Last full day in Hanoi

This morning started reasonably early as I awoke again to the propaganda being pumped out of the loud speakers up the road. I had a quick breakfast and then jumped in a taxi to take me to the Temple of Knowledge. I had read that the temple was definitely worth seeing and they recommended that you get there before the tour buses so I arrived about 8.30am.

I got out of the taxi and was met with a sea of people trying to get tickets for the temple. Everyone seemed to be local though - hardly any tourists. So I joined the throng and followed the locals in pushing my way to the front of the ticket booth and shoving my 20,000 Dong through the hole to get my ticket. I literally had to elbow my way out of the ticket booth and by the time I reached a bit of space, I had worked up a sweat - I just had to laugh!

After taking a couple of minutes to compose myself, I walked with the crowd through into the temple area. It seemed that all the locals were there to offer prayers to the idols in the temple before heading off to work. The temple itself was the first university in Hanoi and around the central lake, a ring of tablets with the name of each person who graduated from the university with a doctorate degree.

As I walked into the first temple, I was struck by the strong smell of incense burning and I stood and watching people offer money and prayers to the idols. The religion in Vietnam is a blend of many religions many based on Buddhism so it was a little familiar to temples I had seen in Thailand.

I left the first temple and headed to the larger, two storey temple at the back. Again, more people praying and giving offerings to more idols. I climbed up the stairs and had a great view of the temple grounds. I walked back slowly along the outside walls of the temple grounds. The temple was OK but nothing too spectacular. Definitely not worth the argy-bargy I had to go through to get the ticket!

From the temple, I walked up the street until I came across a little cafe called Smile. I had read about this cafe in the guide book as they trained former street kids in hospitality and they work in the cafe. I popped in for a quick cappuccino and a pain au chocolat and sat there planning my next move while dunking my croissant.

I continued up the road and headed into the Museum of Fine Art. In the first building I found an amazing display of the costumes and artefacts of the different ethnic groups found throughout Vietnam. It was amazing how many groups there were and how different their traditional clothing was.

I wandered through the different levels of the museum looking at ceramics, paintings, sculptures and religious artefacts for the rest of the morning. It was a great museum and well worth visiting. I really enjoyed wandering around and for the majority of the time that I was there, I was the only one in the museum.

From the museum, I wandered up the road and stumbled upon a groovy little English language bookstore. I bought a Bobby Chinn cookbook which I thought would be a good one to have seeing as Dee and I were going to his restaurant tonight. I also looked around a great furniture, homewear store called Dome.

By this time I was incredibly hot and sweaty so I walked back down the road and found my way to Koto, another restaurant that trains and employs disadvantaged youth. Dee text me to say she was on her way back into town from Halong Bay so I had sat in the Koto Temple Bar and had a drink while reading my cookbook waiting for her to arrive.

Dee turned up soon after and we ordered great food - prawns, green mango salad and other appetizers - and as usual, a couple more beers! We were quite merry by this stage so we walked back to Dee's hotel and picked up her stuff before jumping in a cab to my hotel where Dee was going to stay with me tonight.

We relaxed for a little while before heading out to hit the shops for the last time. I took Dee to the couple of the boutiques I had been to down the street from the hotel then we headed back into the Old Quarter to pick up the last couple of things Dee was looking for. We took a cyclo through the streets of Hanoi which was an interesting and somewhat 'scary' experience! See video.

We stopped into Le Pub (again!) where they had $2 cocktail specials today and had a couple of drinks while we watched the world go by. Dee found her tea set and other bits and pieces she was looking for on the same street and we grabbed another cyclo back to the Old Quarter to pick up the dress that I was having made before we walked back to the hotel.

We arrived in time to have a shower to refresh ourselves before heading out to dinner. We jumped in a cab again and headed a fair way out of the city to Restaurant Bobby Chin. The restaurant had moved locations recently and the old location was close to the hotel but now we traveled for about 30 minutes out of the city to a tiny nondescript villa where the restaurant had relocated.

As we arrived, both Dee and I were a little wary as the place looked a bit dodgy but as soon as we went inside, we could tell it was a pretty cool restaurant. We had a glass of Prosecco in the downstairs lounge before heading up to dinner. The chef Bobby Chinn is half Egyptian, half Chinese so we weren't too surprised when we saw shisha pipes on the tables!

After our cocktail we headed upstairs to the tiny dining room. The place was packed but this meant that there were about 15 people there! The waiter was really friendly and helpful and we enjoyed an amazing meal with a bottle of wine. The standout of the night was the red grapes coated in goat's cheese and pistachio nuts - an odd combination but like a party in your mouth! The beetroot salad was also amazing as were the coconut prawns and the chicken curry.

We finished the meal with a trio of creme brulee - amazing! We were so full but managed to roll downstairs again for a final cocktail and some shisha. We lounged about on the diwania for an hour or so and before we knew it, we were the last ones in the restaurant! We asked the staff to call us a cab and we headed home after an amazing night - great food, great atmosphere and great company!

Day by myself in Hanoi

With Dee traveling to Halong Bay, I had the day by myself in Hanoi. I was woken up by sunlight streaming in my window at some ungodly hour of the morning! About 7am, the loudspeaker down the round started spewing our socialist propaganda for an hour or so. By this stage I was well awake and so headed downstairs to breakfast. While I had my breakfast, I looked through my two travel guides to work out what I was going to do with my day.

First thing I did was walk out of the hotel and across the road to Mocha, a coffee shop, for my cappuccino fix! After this I walked around the local area checking out the small boutiques around the hotel. After a couple of hours, I was hot and sweaty again and so I headed back to the hotel for a couple of hours to cool off and relax.

About 1, I walked up to the lake to find another branch of the Pho 24 noodle chain and had my second bowl of Pho noodles (with a beer of course) overlooking the lake. After lunch, I decided to try and find my way back to the Old Quarter where Dee and I had been last night. I walked around the lake and into the area where I thought the shops were but got completely lost for about two hours. I did get a chance to look around a bunch of small shops however. The photo was taken as I was wandering. I was too stubborn to get out my travel guide or to take a cyclo to the area I was looking for but eventually I did find my way to Le Pub where Dee and I had had a drink last night.

I wandered around a bit longer but was pretty exhausted by this stage so I headed back to the hotel for a couple of hours to lie down and cool off. On the way home, I bought a couple of things, a dress, some stone bowls with b rass around them, a tea set, and some purses.

After a relaxing afternoon, I showered, and headed back out into the streets for more shopping and also to find a place for dinner. I bought another little dress at an Australian designer's boutique and also found a cute little tea light holder shaped like a traditional Vietnamese person carrying two baskets on their shoulders.

Not far from the hotel and near the boutiques, I went to La Restaurant for dinner. I had an amazing Vietnamese fish curry as well as some fresh spring rolls with a lovely glass of wine. A great meal!

From there I walked up to the lake, headed to Fanny's Icecream and picked up a passionfruit icecream cone and then did a lap around the lake to observe the locals. It seemed like everyone was out and about. Some people were doing aerobics classes (despite the heat!), one lady was doing a hula-hoop kind of thing with a huge string of coconuts. A lot of parents were out with their kids and every bench seemed to be filled with young couples soaking up the moonlight by the lake. It was a great walk and by the time I got back to the hotel I was completely exhausted after a great day so I headed straight to bed.

First day in Hanoi! (6 months complete on the blog!)

The alarm went off at 4.10am this morning - not fun! I was in the taxi to the airport at 4.30am. I had checked in online so I went to the bag drop and before I knew it I was boarding the plane to Hanoi. An uneventful three and a half hour flight and I arrived in Vietnam with a driver waiting to pick me up.

I arrived at the hotel at about 10.30am and my friend Dee met me not long afterwards. The Church Hotel where I was staying was a cute little hotel in a great area. After meeting Dee and chatting about her tour in Cambodia and other parts of Vietnam over breakfast, we walked up to one of the main shopping areas in Hanoi - about 10 minutes walk from the hotel.

We wandered around for a while looking at bits and bobs. We were so hot and sweaty that by the time we came across the first bar, we were ready for a beer - it was 11.15am! We headed back towards Dee's hotel for lunch and enjoyed Pho noodles (pronounced 'fur') for lunch with a Hanoi beer. After lunch we walked to Dee's hotel and she introduced me to a few of her tour companions and we spent a couple of hours relaxing in her room before heading back down to my hotel.

We recovered from the heat there for an hour or so before heading down the street a couple of doors to La Salsa for a sangria and some tapas on their balcony overlooking the catherdral. As we sat there, a huge rainstorm rolled in and we watched the world outside try and escape from the torrential rain.

After finishing our drinks, it was still raining so we jumped in a cab into the Old Quarter for dinner. We went to a great restaurant called Green Tangerine which was in an old (1926) villa. We sat in the open air but covered part of the restaurant and enjoyed a great meal of Asian fusion seafood, salmon for me and seafood paella for Dee. As you can see from the photo, Dee (and I) also enjoyed dessert! After dinner, we wandered around the streets for a while looking through some of the shops before heading back to our respective hotels. We were exhausted after both having a long day of travel.

I said goodbye to Dee as she was heading off to Halong Bay for a day and half and we will meet up again on Thursday.

I got up to my room, fell into bed and slept like a log! Great first day in Hanoi!