30. Hanoi

So I caught the night train from Hue to Hanoi, along with Anna who I had met the previous day and who just happened to be booked into the next sleeping compartment to me. We played cards, and were joined by two lovely Swiss boys aged 9 and 6 who were travelling for a year with their parents, doing some formal schooling on the way, and learning a whole lot more besides.... 

I'm sure that their travels will stand them in good stead for the rest of their lives. They were confident, inquisitive, playful and very capable kids. They soon started to teach us some new card games, the rules of which neither of us actually grasped.... But it wasn't their English skills that was lacking!

We arrived in Hanoi after a 15 hour journey, to be met with a grey and drizzly day. The first signs of rain that I had seen since Singapore! Our hotel was down a small alleyway in the Old Quarter

The Old Quarter is where it's all at... Hanoi is full of wonderful coffee houses. This one had a really retro feel....

The view down the street...

And again at night overlooking the street with the cacophony of bikes and horns below.... Yes we did actually leave and come back again, although we didn't mean to come back again but we stumbled on it as we were looking for somewhere else! The Old Quarter is like that, it's very easy to get lost in the maze! But we made the most of it!

Wandering round during the day we saw this

And this on the opposite corner...

And who would have thought that this doorway 

Would lead to this alleyway, past a silk shop

To this entrance complete with cat and motorbikes

To this rooftop bar overlooking the Hoan Kiem Lake!

Wonderful! We explored lots of the Old Quarter... But couldn't walk on the pavements...

All the bikes park on the pavements.... And of course Hanoi is famous for its beer houses.... 

And street food..... One lunchtime we had Bun Cha 

With spring rolls. The food in Vietnam is so so so so good, and so nutritious and so cheap if you eat from the street vendors. They each have their type of food that they specialise in, and when it's gone it's gone. This lady packed up as we finished, about 1.30pm. But she had probably been on the go since 6am....

Yes I was sitting on those little plastic chairs again...! 

This is the Hoan Kiem Lake in the heart of Hanoi. A huge turtle lives in its depths, and it was actually lifted out a couple of years ago and treated by a vet for illness caused by pollution....

We visited Ho Chi Min's Mausoleum and saw his embalmed body's lying in state.... Unless you believe that he was buried in accordance with his wishes and this is an imitation.... No pictures allowed! 

This is where he used to live

And the museum which tells the story of his life and of the struggle of North Vietnam and communism to win through. 

We hired a guide which was well worth it to start to understand the symbolism of so much in the museum.... Very interesting. 

We visited the Temple of Literature.... Beautiful, and an oasis of calm in a frenetic city...

With some wonderful traditional music...

And our evening meal, another street restaurant.... Yummy! 

We went to the Hanoi Hilton.... Nicknamed by the American POWs during the war. The notorious prison was built by the French in the 1890s and tells the story of the struggle against the French and then of the Americans incarcerated there when they were shot down by the Vietnamese... 

I met Anna's friend who lives in Hanoi and we went out for a fabulous lunch...the locals know where to go! 

Hanoi was a wonderful city and a wonderful end to my travels through Vietnam. It was a shame it was wet and drizzly, but hey I'm used to that at home!