Hanoi

Wednesday, March 18th

The sun finally appeared at dawn in Hanoi so we had (a late) breakfast, virtually alone, on the hotel balcony. The view of the lake is even better from the 10th floor.

We could hear a chainsaw during breakfast, and this turned out to be the street terr pruners clearing branches from the power and telephone cables - tricky business!

We didn't have much planned for our "free day at leisure", but a visit to the 18th century Jade Mountain Temple in the middle of the lake was something we had saved for this day.

Beside the temple, there's the mummified (?) 250kg turtle that lived in the lake for 100 years - turtles play a huge roll in the legend of the lake, the founder of Hanoi, and a sword (allegedly). At least there are no dragons associated with this lake.

Jade Mountain Temple was unexpectedly lovely:

As was the view from a small pavilion between the temple and the water's edge.

At the entrance to the temple grounds is a representation of the turtle and the sword legend.

On an even smaller island at the other end of the lake stands a small pagoda called Turtle Tower (in Vietnamese of course). Built in the 19th century, it commemorates the turtle and the sword legend.

This is the view looking back to the northern end of the lake from the southern end - it's only about 3km around the lake - not even "bridge to bridge" in Canberra.

Another thing we had planned for today was a walk to the Opera house and the famous nearby Metropol Hotel - now owned and operated by Sofitel. These sit on the edge of the old town and mark the beginning of "up market" Hanoi, and eventually the French quarter - Prada anyone?!

Appropriately, the Hanoi Stock Exchange is located nearby - who would have thought?!

There seemed to be some kind of photographic competition going on, with models and photographers everywhere.

On the steps of the Opera House a faux bridal couple was being photographed...

And outside the Metropole there was another...then they were everywhere, including all around the lake.

Two classic Citroens wait outside the hotel for anyone keen enough to hire them for a city tour.

But for us it was coffee time - we decided against pretentious Sofitel and opted instead for the almost as pretentious local Highlander Coffee chain.

We completed our lake circuit walk, accompanied by that photographic event.

According to Prue, these are ginger bushes, here used as ornamentation beside the lake.

Meanwhile the very hard working gardeners take a well earned midday rest.

Then we returned to the red bridge and the Jade Mountain Temple.

The weather had become quite muggy, almost as bad as Saigon, so we went back to the hotel to cool off.

Our afternoon activity was a walk through the old town - many streets are dedicated to one product or another. This one seemed to only sell bamboo ladders. Apparently there's a mattress street, but we didn't find it.

Do you think a Celeste Audi is a bit OTT, even for me?

This guy tapped me on the shoulder and told me my sandal strap was about to break - incredibly, he was right! He said he'd fix it for $1, but after mending the strap, patching both soles, and giving them a good polish, he asked for $20! He got $5, and we were both satisfied.

The local Cathedral - St Joseph's.

The end of our walk was at our favourite bar - the Polite Pub.

A cold beer, accompanied by some well known cigar smokers, and we were content.

As the sun (!) almost came down on our last full day in Hanoi, we headed back to prepare for dinner.

Where outside our hotel the local telephone technician added yet another customer to the tangle over which Hanoi communicates (mobile phones excepted, of course). Why does he bother...?

 On our way home after dinner, we passed the always bustling seafood street stall just near our hotel.