I don't know if there's any better way to take in somewhere then on foot provided that you can actually walk around safely, and it doesn't take you an eternity to get from one place to another.
I've always enjoyed activities like walking and cycling, and it just so happens that in the last three countries I have been to, these are the best ways to get around.
Partly due to the transport infrastructure of Vietnam and because of the size of both Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi the only real methods of getting around for tourists are on foot, by cyclo, on a motorbike or in a taxi. I think I took enough taxi's to last me a lifetime in the Philippines, and with the traffic here it tends to run the meter up pretty high whilst you're sat going nowehere.
I haven't yet had the opportunity to use a cyclo (that doesn't mean offers haven't been forthcoming) and I can't see my mum on the back of a motorbike (though it would be hilarious) so walking is the main method we've been using to get from place to place since she arrived.
Neither here or in Ho Chi Minh City hasn't been so spread out that it's difficult to get from one place to another, and I think to be honest that we're both enjoying the adventure of walking around.
This would be the best country to far to have had the opportunity to use the greatest-invention-never-invented; The Contact Lens Camera, as I literally feel like I could take pictures and videos every two steps as something new will happen or I will see something fascinating.
Vietnam is massive sensory overload, even to someone who has visited eight different countries and seen many different things in the last two months.
I'm not sure that any place will top the amount of photos I took when I went to Cambodia and visited all the fascinating temples of the Angkor Architectural Park, but in terms of a city that I have visited, I think that Hanoi is definitely up there so far.
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Even though it was only a short journey from Ho Chi Minh to the capital, I feel like two hours on a plane was definitely enough to tire me out as I went to bed last night having started to develop a headache.
Woke up feeling refreshed this morning though and headed downstairs to breakfast where there was actually quite a vast choice of stuff. It's quite strange for me, not eating breakfast in general as I don't think I'd be able to function through the rest of the day without it but, I'm someone who usually goes for cereal first thing in the morning, but aside from maybe one or two hotels where they hard cornflakes on offer it's been more a combination of hot food and toast. There was some porridgey looking type thing on offer this morning but I didn't really fancy discovering what it was.
Today the plan was to take in quite a significant portion of Hanoi's sights. Well I guess that wasn't the plan originally, but looking at the map we were due for a fair bit of exploring and hopefully would have the opportunity to see a number of things which had been highlighted to us on the map as interesting sights.
The hotel we're staying in as I think I mentioned yesterday is in the Old Quarter of Hanoi, and the map we were given by the hotel nicely demonstrates what we are on the northern tip of the city . The Old Quarter continues on the west of the map we have, and that's where we were headed today as we packed up the bag and headed out of the hotel.
Even at around about 10.30am on a Sunday morning, the streets of Hanoi are crammed full with people milling about everywhere. The market may have disappeared, but the shops on each side of the road remain.
There are so many people just round about everywhere here that is makes for quite a scene. Where we're staying there are lots of tourists, but also plenty of Vietnamese people who are zig-zagging through the area on mopes.
Naturally many of the streets in the old quarter aren't in the best condition, and sometimes where they lead is illogical, but we managed to navigate ourselves back to the main road, before going in the opposite direction to the one we headed yesterday when visiting the lake. It too was really busy, and seemed to pulse with life as cars and pedestrians both tried to fight their way down the road, looking for any space they could take. I'm really amazed there aren't more accidents here with the proximity that cars and motorbikes get to the people forced to walk on the road because the paths are pretty much inaccessible.
We followed the map pretty successfully and after about an hour or so came on Truc Bach Lake which sits at the very northern part of the Old Quarter. It is quite a peaceful and scerene place but doesn't actually have the best surrounds as my pictures will show:
Opposite Truc Bach is West Lake which was our first destination as we had come to take a look at the Tran Quon Pagoda which sits on the Eastern Part of the lake:
It looks like a traditional Asian pagoda and is made up of eight floors stacked on top of one another which get smaller and smaller until they reach the top. Unfortuntely we'd arrived at a time (and there are many of them) when the pagoda is closed, but I was more than satisfied to take pictures of it from a distance, and this might have even been better because the view from close up might not have been quite so good:
West Lake itself is quite a beautiful place, and although boats were on offer at Truc Bach Lake, there were certainly more being used to take in the sights of the larger of the two which gave you an excellent opportunity to take a look at the skyline of northern Hanoi:
We walked around a little bit of the lake before continuing on the path towards a main square which was a huge wide open space with some impressive looking buildings around it:
Ba Dinh, as I later discovered the square was called, is famous because it is the sight of Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum. Vietminh leader Ho Chi Minh read the declaration of independence there in September 1945, and there is a large building which is around 75m tall which has been created in the form of a memorial to him. The man responsible for creating the Democratic Republic of Vietnam lies embalmed inside the building which is protected by military honour guards and is only open for around three hours a day. We didn't get to go inside because it was closed, but there are some very strict rules including no photography in the area where his body lies in the central hall of the mausoleum.
From what I read it seems to be a very busy place where people gather each day, it's just such a shame it is only open for such a short amount of time as I would be fascinated to see such an honour paid to a leader that Vietnamese people clearly owe so much to.
There is a museum dedicated to Ho Chi Minh behind the mausoleum itself and a rather impressive looking garden set out on the far side of the concrete building where his body was laid for rest.
Behind the monument itself is another landmark in Hanoi, and thankfully this one was open and relatively easy to find:
There is a museum dedicated to Ho Chi Minh behind the mausoleum itself and a rather impressive looking garden set out on the far side of the concrete building where his body was laid for rest.
Behind the monument itself is another landmark in Hanoi, and thankfully this one was open and relatively easy to find:
The One Pillar Pagoda is a historic Buddhist temple in the city, and is regarded as one of the most iconic temples in the country alongside the Perfume Temple which is in the Huong Tich Mountains. Standing in place originally during the eleventh century (this replica was built in the 1960's) it is a very ancient building which looks extremely simple from the exterior:
I guess it's location was probably selected because of how highly it is considered within Vietnam, and it was certainly interesting to look at in comparison with the Tran Quoc Pagoda we'd seen earlier in the day.
I guess it's location was probably selected because of how highly it is considered within Vietnam, and it was certainly interesting to look at in comparison with the Tran Quoc Pagoda we'd seen earlier in the day.
Navigating the streets again we continued on to the former military heart of Hanoi where a number of historic buildings sit. Just along the side of the street you could see the top of the Flag Tower:
And around the front of this is The Old Citidel Building which is still heaily guarded by the military. Around town there are lots of Citidel-type buildings and you seen men with guns standing outside them more often then not.
Continuing our walk we headed back in the direction of the hotel and found St Joseph's Church which is a very old looking Gothic Revival style church which was modelled on Notre Dame de Paris. It is the oldest church in Hanoi and was built in 1886:
It was pretty quiet when we walked past but I understand that it gets very busy in the evenings as people to go watch mass and listen to hymns each day.
After all the walking my mum and I needed a little rest so we headed back to the hotel for a break. On the way we grabbed a sandwich from a nearby shop as neither of us had eaten since breakfast. Whilst we were in Ho Chi Minh City, we'd seen in the guide book that the airpot gave my mum that something recommended for tourists was a Vietnamese sandwich, but when we'd tried to go to the shop which sold them on the street next to where we were staying, it was closed.
Thankfully there was another one just around the corner from the hotel so we grabbed a bite to eat and went for a well deserved rest. The sandwich wasn't anything flashy, but it was very tasty, especially considering it has been a few hours since I'd eaten. I had a meatball sandwich which was really nice, and my mum had a chicken one which had a bit of a kick to it, and was equally delicious.
After our rest we decided to go for another little walk before dinner and headed in the direction of the lake once again. Having walked across the bridge towards the exit, but not actually visited the temple itself we decided that pay Ngoc Son Temple a visit.
It is also known as the Temple of the Jade Mountain and sitting on a little island of it's own, it is a pretty peaceful and delightful place:
The decoration of the temple was really good and it is dedicated to Confician and Taoist philosophers. You got a great view out onto the lake which was drenched in sunlight as we stood there and looked out onto it for a while:
It was quite busy with people although perhaps the busiest place is Cầu Thê Húc (Welcoming Morning Sunlight Bridge - the red one we'd seen yesterday) and it was difficult to make your way across it without ruining at least three people's pictures.
With renewed energy we decided to carry on towards the square we'd spent some time in last night, and once again it was very busy with people. My mum stopped off at the post office to buy some cards, and I did a lap of the block whilst I waited. Once we'd figured out where to get stamps from we managed to post them (I'll be interested to see how long they take) and then continued on for a quick look at the opera house which was a very impressive looking building from the outside.
For dinner tonight we decided to go to a restaurant near where we are staying and found one with a few decent options on the menu. I have been doing my best to stuck to Vietnamese food, and my mum also joined me tonight as we had two plates of Pho (traditional noodles) and then also ordered some spring rolls to go with it.
Whilst we were trying to eat dinner there were these two little kids running around on the street, and at one point one of them came to sit next to me at the table miming for me to let him have some of my drink. I tried to shoo him away, but he ignored me, and instead one of the people who works in the restaurant gave him a very stern telling off and sent him on his way!
I actually think if I didn't have more countries to travel on to after this, I would definitely have done some souvenir hunting, but I really don't feel like completely filling up my bag as I still have a number of what I hope will be exceptional countries to visit.
We decided to take a walk back through the market again tonight to help our food go down, and this time we continued down the street instead of turning off back to our hotel.
The market seemed to continue endlessly on as it widened towards another little market hall which had been active during the day but was not closed as everyone headed out onto the street. We did a complete loop to see everything that was available, and there were some stalls which were incredibly busy as people hunted for the bargains which were being sold at some incredibly low prices.
Once we'd completed our circuit of the market we came back to the room, and sat and watched a few films that were on the hotel cable service. I really don't generally tend to watch too much TV at home, and even though the chances of me finding anything to watch seemed slim, there were actually a couple of good films on some of the Western-style Asian channels.
With lots of walking down I was feeling pretty tired once again although I'm pretty sure I now sleep with the constant din of motorbike horns in my head considering I spent almost every minute of the day hearing them!
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