Hanoi – Uncle Ho’s “resting” place

After my worst sleeping bus experience to date, Nick and I arrived into Hanoi on the 25th of May. We made our way to the famous Hanoi Backpackers. The only backpackers we have found in our trip through Vietnam, and one that comes highly recommended from everyone that has been there. And it was good, although a little overpriced, the people there are all like minded and the roof top bar and organised tours are all great fun. On Sunday arvos they even have free beer (useful for keeping ones mind off lost camera’s I’ve heard – but I digress).

After arriving frightfully early for what seems like an all too frequent a circumstance on this holiday, we headed out into town to see the sights. First stop was the big lake in the middle of town “Hoan Kiem Lake” which has two temples on islands in the middle. The one in the picture below is Thap Rua - the Tortoise Tower:

 

The Ngoc Son Temple is accessible by a bright red bridge shown below:

Here is an interesting statue just near the lake, one that clearly demonstrates the communist side to the city.

At 10am that day, we found a pub, (we were travelling with another aussie girl named Lisa and two kiwi blokes Andy and Sam. The pub was called “Le Pub” and whilst not the cheapest place in town for drinking, it was air conditioned which is always a bonus. So we started a game of 500 and tried out the local brews.

On the way back we tried some interesting street food and DIDN’T die, although I did take a photo in case I did.

That night, we went out for drinks with one of the workers at the hostel, who showed us the local markets Bia Hoi, (draught beer) and then onto Flannigans the Irish pub in the area and friends with the Hostel’s owner. At midnight, police came into the pub and closed it down, (apparently a normal practice).

The following day nice and early, we took a bus to start the Ha Long bay cruise.

I did miss out on the “opportunity” to see Ho Chi Min’s embalmed body since it is only on display for a short period each morning and not on Mondays. But yeah, not sure how that goes as far as resting places go.