Rainy day in Hanoi city

Trip Start Aug 12, 2006

Trip End Sep 11, 2006

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Flag of Vietnam Hanoi, Vietnam
Saturday, August 26, 2006

Well, today was meant to be a free day exploring Hanoi city on foot, as apparently that's the best way to do it. We went for breakfast at Koto, a buffet-style do which was a good start to the day. Afterwards, as we ventured on foot to the Old Quarter (the French Quarter), it began to rain. We walked along trying to find our way, and eventually did so, but mainly it looked the same as the rest of Hanoi, with lots of small shops lining the streets and selling various goods. The roads were hazardous to cross, especially in the rain.

We saw St Joseph's cathedral on the way to the lake, which was quite 'French' style. We reached lake Huan Kiem, which looked pretty when the rain stopped, although the skies were overcast which spoilt it a bit. Looking at a map of Hanoi, we thought we'd take a long walk around the French quarter, a market tour to see what the different places had to offer

Hanoi chaos

. We had to take cover in a couple of coffee shops as we tried to explore the rest of the city, before abandoning our walkaround and heading back to the hotel; the rain fell heavier as the day progressed. We looked for an internet cafe, but they were all full of online gamers, which seemed to be a big industry here.

We returned to the hotel a bit disappointed with the day and the city, and chilled out for about a while. Then we met up with the group to go to the Water Puppet show. Water puppetry is apparently a part of Vietnamese culture, and people in the villages used to put on small shows for the children. The theatre was very busy, and it wasn't easy to see the stage which was set in water. They had live music playing at the side, which was nice but too loud, especially with the high pitched shrieking of the Vietnamese women, which is their style of singing (I think).

The show was colourful, but we didn't really know what was going on as we didn't get a programme guide and the language was Vietnamese. They brought out little puppets of people and dragons and animals, doing daily things like picking rice out of the fields, or fighting with each other, or marrying each other. We endured it for an hour, it was interesting to see, and I'm sure kids would love it, but for us it was a bit tedious after about 5 minutes

Huan Kiem lake

. They needed to turn the volume down.

We had our final supper as a group later on, and went to a nice French-style restaurant. It was a very pleasant evening, if not a little sad, as we had all got on well as a group and half of them would be leaving tomorrow. We stopped at a bar on the way back for a quick drink which was nice, but then spent an hour trying to find our way to the hotel as we'd taken a wrong turning.

It was almost refreshing seeing Hanoi at midnight, as the roads were clearer and the air quieter. Much nicer by night than by day, personally.