Hanoi

I would have to say that Hanoi is just another city. It could be that we are ready to move on and don't have the energy for another city and more temples. We decided to limit where we went given that we had such a short time to do some things. Our first outing was around the street of Hanoi to get our bearings. We were near the old quarter so there were plenty of interesting buildings and narrow streets packed to the gunnels with people and business. It was interesting enough just to witness the daily living. Vietnamese people eat at any time of the day. it could be the first thing in the morning and they will be having noodles or they could be eating fried tofu at 11am. There does not seem to be a set time for eating and I have to say that works in well with me. The water puppets were our next trip out and they proved to be very entertaining. For a start, we had no idea they were performing inside a theatre! We were looking for them on the lake. I loved the use of the traditional instruments and the singers live while the puppets performed some somewhat random sequences that told stories of daily life in Vietnam. After a while, the singers were a bit much but such a clever show and nothing we have ever experienced elsewhere. Determined to walk around and see some of the sights, I dragged the family around the lake, just because. we came across Fanny's! such a blessing on a hot day. For those not in the know, fanny's is an ice cream parlour of the very decadent kind. We each ordered too much icecream which arrived in parfait glasses decorated with flowers and wafers and cream and chocolate sauce. I had green tea ice cream. Wouldn't you? in the evening Ella and I headed for the market armed with our map. We wandered along not really knowing just what to expect. The next thing we knew we had been invited by a little person from Vietnam to talk to university students at his stall who wanted to test out their English skills. What could we do! Ella and I sat and chatted for about 45 minutes and it was lovely. On our way home and quite unexpectedly we came across the market we were searching for in the first place. Covered sites filled the centre of the road. There were t-shirts, bangles, watches, bags, trinkets... many things that we did not need but bought anyway.
On the day we were leaving we headed for the woman's museum. I was particularly interested in this because of the history of Vietnam and the diversity of the women who live here. It was an incredible experience. Such strong and determined women. It was very inspiring and somewhat moving to read and hear about their lives and what they sacrificed in order to give their families the same as what we give ours. We learned about the wedding ceremonies, the clothing through the years, women who work and how they work, inspirational women of Vietnam and revolutionaries.
From the museum, we headed to the prison where many Vietnamese were incarcerated and also the Americans. Interesting and shocking.
Next step was to get packed ready to head for Paris and after an hour or more standing at the check in waiting to hear whether we were going to Paris or Hong Kong, we were on our way. Paris here we come.