Sunday, February 3, 2013

day nine: dec 24 Huè to Hà Nôi






With a couple of hours remaining in Hue we visited the War Museum (a stone's throw from the Citadel) and took up one of the many offers for a tour of the Old City by rickshaw. As I mentioned we should have done this on our first day. It was an insightful tour of relics of the war and added an incredibly sobering element to our final hours in Huè.

The strangest things we saw on the back of a rickshaw in Vietnam:

an industrial air conditioning unit

a wardrobe: the rider had to pop his head up over the top of the 'robe at regular intervals to make certain he was still going in the right direction.

four enormous boxes of OK condoms. If you didn't know the contents of the boxes were so light you'd think the rickshaw would topple.


Dinner in Hanoi


I avoided the pig's blood. Front and centre of photo.

We flew to Hà Nôi on the final leg of our tour of Vietnam. We checked in at the Golden Silk Boutique Hotel, which is as it sounds - a boutique hotel (only lacking a pool, spa) nestled among silk shops on Silk rd. which is a bonus for those interested in buying clothing (plenty of scarves) made in Vietnam with Vietnamese silk. It's also a five minute walk from the lake and in the heart of the Old City.

Our guide, the lovely Ton, organised a rickshaw ride through the Old and French Quarters past luxurious hotels dripping with Christmas lights. The atmosphere on the streets of Hà Nôi was unlike Saigon especially in the day leading up to Christmas. Hà Nôi is a city that never sleeps, where car and bike horns are constantly blaring. Rickshaw was the best way to see the city! And we developed a real fondness for Hà Nôi.

After the rickshaw ride we saw the famous water puppets which the children loved. A short walk back to our hotel was as much as we could manage (we were exhausted) and we'd cancelled our tour to Halong Bay the following day. We decided to stay in Hà Nôi for Christmas and take a day of rest.
Hàng Gai, Hoan Kiem District
Hà Nôi, Vietnam
Tel 84-4-3928 6969
Fax 84-4-3928 6999
Email info@goldensilkhotel.com
Website www.goldensilkhotel.com
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