I awoke to the same sound as to which I had fallen asleep - the tap tap of blackberry keys. Priscilla was doing her usual round of early morning messaging and emailing.
I decided to get up and go for a quick wander around while the girls got ready. Everywhere I walked I was offered lifts by motorbike drivers - I guess tourists aren't expected to walk anywhere in Hanoi. I am not sure which is safer, walking the streets and dodging motorbikes or riding on the back of one and hoping for no collisions.
I managed to make my way back to the hotel despite briefly getting lost. The girls were ready and we set out to explore the city. We had picked out a few restaurants and food we wanted to try so it was going to be gastronomic tour as well as sightseeing. First stop was going to be a cafe called baguettes & chocolat recommended by lonely planet. As anyone who has been reading the blog lately will know this should have set off warning bells for us. I managed to navigate us to the right street but the cafe was nowhere to be seen. After asking around a few people we were still none the wiser. Eventually we found the correct address which looked highly unlikely but we tried the door anyway. Someone then spoke to us and told us that the cafe was closed and where we were trying to enter was actually somebody's house.
So we gave up on lonely planet recommendations and decided to try a pho place called pho 24 that had been recommended by our jetstar inflight magazine. The 24 refers to the number of hours that they simmer the soup stock for.
This place was some distance away so we decided to get a tuk tuk. However we discovered in hanoi they don't really have the motorized tuk tuks we were used to in cambodia. Instead they have bicycle rickshaws, where the driver does all the legwork. For about $2 we had a couple of these guys peddle us for about 10 minutes. Fortunately for them there were no hills to climb on the way.
The food at Pho 24 was very good. We tried two different types of Pho, one just with beef and the special which also had tripe. While the food was good the experience was spoiled a bit when we got the bill. They tried to overcharge us for the Pho and also charged us extra for napkins and peanuts. Fortunately Steph spotted this and after a bit of arguing we got them
to fix the bill. While it wasn't a lot of money (maybe a couple of dollars) it was the principal of it that pissed us off. It seems like a lot of people in Vietnam will try to scam tourists, which is a real shame.
After our meal we headed off to find Tao Lo prison (aka the Hanoi Hilton) , where US airmen shot down during the vietnam war were imprisoned. These included John McCain who spent a number of years there after being fished out of a lake in Hanoi when his plane was shot down.
Unfortunately the museum was closed for lunch so we decided to head back later and in the meantime visited the Temple of Architecture. This was established in the 11th century as a tribute to confucius and later served as a university for the education of mandarins. Confucius is known to asians as the father of civilization and orderly conduct. He taught men how to be gentlemen. Several years of the school graduates were inscribed on a huge stone on top of a turtle sculpture. Turtle, along with phoenix, dragon and unicorn are the four mythical creatures of vietnam. The temple consisted of a number of courtyards and small pagodas. It wasn't that impressive - I guess we are templed out after Angkor.
We walked back to the Hanoi Hilton and spent some time touring around there. Originally the prison was used by the french to imprison political prisoners who opposed colonial rule. It seems the conditions we're pretty barbaric, we even saw a gullotine they used to behead those sentenced to death. The most interesting part was the section on the american prisoners during the vietnam war. We got to see John McCain's flight suit and parachute from when he was captured. There were also displays on how well the Americans were treated with care packages and christmas celebrations. I think this was mostly propaganda, but if anyone wants to undermine the McCain campaign then they might consider tipping off the US media about how he had a cushy life as a PoW.
After the prison we decided to wander over to the History museum, mostly because we heard it was a great example of colonial architecture. On the way we got accosted by a lady with the traditional vietnamese balancing baskets and conical hat trying to sell us fruit. She wasn't very successful at selling us fruit due to her rip off prices but I did get some amusing photos of Priscilla and Steph donning her garb. Will definitely have to post those to the blog soon.
We also stumbled across the real hanoi hilton on our way. This was a lot more comfortable than the prison and we popped in to use the facilities and a fruit tart.
While walking to the history museum, we stumbled by a lady selling dragon fruit. We purchased on and asked her to show us how to eat it. To our surprised it was the kiwi-like fruit we've been eating every where. Steph and Priscilla made me eat some to counter all my beer consumption.
Eventually we got to the history museum. The building was pretty impressive but we opted to give the museum itself a miss. Outside the museum there was an exhibition of bonsai trees which was pretty cool. All shape and sizes...all done up very well.
By this stage we were pretty much done with sightseeing and headed back to the old quarter for more culinary touring. We wanted to try a vietnamese sandwich, banh my. We found a local place and shared a sandwich. It was pretty good but for me it wasn't as good as the one we had tried the day before in Hoi An. Then again I didn't have a stinking hangover this time which also might explain it.
We spent some time on the internet. I checked for hotels to stay in Bangkok while Priscilla and Steph explored some of their options for Australia. I will be heading back to New York from Bangkok this Sunday while the girls continue their adventure. I am a bit sad now that my trip is nearly over.
For dinner we headed to another place we had read about in the jetstar magazine. This is a famous place called Cha Ca La Vong. Apparently it was even listed in the thousand places to visit before you die book so we definitely wanted to try it. The restaurant only serves one dish which is fish sauteed in a pan above hot coals at your table. The fish is sauteed with various different herbs, spring onions, and dill. We each had a side plate of rice noodles. We all thought it was very good although we were a bit disappointed with the servings and even ended up ordering an extra serving. Still it only cost about $5 a head so can't complain too much.
On the way back to the hotel after dinner I stopped off at an ATM to get some cash. There were some kids playing around outside as I went in and no sooner had I closed the door than they pushed in after me. I was a bit taken aback by this, but seemingly they just wanted to play and not scam be for money. Their play however consisted of them trapping me in the ATM by pushing against the door so I couldn't get out. This provided a great deal of amusement to Priscilla and Steph and they started to take photos (for some reason the little terrors weren't 'playing' with them.). Of course this only encouraged the kids more. After a few minutes of being trapped by these kids (the oldest must have been about 10) I managed to escape by acting all scary. This is another one of the photos we will have to post to the blog.
When we got back to the guesthouse, we just quickly packed our bags for our ha long bay boat trip and snoozed away.
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