Walk, bus, walk, bus, walk, rest, relax!

After another great breakfast at the hotel, we headed outside to find it raining! Luckily we brought our rain jackets so off we went walking through town, dodging scooters, cars and bikes - it’s a different world here, where crosswalks mean nothing and pedestrians have no right of way! 😳. We arrived at the centre of town and hopped on the hop on bus - we bought a 2 day pass and find this really is the way to go in cities around the world. We got off at the Temple of Literature, an almost thousand year old building which was Vietnam’s first national university. It is one of several temples in Vietnam which is dedicated to Confucius, sages and scholars. There are numerous courtyards, pavilions and halls where study sessions and strict exams took place before it became a “Monument Historique” under the French protectorate in 1906. (Interestingly, it was also featured in The Amazing Race 22!). More offering altars at the back of the temple - this one with interesting cans of food, including Bird’s Nest White Fungus - no thanks!! 🤢. As we were leaving, a large group of graduating students gathered to have their photos taken, which was awesome to see.

We crossed the street from the temple and entered the Ho Van cultural village where we saw artists displaying their Vietnamese arts and crafts. It sits next to Van Lake which has lovely floating lotus flowers scattered around. At the end of the village are many booths where artists make banners with ancient calligraphy - most are dressed in traditional clothing and are very friendly!

We hopped back on the bus to the opera house again and then went for a coffee at another of the Highlands Coffee shops. As we left there, we saw photographers taking wedding photos of a newly married young couple on the steps of the opera house (naturally, I made Dave take a photo too! 😁).

We walked through a very opulent area with fancy hotels and stores, one being the Hotel Metropole, which had a couple of beautiful old Citroen cars parked outside, and the most amazing, huge live orchid plant I’ve ever seen! Carried on to Trang Tien street where Hanoi’s famous Ken Trang Tien ice cream shop takes up a few store fronts. Naturally, I had to try one, and chose the coconut milk flavour, which was delicious. Headed back to our hotel and decided to go for afternoon tea in the restaurant upstairs - a lovely array of fruit and desserts with tea or coffee.

We had booked spa treatments at the hotel before we left this morning, so headed to the spa around 4pm for amazing massages! Back to the room to veg for a while after, then another lovely dinner in the hotel restaurant. Tomorrow we leave for a cruise through the beautiful scenery of Ha Long Bay - about 2 hours east of here - so time for some shut eye to be refreshed for that! 😊Read more