Hanoi, Vietnam

Welcome to Hanoi, Vietnam. I took these pictures of the drive from the airport to the city. We left sunny Perth to arrive in overcast but warm Hanoi on Dec. 15th, 2010. I think it was even raining a little bit on the way to our hotel. We had arranged all of our trip through Vietnam with a travel agent in Hanoi and we are happy to say that everything went very smoothly. When we arrived at the airport there was a driver to meet us and take us to our hotel.

Billboards written in english.

Colourful old buildings.

Lots of vehicles on the road. Many motorcycles. Check out the high heels this woman on the right is wearing. Motorcycles are the most common vehicle on the road. They are cheap and easy to get in and out of traffic with.

Braeden and Terry on the streets of Hanoi. Look at the wires above their heads. I was amazed at the number of wires.

Do those wires look safe to you?

A modern city yet you still see people using more primitive forms of carrying goods. We were warned that there may be someone come up to you and put this stick on your shoulder and then want you to pay to have your picture taken with it. A woman did try to do this to us but we declined.

Dinner at 69 Bar-restaurant. There was a young Vietnamese man working at our hotel who was helpful with finding good places to eat. The Lonely Planet guide also came in useful.

Here I am trying the regional specialty called Cha ca (fish broiled in broth and served with noodles, fresh dill and peanuts). The waitress was showing me how mix the food together to eat. It was absolutely delicious! I loved the food in Vietnam. I was a little freaked out by the way it was served. If you look at the picture before you can see how small the table was and that bucket the frying pan is sitting on had hot coals in it. I was afraid someone was going to bump it and I was going to get burnt. All went well though and I finished my meal without incident.

Terry in front of our hotel.

Lots of shoes for sale on the streets. Nothing in Braeden's size (11 1/2).

This woman is selling a tonic for men to drink. Each bottle has a snake and a scorpion in it.

Street vendor. The fruit looked delicious.

We shared a room with Blaise and Braeden.

We went on a city tour. Here is a guard below the house on stilts where Ho Chi Minh lived and worked from May of 1958-August of 1969. Ho Chi Minh was the president of Vietnam. His house was very simple.

Guard near the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Complex. If anyone stepped on the pavement in from of the mausoleum he would blow his whistle and point to the sidewalk where he wanted people to walk.

This is the holiest of holies for many Vietnamese. The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Complex. It is the final resting place for Ho Chi Minh. We lined up two by two to walk through and look at the embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh through a glass sarcophagus. We were not allowed to talk and we were to keep our hands in sight (no hands in pockets).

Shrine inside a temple. I can't remember what the name of this place was.

Buddhist temple.

At the Museum of Ethnology. A collection of art and everyday objects gathered from Vietnam's diverse tribal people. This is inside a house on stilts.

More motorbike riders in Hanoi.

Linnea in front of a Buddhist temple.

Here is another picture of Ho Chi Minh's house on stilts.

This is the One Pillar Pagoda near the Presidential Palace. It was built by Emperor Ly Thai Ton and designed to represent a lotus blossom, a symbol of purity, rising out a sea of sorrow. The man from Singapore who was on the tour with us was surprised at how small the pagoda was in real life. He had seen pictures and expected it to be much bigger. We climbed the steps to see the shrine inside.

More pictures at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology.

Outside a small home at the museum.

This little guy was from Singapore. We were on the same city tour together. He was scared to climb down from this very tall house. Blaise was finally able to talk him down.

Ede longhouse. This structure modeled on a longhouse in Ky village, Buon Ma Thuot city, Dak Lak province. It is over 42 metres long and would have accommodated the families of daughters and granddaughters of an extended matrilineal family. During the 1980's both longhouses and the communal living organization that they fostered disappeared rapidly from the Central Highlands.

This spectacular communal house of the Bahnar with a height of 19 meters was built in 2003 by 42 villagers from Kon Rbang village, Kontum town, the Central Highlands. According to the Bahnar, communal house is the symbol of skill and strength of the villagers, especially the power of men.

The entrance to the Temple of Literature. The temple was dedicated to Confucius in 1070 by Emperor Ly Thanh Tong and later established as a university for the education of mandarins.

There were many amazing topiaries like this one on the grounds of the Temple of Literature.

These are flowers and the message is something about learning from your teachers. The fellow from Singapore could read mandarin but our tour guide couldn't.

This is called a stelae. In 1484, Emperor Le Thang Tong ordered the estalishment of stelae honouring the men who had received doctorates in triennial examinations dating back to 1442. Each of the 82 stelae that stands there is set on a stone tortoise.

Water puppets that are no longer in use.

Loving brothers. I think they were getting a little bored on the city tour!

Ngoc Son Temple

Picture that shows something about a sword and a tortoise that lived in the lake.

Terry buying donuts from a street vendor in Hanoi.

The remains of a gigantic tortoise that used to live in the Hoan Kiem Lake. There is a legend about a sword and a tortoise and a king.

Inside the Ngoc Song Temple.

Men playing a board game outside the Ngoc Son Temple. Hoan Kiem Lake is in the background. It seemed to be a gathering place for Hanoians.

We arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam yesterday. We left Perth at 5 minutes past midnight on Dec. 15th and travelled for a little over 7 hours to Hong Kong. Our plane was late leaving Perth so I was worried that we might miss our connecting flight to Hanoi. When we arrived in Hong Kong there was a man waiting for us to take us to the gate to get on the plane to Hanoi. Thank goodness for him, it was a long way, we had to go to a different terminal by bus so we could travel Dragon Air.

Terry had arranged the trip to Vietnam through a travel agent in Hanoi so it was great, there was a driver to pick us up at the airport and take us to our hotel. We are staying at the Asia Palace 2 hotel here. It is a small hotel but the room is very nice and the staff are so helpful.

Hanoi is called the Grand Old Dame of the Orient, the most graceful, atmospheric and captivating capital city in Southeast Asia. It has some interesting architecture and some beautiful lakes. We are staying in the Old Quarter of Hanoi. There are masses of motorbikes and a tangled web of streets. The city has ancient history, colonial buildings and yet it is modern as well.

We did a city tour. I am writing this blog now that I am home so I won't be writing as much detail. I'll let the pictures tell the story.