Vietnam – January 4th, 2016
Good morning Vietnam it’s my birthday one more year closer to another zero birthday, but don’t feel older than my shoe size.
After a good night’s sleep and a very good breakfast which we started with Pho’ the national dish of Vietnam and a few French pastries, we were ready to being our tour of the city.
Our first stop, The Temple of Literature is dedicated to Confucius, The temple hosts the “Imperial Academy” Vietnam’s first national university. The temple was built in 1070 at the time of King Lý Thánh Tông. It is one of several temples in Vietnam which is dedicated to Confucius, sages, and scholars. The temple is located to the south of the Imperial Citadel of Thăng Long. The various pavilions, halls, statues, and stelae of doctors are places where offering ceremonies, study sessions, and the strict exams of the Đại Việt took place. The temple is featured on the back of the 100,000 Vietnamese đồng banknote.
Our last stop, a walk through the old quarters is a sensory overload – the cacophony of motorbikes, cars tour buses and people walking conducting their everyday business. The streets in the old quarter are named after different craft guilds as in the old days they banned together by areas today you see a mixture of shops but still as you walked you realize that you are in the Silk, Bronze or Glass street by the numerous shops right next to each other talk about competition.
We also experience a rickshaw drive through the old quarters remember when Disneyland had E-tickets well this will definitely qualify you are sharing the same street with buses, cars, motorbikes, and pedestrian so for those less adventurous most probably would have kept their eyes close, again I pushed David out of his comfort zone.
Bought some tangerines from a street vendor sweet pureness, shared an iced coffee at a local shop, but their prices for taking home a few bags were ridiculous.
Lunch at the Red Bean restaurant the #2 out of 1321 in the city restaurant according to Trip Advisor and it did not disappoint, the springs roll were so far the best I have ever had and the local dish of Ca cha fish which is fried and seasoned with turmeric then serve with vermicelli, herbs, peanuts, and a light and tasty fish sauce you basically assemble each bite of pure yumminess.
Early this evening we attended a Water Puppet Show. Rice, being the main staple of the Vietnamese diet, grows in a water paddy. The original water puppet festivals were literally held inside a rice paddy, with a pagoda built on top to hide the puppeteers who stand in the waist-deep water. The water acts as the stage for the puppets, and as a symbolic link to the rice harvest. It also hides the puppet strings and puppeteer movements, improves the musical and vocal acoustics, and provides a shimmering lighting effect. This is my second time attending on my first visit to Hanoi I was so tired and the music such hypnotic that I slept through 90% of the show. Waking only when my friend Diane jabbed me to take a picture or to stop from drowning out the orchestra because of my snoring.
Evening rush hour in the city is as chaotic as daytime but the lights add a different flavor to the constant choreographed mayhem of this city of 7 million people and 4 million motor scooters.
Postponing my birthday dinner still to full from lunch and tomorrow we leave for the countryside………
Ps.. Got a bottle of Jimmy Choo cologne and a Tommy Bahamas t-shirt which David had wrapped in LA but security in Bangkok had them unwrapped the cologne as I watched from the distance.
