Day six, last day in Hanoi

We are starting to feel a bit tired and weary. The noise and chaos here, while exciting and new, can be exhausting at times. We enjoyed our breakfast then spent most of the morning relaxing in our room. The boys have been fantastic but they do start going a bit stir crazy -all together in the one room!

Being a fan of beautiful hotels we visited one of Hanoi's best, the Metropole. This grand white building has been around for over 100 years so I guess it has survived pretty well considering the history of ongoing wars in this country. We enjoyed a drink in the bamboo bar beside the pool....what a beautiful place (and maybe where we will stay sometime in the future...without the boys :)

 

We spent the rest of the day wandering through different parts of the city. We ate lunch in a local cafe...chicken rice is a basic dish...cheap and delicious. We paid about $2.50 for a plate.

The architecture here is pretty amazing. A mix of run down, dilapidated buildings, all very narrow (a result of very high land taxes) and several stories high...with the occasional beautiful, resorted French colonial in the mix....the streets are mostly tree lined and quite pretty considering this is a big busy city..

We visited the history museum which was pretty good, I always enjoy the photographs which (for me anyway) are a more significant historical record than items and artifacts. Some of the wartime photos were fairly graphic and not really great for the kids. The boys we especially shocked by the huge guillotine.

For our final evening we ate at a restaurant overlooking Hoan Kiem lake. The food in Hanoi hasn't been as great as we expected. The local dish 'pho' is delicious, a hot noodle broth with either beef or chicken. It is eaten here all day, but after having it once for breakfast I couldn't imagine eating it again for lunch...I guess our western diet has us far too spoilt!

The weather here has been fairly cool, some days quite cold. The city is clouded in white smog/fog and I haven't worn sunglasses once...very unusual for me! We are looking forward to some warmer weather, and hopefully blue skies once we arrive in Hoi An.

 

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