10th & 11th April 2010
We spent Saturday morning slowly packing up ready for our afternoon journey to Nha Trang. This is another beach resort, further up the coast from Mui Ne, much bigger and more touristy. It’s very popular for scuba diving, and while not originally on our itinerary this was the nearest place to Mui Ne where we could get a plane to Hanoi.
The bus to Nha Trang was really busy and quite hot resulting in the first part of the journey being quite uncomfortable. However, this relented once the sun started to set and we were then able to watch the rural landscape pass by. The views from the bus were typical Vietnamese landscapes. Paddy fields and oxen carts set against a backdrop of high mountain ranges.
We spent an uneventful night in Nha Trang, catching an early morning taxi to the airport for our flight to Hanoi.
We arrived at our hotel, Splendid Star 2 at around midday. A really lovely hotel, tucked away down a tiny, narrow backstreet not wide enough for cars in the Old Quarter. A warm welcome, with a glass of cold water and some fruit while we checked in with the friendly staff.
The room was modernly furnished with complimentary wine, water and internet. Our first thought was some downtime after our early start, but after that we headed out to explore the streets of Hanoi.
The guidebook says of Hanoi’s Old Quarter that it is ’the Asia we dreamed of from afar. Steeped in history, pulsating with life, bubbling with commerce, buzzing with motorbikes and rich in exotic scents'.
The Old Quarter is Hanoi’s historic heart. The streets are narrow and congested, but although ramshackle and dilapidated in parts, there is some elegant old architecture in and among the chaos. Food stalls and temporary restaurants where locals sit on tiny plastic stools hug every corner, resonant with the sound of gossip and laughter. It seems much busier and more crowded than Saigon, perhaps because the streets are narrower and so all this activity is much more concentrated, more intense somehow.
We wandered through the manic, crowded and noisy streets just soaking up the atmosphere and marveling once again at just how many uses a motorbike does have. Eventually we came across a restaurant on a busy four way junction where we sat and had some lunch just watching the world hurtle by.
Re-energised by our lunch, we wandered up to the markets which unfortunately were closing. Resolving to come back tomorrow, we walked back to the hotel which is right by St Joseph’s Cathedral. Reminiscent of Notre Dame in Paris, this cathedral was built by the French on the site of an old pagoda. When we came back out again later, there were people sat on their low plastic stools by the door. We couldn’t work out if this was because it was full inside, or they just preferred being outside.
That evening, we walked back towards the large, Hoan Kiem Lake, Hanoi’s historical centre. The lake is one of the major scenic spots in the city and serves as a focal point for its public life. Although during the day we found it quite ordinary, at night, illuminated by coloured lanterns encircling it and turtle tower in the centre shining brightly, it actually looks very pretty. As we strolled around it there was loads going on. From people sat reading and talking to those running and doing exercises.
We left the lake to explore the night markets which take place every evening along the whole length of one of the streets in the Old Quarter. As ever in Vietnam, and this happens with the shops during the day too, all those people selling the same thing seem to be grouped together, so you get hat street, belt street, tailors street and my personal favourite - shoe street.
