Meh, it’s a travel day. The train ride was uneventful, after a bit some very nice people let me know that I was in their spot.
I walked to the hostel, only 15 minutes. Kids here are much more friendly, I guess foreigners are lots less common.
After a beer and a nap, I set out for a walk.
I was told that this was a boring, dusty city. Those people were right. An excursion to the only park in town took only minutes. On the way I found a dead rat, burning garbage, and one extremely talkative man who had lots of opinions on my camera angles.
Dinner was lovely.
Looking forward to the Trang An Grottoes tomorrow. I’m renting a bicycle to get there. These little towns have nada for transportation.
Heres a few pictures…
This was right next to the train station.One of the many things I love about Vietnam is the ridiculous importance placed on coffee. You cant walk 20 paces without running into some kind of drinks stand. Most will have coffeeFive bucks a night, my friendsThis is the larger of two temples in the park.The dragons body is shaped and decorated with broken pottery
Also, I’ve got to save some Hanoi for February. I’m coming back with a friend and need to have something new to experience at that time.
An easy sightseeing day today. Did some last minute laundry, and planned tomorrows escape.
Here’s todays pictures…
The Ambassador Pagoda. Its where the important Buddhists stay when they’re in HanoiLots of living quarters here.
The Flag Tower. I didn’t and couldn’t go in. It’s part of the Military Museum that I also didn’t go to.This was my goal today. The Imperial Citadel of Thang Long. An imperial or military installation has been on this site for 1000 years.Of course the structures on site are whats left after being torn down, burned, bombed, and otherwise destroyed by many ruling political parties over 1000 years…The site is a World Heritage site and rightfully so. There’s so little left in Hanoi it needs protectionYou can almost see the display here of several sub-layers of constructionThese women were slowly clearing rubble. Each shovel full was examined by an observer, prolly looking for anything interesting
These buildings are from the french colonial timesA small exhibit of findings. Most of the work of discovery and excavation is just beginning. They only got their UNESCO rating in 2010
You can only see the dragon design when light shines throughEvery placard ends with “and then shit got destroyed by the new overlords”Being a heavily fortified area in the middle of the city, this was a grand place for command bunkers
The positive air filtration system, made in the Soviet Union
SwitchboardThis is only one of at least 2 bunkers. I mean, two were on the map, but cmon, there had to be more?A commemorative drumThese are original? I dont think so, but the leaflet says they are. HmmmThe strong yellow color says that this complex is an active Party building. It is.
The Ladies Pavillion, or princesses pagoda. The altar inside was missing its god. Nobody home for some reason
I’m sorry but I had to…..this is the toilet at a world heritage site. Someone needs to up their game.
The last relic at the citadel
I hope you can see the cannonball holes
I got really excited…What’s that!! When I got home, according to the map…a water tank. LolThe black and white dog was really upset about the other dog’s purple earsthe train station. My ticket for Ninh Binh tomorrow was only us 3.60!
I was giddy with the train ticket buying experience, so I got this steamed bun…some kind of mystery meat and an egg yolkWhen my bun was gone he wasn’t interested in me any more
I was picked up pretty much on time, and we were off like a herd of turtles. The road to the park area is kinda shitty and windy. Still, air-con makes every road trip a pleasure.
Our first activity was to sit and enjoy a boat ride. No problem! I love boats, and the breeze was delightful. Luckily, I was in the guide boat, so we got a commentary.
Lunch, was followed by a cable car ride. Yay! I love both of those things!
It’s the off season, so none of the shops lining the path are open. Even better. Some of these Vietnamese ladies reaaaaly know the hard sell game.
It gets so much better when we get to the first temple…it’s in an amazing cave. Wow is all I can say.
During the festival season, there are thousands of visitors per hour. Today, there’s so few of us they turned off the cable car until all of us were ready to come off the mountain lol.
At the bottom, another very fine temple.
And another boat ride. This time I had an interesting discussion about us politics, how surprising!
A quiet van ride back to the city.
What a good day.
That’s a tomb. The guide confirmed that the tomb will be used by a series of family members. The deceased are left alone for 3 years.
The air was positively divine, compared to the city
There were spaces for hundreds of boats.You could spend a week crawling around up here looking at templesOne of the few open shops, selling souvenirs and Vietnamese medicine
I’m thinking…..I hope it gets betterI mean, really better
That’s more like it!!!!Imagine 2000 people in here, so many that they pray from the plaza outside. No room to move even an inchThis is the stalagmite where you pray for a boy
Poems in Chinese writingThe king’s dedication from hundreds of years agoGet your baby girls here
The main altar
And this is the dry season. How green is it in summer??
A monastery is here, it could be why the temple is in such great shape
These mythical beasts guard the hall of mothers
Did you know poinsettias could get this big??
This guy is herding cattle on a bicycle lol
The idea is that buddhists have to do good on a pilgrimage. So they pay to have birds and etc set free. these poor creatures have probably been captured repeatedly
So I just took it a little easier than normal. A walk to mail some postcards, a long FB chat, some reading, then a show at the Hanoi Opera House.
Also I hemmed my pants. It only took me 5 weeks to get around to it lol.
Here’s todays pictures…
Every day there’s folks over there eating something. I’ll go.get whatever it is tomorrow. It’s always busy, so….can’t be bad.I was really only here to look inside. That’s not okay, so, luckily, a ticket for whatever was cheap enoughYou can see the pollution situation isnt good. Too many cars and motorcycles.TripAdvisor told me the sandwiches here were good. They were!Very well-maintained, 1911 was the openingI couldn’t go up there 😐I mean I really wanted to go up there
Just beautifulThe performance had live music. There’s like 12 different mouth harps there!Only about 50 people came, you can tell it’s off season
The performances were great, musicians and actors. It wasn’t just acrobatics, the director got some culture stuff in there too. The main guitarist (?) guy was so good. Also some great singing.
