{"id":8766,"date":"2025-05-23T10:50:03","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T10:50:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/traveltales.ahot.online\/?p=8766"},"modified":"2025-05-25T20:10:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T20:10:00","slug":"sea-hanoi-en","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traveltales.ahot.online\/index.php\/2025\/05\/23\/sea-hanoi-en\/","title":{"rendered":"Hanoi, Vietnam"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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16.5. \u201319.5.2023<\/p>

We had booked a ride to Hanoi from the same company that had taken us from the airport to Ha Long earlier. At eleven o\u2019clock, our driver called Marko and told that he was waiting for us in front of our apartment building. This was somewhat confusing information, as we were also waiting in front of the apartment building, but there was no sign of the driver. Marko walked around the building complex to check if the driver had accidentally gone in front of a wrong tower block to wait. There was no sign of the driver there either, so we called him again. One of the residents of our apartment building took over and explained in Vietnamese to the driver where he was supposed to be. It turned out that the driver had the wrong address for some reason, but once he had the right address, he turned up within minutes.<\/p>

We had booked ourselves a two-bedroom apartment in Hanoi\u2019s Old Quarter. As the apartment was on a very small and narrow street, it was very quiet, even though it was right in the centre. The first thing we had to do after checking in was to\u2026 surprise, surprise\u2026 find a place to eat. Since no one was interested in venturing out into the city in the terrible heat, we ended up eating at McDonald\u2019s as we hadn\u2019t been in one for quite a while. It was a very good choice, as the place was efficiently air-conditioned. The air conditioning was more than welcome, as the temperature was +36C, and \u201cfeels like\u201d +43C.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Our home street in Hanoi for a couple of days.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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In the afternoons, students arrive to eat at the street kitchen on our street.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Our home street is narrow and crowded with scooters.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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After a quick lunch, we set off for a walk around Hoan Kiem lake, because there was a water puppet theatre on its shore that we wanted to visit. We did, however, make a quick stop at the Ngoc Son temple first. Apparently it was a Confucian and Taoist temple. In a small side building we found two stuffed Hoan Kiem turtles. One of them was found dead on the shore of the lake in 2016. The first one had already died in 1967. According to the information board at the temple, there are only six of this species left. Where these six turtles are now, is another story. Certainly not in the pond surrounding the temple, as the water did not seem to be very clean. At least some of the fish we saw seemed to be swimming on their backs\u2026<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The temple gates were decorated with various animal figures.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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A lot of incense was burned in this temple as well.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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After the temple visit, we went to the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre. We were lucky as the first show of the day was about to start. We managed to get ourselves front row seats for 200 000VND\/person (8\u20ac), on top of which we paid a total of 200 000VND for an English audio guide for each of us. The Water Puppet Theatre is a rather strange concept. The performance is accompanied by traditional instruments and singing. The puppets moving on the water are guided from behind curtains with long wooden sticks. The audience can only see the puppets. The people moving the puppets stand waist-deep in the water throughout the performance, hidden behind the curtains. The hour long show was very interesting. The performance doesn\u2019t have an actual plot, instead it consisted of several separate short scenes from well known folklore stories.<\/p>

One of the scenes was about Hoan Kiem lake, on the shores of which we had just been walking. The story goes that in the 15th century, the Vietnamese ruler Le Loi was given a magic sword by the gods to expel the invading Chinese. Later, while Le Loi was rowing on the lake, the turtle god Kim Qui appeared to reclaim the sword. The name of the lake, Hoan Kiem, means \u2018the lake of the returned sword\u2019.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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