Our first long train journey
Hanoi,
Vietnam
Monday, August 25, 2008
Sun 24th - We arrived in Hanoi at 6.45am after spending 36 hours on a train, travelling through some beautiful countryside and coastline along the way. We had a young Vietnamese girl in our cabin. She was really sweet but couldn't speak English, and we can't speak Vietnamese and so we tried to communicate with gestures. We are getting very good at sign language!
When we found a hostel, we checked in and then went to the lake to look for the post office so we could call the bus company in Wuhan to try to arrange a bus, as the train is full. No luck. No-one speaks English, so we have spent the day trying to figure out how to get to Wuhan. So far all we can do is get a bus to Nanning, which is in China and then sort out a connection from there. Bit of a wasted day, but rounded off with a nice meal at a Vietnamese restaurant, so al is not lost!
Mon 25th - We went to see the Mausoleum for Ho Chi Minh, but no luck with that. His body is in Russia until next week. Not entirely sure why but hey. A street seller had followed us and so we bargained hard with him to get a Lonely Planet for China for $10 (a photocopied one but good quality). Next stop was the park to see Ho Chi Minh's house on stilts. In the park we saw some monkeys in a tiny cage which we thought was really cruel. We couldn't do anything except buy them some nuts which we handed to them through the bars of the cage. They were really gentle when they took the nuts and seemed to really like them.
We also saw three weddings inside the park - the brides all looked very beautiful.
After we had spent a while in the park we decided to move on and went to see the lake opposite the park, before heading to see the Presidential Palace and the One Pillar Pagoda. The Presidential Palace is a huge but beautiful building, just up the road from the One Pillar Pagoda, which is standing on one pillar in the middle of a pond. It was cool! We then went to see the Temple of Literature. This was the first University of Vietnam (National University), but it was blown up during the war in 1946 and then rebuilt as a memorial temple. Inside are statues of the President and Vice President of the university, and also lots of Buddha's for praying to. There is also a music room where we saw some Vietnamese women in traditional dress playing different instruments. It was really nice. We really liked this temple - it was set out over quite a big area and was on two different floors, so there was lots to see. It was definitely worth it.
On the way back to the hostel we stopped off at the lake to take pictures as we had not taken any yesterday, with the stress of trying to find a bus. The lake is really pretty and we didn't want to miss out on the pics!
