Hanoi

After a five great days in Hong Kong, it is time to start the second leg of my journey. Good morning Vietnam! Gemma, Alex and I headed to Hanoi for the first stop on our Vietnamese adventure, to be met the next day by Laura and Zahra who still had a couple finals to take before letting their hair down on holiday. 

None of us have been to Vietnam before, so our first night's dinner was an adventure. We went to Quan An Ngon, an open air restaurant that has a variety of street food dishs set up in stalls all around the perimeter of the tables. After some sign language and a lot of laughing, we ended up with some really great food. After dinner, we attempted to go to the Summit Bar at the top of the Sofitel where we had heard the view of the city was really great. Unfortunately, we went to the wrong Sofitel and instead enjoyed drinks on the ground floor while an awesome DJ spun for a virtually empty bar. #vietnamfail

After discussing our plans for the day with the super helpful staff at Hotel Rendezvous, we scurried into a cab to make it to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum before it closed at 11. Arriving at 10:45, we were hopeful that there wouldn't be much of a line. It didn't matter though, because in the summer the mausoleum closes at 10:30. Or in the winter it closes at 10:30; is it summer or winter? The conversation we had with the guard was a bit confusing...what I do know for sure is that we didn't get to see a dead guy. Tough loss.

Instead, we wandered around the Ho Chi Minh Museum which is nearby. It was a very interesting museum that pays homage to the former ruler of Vietnam. In three words, I'd describe it as artistic, weird, and propaganda. I left with more questions than I had when I arrived. The three of us walked around reading the Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh Wikipedia articles the whole time to fill in the massive gaps in information provided by the museum. 

After the museum, we wandered through the Old Town towards Hoan Kiem lake for lunch. We enjoyed a great meal at Avalon on the top floor of a building where we had a great view of the lake. After lunch we went to a water puppet show because everyone told us we had to do it. You don't have to do it. Take my advice. That is, of course, unless you're into the flute and weird puppets dancing in a shallow pool, in which case - this is your thing! (This was NOT my thing.)

Once Zahra and Laura arrived, we headed to the right Sofitel for sunset before dinner at Don's. The view was definitely worth a second try. Don's was also a fun rooftop spot overlooking the lake for some western food, live music, and lots of wine. Gemma even got proposed to by an old Vietnamese man!