Hanoi

Like I mentioned earlier, after a crazy bus ride from Phonsavan we were deserted on the side of a random street in Hanoi at 2 am. We managed to find our way to the Old Quarter and found a guesthouse for the night. We fell asleep quickly and were awakened early by the noisy, bustling city. Laos and Vietnam are definitely like night and day. Matt and I both really like Vietnam though- everyone is incredibly friendly, even if it's only to get your money. It can be a bit confusing walking through Hanoi because people love to capitalize on each others success and therefore there are copycat businesses everywhere. In fact, the guesthouse that we stayed at turned out to be a copy from the one listed in the Lonely Planet. This poses a challenge when you are trying to navigate through the narrow streets. I often got turned around and lost because everywhere you looked there was a hotel, restaurant or travel agent with the exact same name.

It was in Hanoi that we finally decided we'd been sick enough and had to get to the bottom of things. The SOS International Clinic was expensive but really well run and equipped. It was so fantastic to be healthy again! Such a relief too!

We spent a lot of time wandering the bustling streets, enjoying the lake and being bothered every few minutes by someone trying to sell us something. Hanoi seemed so alive compared to Phonsavan! We visited the Ngoc Son Temple which is located on Hoan Kiem Lake. The lake is totally green and filthy looking but it is supposed to be home for turtles- we actually saw one so I guess it must be true! They have the remains of a huge turtle that they found in 1968 that is 2.1 m long and weighs 250 kg!

Later on we went to the Water Puppet Theatre to catch the 8:00 pm show. I was a little skeptical but the tickets were cheap and we had an excellent time. It was really cute and whimsical and the show has a live band. The music was enchanting and it was really cool watching the puppets splash around the stage. I took a short video and tried to take some pictures.

We did spend one day touring through the historical sites of Hanoi after we returned from our overnight trip to Ha Long Bay (I'll write a bit about that in the next entry), but otherwise we just chilled out and enjoyed being back in civilization. It was nice to have reliable, fast, cheap internet access again too! An hour at an internet cafe costs less than 50 cents! Cheapest we've found in the world so far. If you want to see more pictures of Hanoi look over here.