Susan and I had our yearly "honeymoon" trip as usual and we went to Hanoi for this time! We have planned this trip about 3 months ahead and everything went very well from the time that we landed till we departed from Hanoi. Though we had very much difficulties in communicating with the locals but the tour guides were very helpful in this all the time!
Anything is possible in Vietnam!
We arrived at Hanoi at around 8.30 am at the airport and the hotel has arranged a taxi to pick us to the hotel. We booked ahead for the airport transfer as many people alerted us about scam at the airport as they would over-charge you! Upon reaching the hotel (Hanoi Guesthouse), the friendly receptionists called us for breakfast before we went for our Hanoi half day tour! For your information, we booked all our trips (Hanoi half day trip, Halong Bay tour and Tam Coc-Hua Lu tour) with them at a very reasonable price! Roughly it was about USD 500 for 2 person!
Hanoi Guesthouse.. While waiting for our breakfast to be ready! =)
Local beef noodle! It's awesome!
Rice roll with minced meat and mushroom with 3 slices of meat! And most of the things that we had in Hanoi, it comes with a bowl of fish sauce... =)
And our Hanoi half day tour begins!
HCM Mausoleum (1st destination), place where HCM's body is laid to rest. It was not opened when we were there because it was under maintenance...
HCM Palace, it has a very big compound and located near the HCM Mausoleum..
HCM old house and office, a place where he used to work..
Standing root "Buddha"
One Pillar Pagoda (2nd destination)..
Temple of Literature (3rd destination).. The oldest university in Hanoi and it was very crowded that day as many university's students were taking their graduation pictures there! =)
Similar background in the 100,000 Dong note..
The Great Confucius in Temple of Literature.. You will be amazed with the statues in every temple in Hanoi! Every statue and every temple has its own story..
Treat by our tour guide, sugar cane with lime by the busy road.. You can try this at home next time because it tastes very good! Something new...
Tran Quoc Pagoda (4th destination).. Oldest Buddhist temple in Hanoi, located by the West lake.. You can find Bodhi tree inside! According to the guide, it was a gift when Indian president visited Hanoi long time ago!
At Tran Quoc Pagoda.. Be aware of the visiting hours because they close for lunch!
At Tran Quoc Pagoda..
Hoa Lo Prison Museum (5th destination).. A prison built by the French which converted to a museum.. It has many histories from the past wars in Vietnam.. We spent about 1 hour here to explore the whole prison..
Some eerie feeling cells...
A memorial place for the Vietnamese soldiers..
To be continued..
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