Hanoi

Day 54

I thought that Vietnam was a hot all year round, well I was wrong.  The North gets quite cool, it was about 15c today, I had to dig my hoodie out. The locals however had scarves, hats,full winter jackets on, you would thought the place was about to freeze over.

There are many sight seeing spots on the agenda today,  first up Hoan Kiem Lake.  This is situated in the centre of Hanoi old town.   To be honest after seeing tons of lakes on our travels, it was not overly impressive.  The water was bright green and did not look too healthy.

We wandered the streets for a couple of hours, trying not to get killed when crossing the road.

Pavements are not for walking on, that is where you park your moped. All pedestrians have to mingle with the road traffic!

Some cycling Santa's, looks like they have my onsie from last years Christmas party.

In the afternoon we had booked in with Hanoi Kids.  This is essentially a volunteer organisation that send local university students to guide you round the city, we could choose wherever we went.  They are improving their English skills and in return you get a free tour guide.  These guys spoke perfect English, they did not need to practice.

Hanoi Kids Volunteers. Harriet and Lee

We went to the temple of literature, which was the first university in Vietnam.

We spent a good 6 hours with guys and they would have stayed longer. At the end they would not accept any money whatsoever.  It was against the rules, if we wanted to make a donation to the organisation it would have to be through pay pal on their website.  All they learnt from us were some new slang words.

In the evening we headed to the night market, it was jammed packed.  It sold all the usual clothes and stuff,  I ate something that looked like a hotdog!