Hanoi by bus and on foot

So we actually slept in until 6am today, instead of our usual being wide awake at 4am! We got ready and went for an amazing buffet breakfast at our hotel, which is included in the price of our room. There were lovely varieties of tropical fruits, fresh juices, amazing coffee, soups, sushi, cereal, and the regular bacon, eggs, sausages, toast, croissants and baked goods. Enough to last us for the day, and so delicious!

We left the hotel around 8:30 and explored a few of the nearby streets before heading to the Hop On/Hop Off bus in the town centre. We got off at the flag tower, built in 1812 as a military observation post for the Ngyuyen Dynasty, and was part of the Hanoi Citadel and a Wotld Heritage site. We passed by the Military museum, and Lenin’s statue and from there to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, where apparently his body is still on display - it was closed to the public today which was just fine with us! In the same area is the Ho Chi Minh Museum, and the National Assembly house. We walked down to the Tran Quoc Pagoda, passing many vendors selling such things as fresh chestnuts, roasted corn, goldfish, tiny birds and baby turtles 😳. The pagoda has more temples, similar to the ones we saw yesterday with food and gift offerings to Buddha, and lots of burning incense! So interesting to see local people paying their respects and leaving monetary donations at the altars. There were interesting cartoon depictions at the Pagoda of the Law of Khama according to Buddhism - some of them quite funny!

We left there and decided to go for a coffee at a place called Highlands Coffee. This is a chain of about 80 coffee shops in Vietnam, and the brainchild of a Vietnamese American who, after seeing the success of Starbucks in his home town of Seattle, decided to try his hand at a similar venture in his country of origin back in 1998. He started out just selling packaged coffee then expanded to coffee shops in 2002, the first one opening in Ho Chi Minh City (former Saigon), and the rest is history!

We continued on our trek, passing through a beautiful tree lined street with amazing houses, built in the French style from when Hanoi was occupied by the French from 1946 to 1954. We then passed by a lovely old church (Cua Bac) a Roman Catholic Church built in 1932. Headed back to the hop on bus and continued the tour passing the a Temple of Literature and the Hoa Lo prison. We hopped off again at the Hanoi Opera house, which was apparently build to the style of the Garnier Opera House in Paris, but on a much smaller scale. Back on the bus to the hustle and bustle of the Old Quarter, where our tour originated - more interesting vendors in this area, including a lady carrying the biggest bunch of helium balloons I’ve ever seen!

After walking 11.6 kms today, we went back to our hotel for some downtime, and decided to have a quiet dinner at the hotel restaurant. The food was amazing and very reasonably priced. We returned to our lovely suite to catch up on the day and rest in anticipation of another busy day tomorrow!Read more