( Overview
/ 50 somethings SE Asia travels
Tuesday 27th Feb - Day 33
We arrived yesterday evening, staying at the Hanoi Elite in the old quarter of Hanoi, very nice hotel. Dumped our bags in the room and headed to Duong’s 2, which happens to be #1 restaurant in Hanoi, according to Tripadvisor. Had a lovely meal and only a couple of streets away from the hotel. People seem very friendly and eager to please, amazing considering that they’ve been in wars with both France and the US during this century!
After a good night’s sleep, headed down for breakfast and then out to explore. It had rained overnight and it was still damp and cloudy everywhere but no bother for exploring...
First we headed to Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum, it was a long but fast moving queue. Lots of changing of the guard to watch and I had no idea that we’d see him actually still lying in state, it was quite unreal. After getting over the shock we headed up to West Lake for a walk around the Truc Bach Pagoda. After that we hopped in a cab and headed to Maison Centrale or Hoa Lo Prison Museum, it was quite shocking reading about the confinement of the Vietnamese during the French occupation, political prisoners were still being detained in the 1950’s in leg irons and then of course US prisoners were held there during the 1970’s. I did feel quite emotional being there. Our next stop was a walk up Hoan Kiem Lake (Lake of the Restored Sword), which has a small Pagoda in the centre in honour of the legendary turtle who grabbed the sword and swam with it to the depths of the lake to restore the sword to its Devine owners. After all the walking we decided to stop off at Luc Thuy Lounge which has views of the lake, so we sat outside, ordered our first Vietnamese beer and some spring rolls and watched the world go by. After our break we walked back towards the Old Quarter as J was (reading) glass and shirt shopping, neither being very successful as all the shirts are tiny and they want ridiculous money for reading glasses.
Having a little rest at the hotel before heading to the famous Sofitel Metropole for cocktails at Happy Hour. We may be meeting a couple we met at the airport yesterday, then we’ll probably grab some street food and get an early night as we are being picked up early tomorrow as we head off to Halong Bay for our cruise.
We arrived yesterday evening, staying at the Hanoi Elite in the old quarter of Hanoi, very nice hotel. Dumped our bags in the room and headed to Duong’s 2, which happens to be #1 restaurant in Hanoi, according to Tripadvisor. Had a lovely meal and only a couple of streets away from the hotel. People seem very friendly and eager to please, amazing considering that they’ve been in wars with both France and the US during this century!
After a good night’s sleep, headed down for breakfast and then out to explore. It had rained overnight and it was still damp and cloudy everywhere but no bother for exploring...
First we headed to Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum, it was a long but fast moving queue. Lots of changing of the guard to watch and I had no idea that we’d see him actually still lying in state, it was quite unreal. After getting over the shock we headed up to West Lake for a walk around the Truc Bach Pagoda. After that we hopped in a cab and headed to Maison Centrale or Hoa Lo Prison Museum, it was quite shocking reading about the confinement of the Vietnamese during the French occupation, political prisoners were still being detained in the 1950’s in leg irons and then of course US prisoners were held there during the 1970’s. I did feel quite emotional being there. Our next stop was a walk up Hoan Kiem Lake (Lake of the Restored Sword), which has a small Pagoda in the centre in honour of the legendary turtle who grabbed the sword and swam with it to the depths of the lake to restore the sword to its Devine owners. After all the walking we decided to stop off at Luc Thuy Lounge which has views of the lake, so we sat outside, ordered our first Vietnamese beer and some spring rolls and watched the world go by. After our break we walked back towards the Old Quarter as J was (reading) glass and shirt shopping, neither being very successful as all the shirts are tiny and they want ridiculous money for reading glasses.
Having a little rest at the hotel before heading to the famous Sofitel Metropole for cocktails at Happy Hour. We may be meeting a couple we met at the airport yesterday, then we’ll probably grab some street food and get an early night as we are being picked up early tomorrow as we head off to Halong Bay for our cruise.
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