Sunday, February 16, 2025

Last night we slept for the first time in the The Chi Boutique Hotel in Hanoi. We didn't sleep well, first the cold of yesterday, then restless because of a new unknown environment.
We wake up at half past six and then take a shower. The shower is nice, enough good hot water, and that refreshes. When we look outside we see that it is raining a little.
We go downstairs to have breakfast. It is busy in the breakfast room, but there are still tables free. The hustle and bustle is over quickly, it seems like a large group that leaves together, and then it is nice and quiet to have breakfast.
There is only Vietnamese coffee, it is drinkable but we do not find it great. Furthermore, there are various types of bread including baguette, cheese, a few types of sausage and sweet sandwich fillings. There are also hot Asian dishes and eggs can be prepared.

We go to our room for a while and at nine o'clock we are downstairs where we are awaited by the guide and the driver. It rains a little and we are cold, we did not bring any coats from Thailand.
Today's program includes a visit to a market, the literature temple, the Hồ Chí Minh mausoleum and a trip in an electric cart around the largest lake in Hanoi. We decide the order ourselves.

The market appears to be located in a 40 to 50 year old residential area of Hanoi. This area was built to house workers from the textile industry.
They are small flats, four floors without a lift. Often a balcony has been built out (and fitted with bars here called a tiger cage) to create more space. Nowadays this area is popular with starters who want to live close to Hanoi but who cannot afford a large modern house.
The market consists of a small hall, but mainly of people who just sell something along the street, usually food. The first thing we see is something we think is pork, but it turns out to be grilled dog, here in Vietnam a lot of dog is still eaten.
We walk around the market and it is nice to see, it keeps raining every now and then.

We continue to the Hồ Chí Minh mausoleum. There can be a very long line of visitors there, but fortunately that is not the case now. We join the ticket office, after which all the bags we have with us are scanned. Our large camera has to go in a red bag, which we have to hand in a little later, large cameras are no longer allowed inside.
Via a covered gallery we finally arrive at the mausoleum, all accompanied by military personnel (or police), it is very quiet and orderly.
Het mausoleum is een groot gebouw waar het gebalsemde lichaam van Hồ Chí Minh al meer dan vijftig jaar ligt opgebaard, het is voor de Vietnamezen erg belangrijk.
When we are outside again, we can now look around ourselves. It is quite busy on the grounds and everything, the buildings, the gardens, looks well maintained. We look at (at the outside of) the palace, a building built by colonial French, the stone house of Hồ Chí Minh, the later wooden house and finally the room in which he lived the last period of his life. Then we walk past the single-pillar pagoda, where people can make a wish.
It continues to drizzle during the entire visit.

Then follows a tour in a golf cart around the largest lake in Hanoi, the Tay Ho Lake, a ride of over 12 km.
There are a lot of restaurants and there are a lot of hotels along the shore. If the weather is nice it is undoubtedly nice, but we have no coats and we are cold.

Then follows a lunch in a traditional restaurant in the Ng. Hàng Bông. This is a neighborhood with a lot of restaurants, and there is also a railway line running through it with coffee houses built along it.
The restaurant where we eat (outside under a canopy) is simple but the food is very tasty, much better than yesterday.

After dinner, we visit the Temple of Literature (Văn Miếu). This used to be a Confusional temple where the first university of Vietnam was also founded.
Now it is a monument, where many students also come. During our visit, diplomas are awarded, which is very nice to see. The buildings, made of wood, are also worth a visit.

The guide asks what we want, back to the hotel or another walk through the neighborhood where the hotel is located.
We want to go back, we are quite tired and we want to be in a warm environment for a while.

After a while we go outside again, looking for sweaters or jackets. In a shop, a kind of outlet, we find two jackets that we buy for about 25 Euros and put on immediately.
We walk around the neighborhood, now also through all kinds of side streets, and see a lot of catering establishments. In Vietnam, a lot of coffee is drunk and it is very busy.
We sit on the balcony of a coffee house next to the church for a while, and we enjoy the fuss and bustle below.
Then we walk to a nearby lake, the Hoan Kiem lake, the road around the lake is closed to all traffic except pedestrians and we finally go for a drink, and also eat in a restaurant, HANOI 1930 Bistro, on the first floor with a view of the lake. We choose to sit inside.

Written on: 2025-02-17

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