Hanoi day 2

Unfortunately we both woke up still feeling rough this morning :( we went for a very disappointing breakfast then explored a temple in the middle of the lake in the city centre commemorating an ancient story of a turtle and a sword.
After resisting for 3 weeks, we finally did some tacky souvenir shops! They were honestly great and we picked up some postcards, magnets, Kath got me a tiny metal Buddha and I got her a bigger stone Buddha as an early bday present, amongst other things.
We then looked around the city cathedral built by the French, which looked impressive from the outside but there wasn't much to look at inside.
The highlight of the day was a traditional water puppet show at Thang Long theatre. It was a 50 minute show of 16 short traditional stories. There was 10 performers either side of the stage dressed in brightly coloured clothes who played instruments and narrated (we had a headset for English translation). It was an extremely enjoyable watch and very clever and charming. When the show finished, the water puppeteers appeared from under the stage, and I hadn't realised they were standing in the water while controlling the puppets!
Our original plan for our last night together was to go to one of the cheapest Michelin star restaurants, which is in Hanoi, but we thought it'd be wasted on us, so we found a very nice (though less fancy) vegetarian restaurant for dinner.Read more