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Hanoi, Hanoi!
Aug. 27th, 2002 02:30 pmWould you believe that the only problem we have with our hotel room is that we can't turn the fan *off*? Actually, that's not the only problem. Our hotel is on Silk Street, and the first floor is a silk boutique with gorgeous clothes and fabrics hanging all over the place. Argh!
Last night, we went to the Water Puppet Theatre and broke our budget buying first-class tickets... for 4$ a piece. ^_^ The show was lots of fun, and featured phoenixes (phoenixae?) reproducing... I'm not kidding. They dipped under the water, and then an egg floated to the surface! *laugh* The show was composed of little skits showing peasant life, animals and the like. And with first-class tickets, we got to take home a tape of the music featured in the performance. Sweet!
Today we took a city tour, which took us first to see Uncle Ho, who doesn't look all that hot in that sickly pink lighting. We saw the One Pillar Pagoda (it's all small and cute!) where I was given a lotus blossom as thanks for buying a water bottle. Too bad I had nowhere to keep it, and it wilted pretty fast in the heat, anyway. Next we visited a 1000-year old pagoda, that has little shrines to the Holy Lady and to the Green Lady (to whom you're supposed to offer a sacrifice if you have more than 100 water buffalo or something like that, I didn't quite understand what our guide was saying).
Lunch was included in the tour, and it was in the restaurant of a hotel. As soon as we started eating, we heard some spectacular claps of thunder, and then the heavens burst. So this is what they were talking about when they said rainy season... Fortunately, it stopped just as we were finishing, so we didn't get soaked.
After lunch, we visited the Temple of Literature, the first university in Vietnam. On either side of one of the inner courtyards, there are stellae inscribed with the names of all those who passed the exams, sitting on the back of turtles. Legend has it that if you rub the head of one of the turtles, it will make you smarter. M-P made a point of rubbing no less than five heads.
Next stop was the Citadel, built by the French on the site of a far older, vietnamese Citadel. There's graffiti inside, including "Vive la France" carved into the bricks.
Our last stop was at a restored house in the Old Quarter. It's very nice inside, and it's a shame that Canada's climate wouldn't allow building such a house there.
Tonight, we're planning to splurge and go to a restaurant that actually has a dress code. We didn't go yesterday because M-P was wearing shorts and a tank top, so they wouldn't have let us in.
Speaking of restaurants, we went to a delightful little place yesterday that had been recommended by a Swiss couple we met in Hue. It's a bakery on the ground floor, with mouth-watering pastries in the display case, and a restaurant on the second floor. The food is good, very reasonably priced (read, cheap by our standards) and the place employs young people from poor families, training them so they can get good jobs in hotels and restaurants across the country.
And they make scrumptious little apple tarts.
Last night, we went to the Water Puppet Theatre and broke our budget buying first-class tickets... for 4$ a piece. ^_^ The show was lots of fun, and featured phoenixes (phoenixae?) reproducing... I'm not kidding. They dipped under the water, and then an egg floated to the surface! *laugh* The show was composed of little skits showing peasant life, animals and the like. And with first-class tickets, we got to take home a tape of the music featured in the performance. Sweet!
Today we took a city tour, which took us first to see Uncle Ho, who doesn't look all that hot in that sickly pink lighting. We saw the One Pillar Pagoda (it's all small and cute!) where I was given a lotus blossom as thanks for buying a water bottle. Too bad I had nowhere to keep it, and it wilted pretty fast in the heat, anyway. Next we visited a 1000-year old pagoda, that has little shrines to the Holy Lady and to the Green Lady (to whom you're supposed to offer a sacrifice if you have more than 100 water buffalo or something like that, I didn't quite understand what our guide was saying).
Lunch was included in the tour, and it was in the restaurant of a hotel. As soon as we started eating, we heard some spectacular claps of thunder, and then the heavens burst. So this is what they were talking about when they said rainy season... Fortunately, it stopped just as we were finishing, so we didn't get soaked.
After lunch, we visited the Temple of Literature, the first university in Vietnam. On either side of one of the inner courtyards, there are stellae inscribed with the names of all those who passed the exams, sitting on the back of turtles. Legend has it that if you rub the head of one of the turtles, it will make you smarter. M-P made a point of rubbing no less than five heads.
Next stop was the Citadel, built by the French on the site of a far older, vietnamese Citadel. There's graffiti inside, including "Vive la France" carved into the bricks.
Our last stop was at a restored house in the Old Quarter. It's very nice inside, and it's a shame that Canada's climate wouldn't allow building such a house there.
Tonight, we're planning to splurge and go to a restaurant that actually has a dress code. We didn't go yesterday because M-P was wearing shorts and a tank top, so they wouldn't have let us in.
Speaking of restaurants, we went to a delightful little place yesterday that had been recommended by a Swiss couple we met in Hue. It's a bakery on the ground floor, with mouth-watering pastries in the display case, and a restaurant on the second floor. The food is good, very reasonably priced (read, cheap by our standards) and the place employs young people from poor families, training them so they can get good jobs in hotels and restaurants across the country.
And they make scrumptious little apple tarts.
