Hanoi

I visited Hanoi a few times while in Vietnam because the city acts as the starting point to both Sapa and Halong Bay. When all was done I spent a combined amount of 4 days in Hanoi: one before Sapa, one between my trip to Sapa and Halong Bay and two more after Halong Bay before leaving for Laos.

Needless to say the first day in Hanoi was spent just wandering around the old quarter and mostly arranging my trips to Sapa and Halong Bay so not very much touristy stuff got done.

On my way back to Hanoi from Sapa I met a fellow Vietnamese traveler from Saigon and he was planning on taking a day trip to an ancient Vietnamese town about 40km west of Hanoi. So I agreed to join him on this excursion as I figured that it must be pretty interesting if the locals were going. Although it was only 40km away it took nearly 2 hours to reach the town on motorbike due to the poor condition of the roads, and sitting on the back of the motorbike for 2 hours became quite uncomfortable so I was happy to get there. The town itself was quite interesting but also very quiet considering people still lived there. But it was still fun to wander around the old town that was composed of narrow roads between all of the walled houses. Aside from the ancient houses in the village there was also an old temple and a nice village center with a couple of small monuments and wells.

After leaving the old village we went to a small citadel in another nearby town. This citadel had a beautiful location as it was located on large piece of land surrounded by a wall and moat so it was pretty isolated from the city. Unfortunately most of the buildings that had been present in the citadel had been destroyed during the war so all that remained now was a temple in the center and some of the surrounding gardens.

That night back in Hanoi was October 10th, Hanoi's independence date, so there were a few small performances happening on the streets around the city. Although there didn't seem to be any really big celebrations it was quite interesting to watch some of the small performances.

My final two days in Hanoi, and Vietnam, were spent going to a couple of the sights in the city and organizing transportation to Laos. On the first day I spent several hours wandering through the museum of ethnology which was very well done. Within the museum there were descriptions of every ethnic group of Vietnam including articles of their clothing and tools on display. Outside there were also several examples of the traditional houses for some of the ethnic groups.

Finally on the day that I was leaving for Laos I went to the Temple of Literature which is a beautiful complex in the city and also Vietnam's first university. Over half of the grounds were well maintained gardens where scholars could come to sit and think. Also included are old buildings containing statues of several important contributers and stone stelae which record the names of all of the successful graduates.

Next it was time to board the bus going to Vientiane, Laos. A journey that has been nicknamed the bus ride from hell because it is supposed to take nearly 24 hours on twisty roads.

Upon leaving Vietnam I would highly recommend traveling here, although I found the northern part of the country to be much more fun than the south with Sapa and Halong Bay being the 2 highlights of my trip here.