Hanoi

VietNam Hanoi’s Perfum Pagoda

This temple, is verry oldist temple.
Hanoi city it takes 1.5hr disterns.
and Movie Location from “Indochina”

lovely =) a must go…..water puppets, temple of lit, ho kiem lake, ho chi min palace, jail museum, yummilicious food and coffee as well as green tea.

good place to shop for silk and lacquered products.. and a trip to Ha Long Bay up north.. some tourist spots worth checking too.. otherwise choke by motorcycle fumes

Those are my three words to describe this place. I loved Hanoi, we went in a tour we picked up from bangkok wich was pretty cheap for 5 days all meals inclusive and a boat ride in the Ha Long bay. Best gad damnned seafood i’ve had came from the fishermen that approach the boats to sell you fresh shrimp, crabs, fish etc. teh cook from the boat made a special something for us with the foods we bought and made a delicious meal.

2 dollar peanut vodka is something out of this world. tastes horrible but it sure hits the spot. We also had one red drink wich name i forget but it was preeeeeety strong. The youth in hanoi are the freindliest peeps i’ve met and i found interesting how most of them wanted to be ‘american-like’ something that stroke me as wierd after all that happened.

The food is great and their women are beautiful. I wish i had been there longer, 5 days is definitively not enough.

I must say it’s a lovely city.. there’re many nice lakes and am sure many places to explore.. but I didn’t really get time for that, cuz it was a biz trip.. time was too short, but will definitely try to explore more for the next time I go there..! :-)

We went to Hanoi on a summer break from teaching English in southern China. Our mistake, I think, was to do it “on the cheap”. If we had gone with a tour group, I think we would have enjoyed it a lot more. My brother visited Hanoi a few months after us, as part of a tour, and loved the place.

Our experience of Hanoi was that it was dirty, difficult to negotiate our way around, full of petty thieves and people trying to extract money from you, and everything closed between 2 and 5 pm.

The brighter side of Hanoi for us was staying in a suite in an old Russian hotel in the old quarter. The room was huge, with a king size bed, spa and balcony. Breakfasts were fantastic. The local streets around the hotel were full of shops selling all kinds of things. Street life in the old quarter was very interesting.

But we were glad to leave for Ha Long Bay.

Dear all,
Our Hanoi was called The city of Peace or Hanoi Green, Clean and Beauty. In fact, as we are the Hanoian, we know most about our city. It need a lot things to do to desevered those name above. Here we have 43 things. Therefore, each one of us can wish (and act) for 43 good things for Hanoi. I invite you to joint Hanoi Action group to make our city better.
Thanks for reading!

Traveling by train between Hanoi & SaiGon

Vietnamese trains are the ideal way to get around and experience Vietnam at ground level. The trains are safe, comfortable and inexpensive.

In the photo our train between Hué and Danang. This is the most scenic section of line, running along the coast past bays and islands and through the hills.

Vietnam’s capital city has to be one of Asia’s most fascinating cities offering a unique blend of oriental and western charm. It is a city of exotic brightly painted temples and pagodas, elegant ochre-washed colonial villas, bustling narrow streets and alleys, grand tree-lined boulevards and shaded lakes. First established as Vietnam’s capital in 1010, when it was known as Thang Long, the city’s name changed several times before it eventually became Hanoi in 1831.

The Temple of Literature, the site of Vietnam’s first university, dates back to 1070 and its peaceful gardens and pavilions offer a relaxing respite from Hanoi’s busy streets. Today Hanoi is still a city that attracts many of the country’s intellectuals as well as artists and writers.

Paintings by Vietnam’s new generation of artists can be seen for sale in the dozens of galleries that have sprung up in recent years in and around the city’s Old Quarter. It is here in the Old Quarter that Hanoi began life as a commercial centre over a thousand years ago. The original 36 streets that make up the Old Quarter are named after the goods once sold there such as silk, paper, silver, copper, herbs, cotton, fish and chicken. Nowadays the goods on sale are more likely to be t-shirts, sunglasses or embroidered table cloths but step back from the main streets and you will still find shops specializing in candlesticks, pagoda flags, engraved headstones and traditional musical instruments amongst others.

Just to the south of the bustling Old Quarter streets is Hoan Kiem Lake, an oasis of calm right in the centre of the city. Old men, students and weary tourists stop to rest in the shade on the park’s benches while local residents begin their day with a lakeside tai chi workout. Some of the capital’s finest colonial buildings can be found in the area of Hoan Kiem Lake including the magnificent Opera House, History Museum and the Metropole Hotel.

A couple of kilometers west of Hoan Kiem Lake are the imposing granite structure housing Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum. The mausoleum overlooks Ba Dinh Square, the square where President Ho Chi Minh read Vietnam’s Declaration of Independence at the end of World War Two. Nearby is the lotus flower-shaped temple of the One Pillar Pagoda, first built in 1049, and the grand palace that was once the residence of the Governor-General of French Indochina.

Like Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi also has some great shopping, particularly in the Old Quarter where bargains include silk, embroidery, handicrafts and original works of art. There are some interesting day trip options from Hanoi including Hoa Lu, the site of Vietnam’s first capital, Tam Coc Caves, the Perfume Pagoda and Hoa Binh, the home of many ethnic minority groups.

See more at Active Travel Vietnam: Hanoi Travel Guide

if you’re entering the foreigner quarters, make sure you go to several different tour agents before choosing one. they’ll all say that they’re in lonely planet or some travel guide but make sure you bargain!