FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX: Hanoi

The infamous train street

I last went to Vietnam with Malcolm about 25 years ago, so I was keen to revisit and was excited that it was Elliot's country of choice. However, this time around, with a slightly bigger budget, I decided to outsource the planning. Our private 9 day tour was booked with Go-Indochine, who were great and easy to work with. My brief was that we wanted a "highlights" tour, and that we didn't want to go to Halong Bay, as both my parents and I have been and were somewhat underwhelmed. My other "must" was that we were to be quoted and charged in Australian dollars or local currency rather than in US dollars to safeguard against the weakening Aussie dollar. This surprisingly took a lot of the competition out. So Go-Indochine it was as they were more than happy to work in AUD.

The heat and humidity, as mentioned yesterday, were a killer. Nobody loves 38 degrees at 90% humidity...There was a reason why this was the beginning of low season. Although Kevin, our guide, assured us that it was WAY worse in July and August. We may have looked pretty in the photos, but what was not obvious was that our clothes were all literally drenched in sweat. Kevin suggested we start at 0800am to beat the heat, but seriously I don't think it made a difference!

By the way, the hotel buffet breakfast was fantastic! I've included some photos below.

The beautiful buffet spread

The breakfast space was just gorgeous

The "hot food" side

Charming sitting nooks

Breakfast of course included pho. I chose pho ga. The others the usual beef

Breakfast would not be complete without Vietnamese coffee and condensed milk

Mixed roots and fruit with coconut milk. Delish

Today's tour was simply called "Highlights of Hanoi and evening street food tour" and we did just that. Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam with a population of 10 million, second behind Saigon coming in at 13 million. We started with driving through the beautiful boulevards of the French Quarter, with Kevin pointing out the various embassies housed in the old French style colonial buildings. He wanted to get us into the line to see Ho Chi Minh's embalmed body before it closed at 11am. Luckily for us, the line was relatively short and it moved very quickly. Kevin gave us the official spiel on "Uncle Ho". The locals were not allowed to say anything that would paint him in a negative light or question his actions and philosophy. The Vietnamese communist government spends a crazy amount of money to maintain his embalmed body for propaganda. It is compulsory for all school children to visit hence the throngs of school children, some only in kindergarten. The slogan on the side of the mausoleum reads something along the lines of "Uncle Ho lives forever in the heart of the Vietnamese people"

We moved on to the adjacent Botanical Gardens to look at where Ho Chi Minh actually lived, along with the other buildings. The space was beautifully maintained and greenery extremely soothing. We saw the "One Pillar" pagoda, a buddhist pagoda built in the 11th century during the reign of King Ly Thai Tong. The pagoda survived the ages only to be destroyed by the communists. The current pagoda is a replica rebuilt by the government under pressure by the buddhist community. By now it was getting oppressively hot. We saw the Temple of Literature, the first Imperial school in Viet

Nam, built in 1070 during the dynasty of King Ly. We also visited the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, handy for our trip up to the Sapa hillside tomorrow. Much to our relief, Kevin took us back to our hotel for a brief respite from the heat. We would reconvene at 3:45pm

Swapping one pair of bright pants for another. Ready to see Uncle Ho with knees covered!

Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum in the background. We were not allowed to take photos inside or closer to the building.

Uncle Ho lives forever in the hearts of the people!

The Presidential Palace in the Botanical Gardens

Ho Chi Minh's garage on the left and house on the right

The 3 cars he used on display

House only had 2 simple rooms

...but complete with photos of Karl Marx and Lenin

The Gardens were actually beautiful to walk around if it weren't so hot!

Jostling with the crowds and school children to see the second house which Ho Chi Minh used

Again 2 simple rooms, but looked so classy made out of timber and on stilts

You can see the hospital built just for him, also where he passed away

His personal bunker underneath

One Pillar Pagoda

All the ethnic minorities listed and Kevin went through some key ones with us

The Temple of Literature

Once again beautiful gardens

Ancient gates. These ones are original (sorry can't remember from when!)

Entrance to the fourth courtyard

Rubbing the turtle for luck. The Vietnamese Phoenix standing on top of the turtle

Lots of details in the roof line too

Moment before my mother gave up and stopped walking

Finally lunch time and a break!

Post afternoon break, Kevin slightly modified the tour to avoid the peak of the heat. We walked to watch the traditional water puppet show, a 50 minute performance in air-conditioning. Thank you Kevin! After that, he ordered one xichlo for each of us, to tour the streets of the old quarter. We felt awful for the xichlo drivers...

We met up with Kevin after the 40 minute xichlo ride to begin what was the highlight of the day, our street food tour! By now it had cooled down by a whole 5 degrees! Yay! We powered through as much as we could but simply could NOT fit in the egg coffee. It was a great way to end the day though. We farewelled Kevin as our Hanoi leg ended.