SK's Vietnam Travel Guide: 9-Day Itinerary (Day4 - Hanoi)

Hanoi - Sapa - Lao Cai - Halong Bay - Hue - Hoi An - Da Nang
河内 - 沙坝 / 萨帕 - 老街 - 下龙湾 - 顺化 - 会安 - 岘港

17 October 2012 (Day Four - Back to Hanoi)

We arrived Hanoi Railway Station early at 4.30am despite the crazily cold berth air-conditioning. Mr. Hyng picked us up and headed towards Holiday Diamond Hotel. Apparently, the hotel did not have 24-hours reception because only one of their staff was sleeping in the lobby when we arrived. He was obviously waiting for us. As we could not check-in until 9am, we decided to take a short walk nearby, with a simple map grabbed from the hotel staff.

Quan Chuong Gate near our hotel.

The temple was closed before 7.30am.

The red-painted Huc Bridge leading to Ngoc Son Temple

First stop was the Quan Chuong Gate not far at the right side of our hotel, on the way leading to the Red River. We headed South from the gate, passing by Hanoi Old 36 Streets, towards Hoan Kiem Lake, also known as the Lake of the Returned Sword. The park was dark at 6am, but was crowded with locals doing exercises. Besides walking/jogging around the lake in anticlockwise direction, some doing Tai-Chi and traditional dance while others playing badminton. We planned to visit Ngoc Son Temple, but it only opened at 7.30am. Instead of waiting, we decided to walk back to our hotel along the old shopping streets of Hang Dao and Hang Bac. We saw many small temples along our way and there were many people eating Pho and dry noodles by the roadside. After checking into our room and did some laundry, we took a short rest.

Local performing traditional dance early in the morning.

Historic ruins Turtle Tower in the centre of Hoan Kiem Lake.

At noon, we departed our hotel to look for local food. We found a small stall crowded with customers at Bat Dan. Putting hygiene aside, we sat down on short stools by the busy street and ordered crispy noodles fried with beef, because the couple behind us were eating it and it looked tasty! One plate crispy noodles costed us VND60,000 or about USD3. After our lunch, we visited Hang Da Galleria. We did not spend much time there because their air-conditioning was not working and the goods were relatively expensive.

Crispy noodles fried with beef and vegetables.

Hang Da Galleria shopping mall.

From there, we walked South to St Joseph Cathedral for some photo-shooting. It is opened for tourists. We also met a bunch of school kids having outdoor activities outside the cathedral. Further South from the cathedral lies our next destination, the Hoa Lo Prison. The entrance ticket costed us USD1 per person. During our visit, we met some locals filming some sort of documentary. We finished our prison tour at around 4pm and walked East along Hai Ba Trung Street back to Hoan Kiem Lake again to visit Ngoc Son Temple. The entrance ticket was USD1 per person. It is a traditional temple resembling Chinese architectures and it shows the strong Chinese influence on Hanoi since years ago.

Stone Sculpture outside St Joseph Cathedral.

One of the cell inside Hoa Lo Prison.

A host in action during the filming of documentary.

A miniature sculpture at Ngoc Son Temple.

Tradition resembling Chinese culture.

At around 6pm, we walked back to our hotel as Hyng would be there to bring us for the Water Puppet Show. On our way back, we bought some weasel coffee powder which was quite expensive: about USD9.50 for 250g! We met up with Hyng and he told us the show would be at Thang Long Theatre, where we had just passed by earlier! Well, we had to turn back to the theatre, just in time for the 6.30pm show. We suspected that the tickets bought by our agent were the cheapest as our seats were at the back row. Lasted for one hour, the show was nice but not very impressive.

Seating at the backkkkk row.

Ending position for the Water Puppet Show.

Nice buffet dinner at a local hotel.

After the show, Hyng brought us to a local hotel next to a theme park for buffet dinner. The food was good and there were many varieties to choose from. All of us had a good heavy meal. At around 9pm, we went back to our hotel and fell asleep in no time.