I took the easy option and flew from Luang Prabang to Hanoi in order to avoid the 24 hour bus ride from hell. There's a limit to how long I can sit on a bus and its much less than 24 hours let me tell you. Hanoi airport is 35kms from the city necessating a long and expensive cab ride - just like Tullamarine really. Except the taxi from Tulla doesn't drop you in the middle of one of the maddest cities I've ever been in. You have to be on your guard at all times to avoid being mown down by a moto or crushed by a cyclo. I stayed in an OK hotel near the cathedral and drank at the Hanoi Backpackers meeting all sorts of fellow travellers. One lot tried to talk me into their package tour to Sapa but I've for the most part avoided packages and I figured why start now? For the two days I had in Ha
noi before going to Sapa I pretty much walked around the whole time. On my circumnaviation of Hoan Kiem lake I saw that a crowd had gathered at one end. A dead body? (Yep, I went straight for the car crash option) But no - one of the legendary tortoises of the lake had surfaced which brings good luck to anyone who sees it. So yay - a lucky tortoise and not something more sinister. More wandering took me to the Temple of Literature which is lovely and the Fine Arts Museum which is empty of visitors but has some interesting things to look at like the 18th century life size representations of religious figures (I think - the lables weren't very forthcoming in detail). I think the most surprising thing I saw was the Cinematique - a members only cinema that was showing a Pedro Almodovar retrospective.
I took the easy option and flew from Luang Prabang to Hanoi in order to avoid the 24 hour bus ride from hell. There's a limit to how long I can sit on a bus and its much less than 24 hours let me tell you. Hanoi airport is 35kms from the city necessating a long and expensive cab ride - just like Tullamarine really. Except the taxi from Tulla doesn't drop you in the middle of one of the maddest cities I've ever been in. You have to be on your guard at all times to avoid being mown down by a moto or crushed by a cyclo. I stayed in an OK hotel near the cathedral and drank at the Hanoi Backpackers meeting all sorts of fellow travellers. One lot tried to talk me into their package tour to Sapa but I've for the most part avoided packages and I figured why start now? For the two days I had in Ha
noi before going to Sapa I pretty much walked around the whole time. On my circumnaviation of Hoan Kiem lake I saw that a crowd had gathered at one end. A dead body? (Yep, I went straight for the car crash option) But no - one of the legendary tortoises of the lake had surfaced which brings good luck to anyone who sees it. So yay - a lucky tortoise and not something more sinister. More wandering took me to the Temple of Literature which is lovely and the Fine Arts Museum which is empty of visitors but has some interesting things to look at like the 18th century life size representations of religious figures (I think - the lables weren't very forthcoming in detail). I think the most surprising thing I saw was the Cinematique - a members only cinema that was showing a Pedro Almodovar retrospective.
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