Ha Noi

Well, I’ve finally got round to completing the record on our trip to Vietnam.

Being the capital, Ha Noi has many public buildings and parks. Jen was very keen to see the Temple of Literature. Here there are numerous stelae recording details of all successful graduates from the 15^th to 18^th centuries.

Each one sits on a tortoise which is one of the animals associated with the area.

I'm not sure what the significance of the birds is. They are very long legged and have a small sphere in their beak.

There are reputedly some tortoises in the Hoan Kiem lake.

They are rarely seen but they have a preserved specimen in the Temple of the Jade Mountain in the middle of the lake. 

This is the bridge leading to the island.

We made one trip out of Hanoi, to Ha Long Bay. It was a four hour bus trip each way so quite a long day. The countryside was interesting, seeing the widespread cultivation that is throughout the flat areas of the country.

The bay is full of small islands, limestone outcrops really, and has many different ecological zones. We saw a very small part of it and the views were a bit hampered by the perpetual haze we encountered in Vietnam. Not entirely sure whether it was pollution or natural – probably a mixture as it was much worse in the cities. 

Our boat trip included lunch and a chance to go kayaking. The pictures of this are on Jenny’s camera and there is no sign of her photos yet. I live in hope!

One of the best known landmarks is this double rock, variously called cocks fighting or cocks kissing.

It features on the 200,000 dong bank note (the currency trades at about 20,000 dong to the dollar, so this note is worth $10!).

Back in Hanoi we saw people playing badminton on a make shift court on the pavement.

Noreen and Jenny found a court marked on the ground so had a pretend game.

Noreen impersonated a local again (for 20,000 dong).

I was thrilled to discover that the railway line ran through the town. Houses had been built up on either side. There were few trains running – I saw none while I was there.

Finally, I have no pictures, but one of the highlights of Hanoi and the trip was going to a performance of Water Puppets. This is a uniquely Vietnamese entertainment rarely seen outside the country. Traditionally it was performed in flooded rice fields but we saw it in a purpose built theatre. The “stage” is a 4 metre square water tank. The puppeteers stand in waist high water behind a bamboo screen and manipulate the puppets on long rods. It was amazing the movement they could get and the brightly painted puppets looked very realistic.