We had nice long showers, done some laundry and met the others for breakfast at 9am. We decided to go our own ways to see the sights of Hanoi and meet back at the hostel at 1pm. We headed straight to the old quarter to compare prices of a tour to Halong Bay and the price of the train south to Hue.
After our research we found a great café for tea and coffee then as all the places we wanted to see closed between 11am and 2pm we decided to take an all over body massage which was a nice treat after all the long journeys we have been through.
We ended up going with ET Pumpkin travel agency as recommended by the lonely planet. While discussing our findings with Brenda and Kevin they also decided to use the Pumpkin Company. We have chosen the 3 day, 2 night tour while they have chosen the 2 day, 1 night tour and will spend one more day in the city. As a result we are catching the same train south and so have booked our tickets together so that we shall share a 4 bed cabin.
We then took a short walk to the oldest temple in Vietnam and from there we again went our separate ways with the aim of meeting up later. We walked to a temple on an island in a lake that supposedly contains gigantic tortoises but we did not see any! We then continued to walk to the Hanoi Hilton Prison where prisoners of war were kept in the American War. We found this very interesting and discovered that there were some remains of a B52 in a local lake which we then took a taxi to.
While in the safety of the taxi we could really appreciate the craziness of the traffic around us, there simply are no road traffic rules! Back in the old quarter we had dinner and returned to the room to relax for an hour or so until we met the others at the water puppetry show at 8pm.
We had back row seats which were the cheapest and the most squished but we could still see perfectly well. The show was not in English and was basically several scenes of Vietnam myths stitched together with wooden puppets in water to live music. It was an experience to say the least!
On the way back Kris rushed to watch the end of the Man U v Liverpool match while I strolled back via the night markets. We are both very tired as its been a long but very enjoyable day.
After our research we found a great café for tea and coffee then as all the places we wanted to see closed between 11am and 2pm we decided to take an all over body massage which was a nice treat after all the long journeys we have been through.
We ended up going with ET Pumpkin travel agency as recommended by the lonely planet. While discussing our findings with Brenda and Kevin they also decided to use the Pumpkin Company. We have chosen the 3 day, 2 night tour while they have chosen the 2 day, 1 night tour and will spend one more day in the city. As a result we are catching the same train south and so have booked our tickets together so that we shall share a 4 bed cabin.
We then took a short walk to the oldest temple in Vietnam and from there we again went our separate ways with the aim of meeting up later. We walked to a temple on an island in a lake that supposedly contains gigantic tortoises but we did not see any! We then continued to walk to the Hanoi Hilton Prison where prisoners of war were kept in the American War. We found this very interesting and discovered that there were some remains of a B52 in a local lake which we then took a taxi to.
While in the safety of the taxi we could really appreciate the craziness of the traffic around us, there simply are no road traffic rules! Back in the old quarter we had dinner and returned to the room to relax for an hour or so until we met the others at the water puppetry show at 8pm.
We had back row seats which were the cheapest and the most squished but we could still see perfectly well. The show was not in English and was basically several scenes of Vietnam myths stitched together with wooden puppets in water to live music. It was an experience to say the least!
On the way back Kris rushed to watch the end of the Man U v Liverpool match while I strolled back via the night markets. We are both very tired as its been a long but very enjoyable day.
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