smelled like garlic for the rest of the weekend.


Dinner

After dinner we took a stroll around the lake, which has a mythical history.

From Wikitravel:

Hoan Kiem Lake is a pleasant park in the center of town. It's the local residents' favorite leisure spot and a great place to watch locals doing early-morning tai chi. Hoan Kiem means "returned sword", and the name comes from a legend in which King Le Loi had a magical sword which he used to drive back the Chinese. While boating on the lake one day, he encountered a giant turtle, who grabbed the sword and carried it down to the depths, returning it to the gods from whom it had come. The giant turtles still reportedly inhabit the lake, and were last seen in 1998.

Supposedly seeing the elusive turtle brings good fortune. Hmm.. wonder if we might get a chance to see that turtle...


Hoan Kiem Lake at Night

As we were walking back to the hotel we came upon a surreal sight - a group of women doing aerobics in the park. They seemed to have their routine down well.. their moves were perfectly synchronized with the music playing on loudspeakers.


Night time aerobics


Hanoi Opera House

On Saturday we set out to see the major historic sights in Hanoi. To get around we hired two Cyclo drivers to give us a tour. They charged us $2 per hour each.

Our first stop was the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, where the former Communist Revolutionary and Vietnamese president is on display. Before entering the Mausoleum we had to check our bags and camera, then we lined up single-file with other tourists and waited for our chance to go inside. Uniformed guards were present at every step. Just before going inside, they instructed tourists to remove their hats and keep their hands out of their pockets. Finally we entered the cold, dimly-lit tomb, where we filed past Ho Chi Minh's body, lying in a glass casket, surrounded by four soldiers wielding bayonets. A strange scene indeed.

Nearby we visited the aptly named One Pillar Pagoda, which was kind of boring aside from the fact that it was built in 1049 and stands on a single pillar.























Next we visited the Temple of Literature, which had large courtyards and some interesting carved stone tablets that record the names of scholars who studied at the temple between 1442 and 1779. These tablets rest on stone turtles... they really like turtles in Hanoi and evidently have for some time.


Temple

Temple of Literature

Temple

Wooden dolls for sale

Phoenix

Next our cyclo drivers took us down some interesting streets through the Old Quarter to the largest market in Hanoi.


Bamboo Street

Cyclo Ride

At the market Annette shopped for new sandals. Each sandal on display had a little plastic foot in it.. we thought that was kind of funny. Wes shopped for an imitation North Face backpack (200,000 Dong) before we bought a few decorative coasters and other handicrafts.


Shoe Shopping

The dried shrimp and squid looked tasty, but we passed on these. Evidently the shrimp are good when re-constituted in water, or dry. We saw several people snacking on them right from the pile.


Dried Shrimp


Memorial outside market.


Hanoi Street

After seeing the best the market had to offer, we passed by St Joseph's Cathedral, which dates from 1886. The church looked quite run-down, but our guide book says it is full on Sunday.


Cathedral

Our last cyclo tour stop was the infamous Hanoi Hilton (Hao Lo Prison), where the French imprisoned and tortured Vietnamese revolutionaries in the 1930s, and the North Vietnamese held and tortured American pilots during the Vietnam War. The museum displays went into great detail about the sufferings endured by the Vietnamese at the hands of the French, but when we reached the part of the museum about American prisoners, a sign stated that American prisoners were treated well and never tortured. It was interesting to see propaganda alive and well.


Hanoi Hilton


John McCain's uniform on display


Street Scene

After our tour we headed back to our hotel for afternoon tea.


Back at the Hotel

Tea Time

In the afternoon we took part in a Vietnamese cooking class with Tam, one of the hotel chefs. Before we went to the kitchen she took us to the local wet market to show us how to select ingredients for Vietnamese cooking.


Hanoi Market

Tam showed us several herbs, including Vietnamese cilantro and a lemon flavored herb. The market also had booths with fresh meat (including dog!), seafood, grains, spices, and fruit. The market was a noisy place, mostly because locals drove their scooters down the narrow aisles, honking all the way.


Herbs at Market


Rice


Bananas


Cinnamon

Back at the hotel, we began the class. Tam showed us how to make spring rolls, fish soup, fried rice, stuffed crab, grilled fish, and spiced beef. All of the recipes included fish sauce, a staple in Vietnamese cooking made from fermented anchovies. Vietnamese cooking also uses a lot of fresh herbs like we saw at the market.


Time to cook


Ingredients


Spring Roll


Cooking


Fish soup and Rice

For dinner Saturday night we went to the Spices restaurant at our hotel. While we ate we were serenaded by a quartet playing traditional instruments.


Dinner


Traditional Music

Day 2

Our hotel stay included a breakfast buffet and it was fantastic. It featured a mix of French and Asian breakfast favorites.. fresh bread, butter and jam, cheeses, custards, made to order omelets, tropical fruit, bacon and sausage, plus dim sum and 'pho' - a noodle and meat soup that Vietnamese eat for breakfast. Mmmm..


Breakfast Buffet

After breakfast we went out for a little more sightseeing and shopping. We went back to Hoan Kiem lake and walked out to the temple that is on an island in the lake. In the temple there was a stuffed turtle on display. Yep, they love their turtles.


Turtle on Display


The sacred turtle

While we were walking around the lake, we saw a big crowd gathering on one side of the lake. There was a traffic jam as locals on their scooters stopped in the middle of the road to see what was going on. We went a little closer to see what all the commotion was about.. we looked out into the water and there it was! The famous turtle! I guess we are going to have good luck now.. too bad they don't sell lotto tickets around here.

Eventually a police truck with a loudspeaker came to disperse the crowd. Seems that public gatherings are frowned upon.


Onlookers causing a traffic jam.


The turtle!!

We needed a break after all the excitement, so we stopped by a hip coffee shop for some cold drinks and coconut ice cream. The bookshop had Lonely Planet guides for $6-$10.. which is a bargain since they cost $25-$30 in Hong Kong. We decided to buy the guide for Malaysia since we are planning to travel there later. After taking it out of the wrapper we discovered that the book was photocopied!


Taking a break

Next we took a walk by shops offering local arts and crafts, including embroidered artwork and tablecloths, lacquered bowls, oil paintings and more. We purchased a couple small paintings for $5 each and a beautiful tablecloth for $18. We went into an oil painting studio where artists were duplicating famous works of art by hand. The copies were quite good.


Street Scene


Instruments for sale


Lake

Finally the time came to head back to the airport. We paid a $14 departure tax and again cleared immigration and customs without any problem.

We are already planning a return trip to Vietnam.. we would like to take a few days to do a cruise on Ha Long bay.


rice fields near the airport