9th November - In Hanoi   Geoff Brock & Bruce Gamble
         
     

 
 
 
 

Hanoi: Ho Chi Minh Museum, Temple of Literature, Hoa Lo Prison, Ngoc Son Temple

Thursday 9th November 2017
 

It was our first full day in Hanoi and it was raining quite hard for the first part of our planned city tour. Our guide, Quan helped us to acquire some rather fetching rainwear(!) and we managed to stay more or less dry. Later on, the rain cleared and we were able to do the second part of the tour on foot instead of hopping in and out of the car.
 
Beforehand, we enjoyed a Vietnamese breakfast at the hotel. This was the first course.
 
Quan and our driver arrived promptly at 9:00 a.m. to pick us up.
Our first stop was at the Ho Chi Minh Museum.
 
 
Stylish Hanoi rainwear... one friend thought Geoff looked like a quality street!
 

The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum is somewhere in this direction, but we couldn't get there because the access path was closed for "maintenance". We weren't that bothered because a) it was still raining hard and b) the mausoleum was closed anyway owing to the fact that Ho Chi Minh's embalmed body was away in Russia, also undergoing maintenance! Unfortunately we couldn't see the "One Pillar Pagoda" either, which is just beyond the barrier.
 
Our next stop was at the Temple of Literature,
built in 1070 and dedicated to Confucius, sages and scholars.
(That's Bruce in the foreground looking like a purple quality street!)
 
One of many Turtle Steles
 
 
 
 
 
 
Confucius
  
 
 
 
 
Back in the car and on to our next stop, Hoa Lo Prison aka "The Hanoi Hilton"
 
 
 
 
 
Our last car journey was to Hoan Kiem Lake (which we had walked to from our hotel last night).
 
We crossed the Huc Bridge toward the Ngoc Son Temple.
 
 
Another view of the Turtle Tower in the centre of the lake
 
 
 
 
 
Ngoc Son Temple
 
 
 
 
 
 
After the temple visit, Quan accompanied us on a walking tour of the Old Quarter.
 
 
 
 
We sampled green bean paste buns which Quan bought for us - they were very tasty!
 
 
We also drank some Vietnamese coffee. It was quite strong, with a distinctive aroma and taste. There was condensed milk at the bottom of the glass and, using a spoon, it was possible to sweeten the coffee to taste.
 
The morning tour completed, in theory we had the afternoon at leisure to continue our exploration of the city independently. In practice, jet-lag and our long flights, not to mention the heat, had taken their toll and we both wanted an afternoon nap!
 
In the evening, we met a friend, Steve, who lived and worked in Hanoi for several years and knew a thing or two about the city. He took us for a drink to one of his old haunts, which just happened to be across the road from our hotel. From the outside, the place looked unprepossessing and we would almost certainly not have ventured down this narrow passageway ourselves.
 
Upstairs, however, it was a spacious venue with several welcoming looking rooms.
 
Later, we had an excellent meal at a restaurant nearby.
 
Later still, we invited Steve for a drink back at our hotel. It was great to catch up with him.
 
 
 
©Geoff Brock and Bruce Gamble