one of the streets in the Old Quarter
another street in the Old Quarter
Today we went into downtown Hanoi (Sam's place is about 6 miles from the city center). We took a taxi to the Old Quarter to get us started. This part of town is an old and lively commercial district. We first searched for a travel agent to book our Ha Long Bay cruise for tomorrow. We had good success with our first try (Classy Vietnam Travel) and they were able to book us on our choice #2 boat (Paloma Cruises). The main thing we were looking for was a cruise that took us to Bai Tu Long Bay since we've received a few recommendations that this is much nicer, cleaner, and less busy. We are now booked and set for our 3 day / 2 night cruise around the bay.
lunch
We grabbed some lunch around the corner from the travel agent and got some more delicious good. The highlight may have been the fresh squeezed guava juice which came out green. We didn't expect that color.
Hai Ba Trung Temple
We continued walking the streets checking out the shops, Hai Ba Trung Temple, and Dong Xuan Market (oldest and largest covered market in Hanoi).
our cyclo and driver
Since we were a bit tired we hired a cyclo (bicycle driven carriage) to get us across town. We haggled the price down but ended up paying him some more since he turned out to be pretty funny. He told many jokes an Vietnamese, Yvonne would laugh, translate, and dan would laugh 10 seconds after he first told the joke :) The driver seems to enjoy this took.
St. Joseph's Cathedral
He dropped us off at St. Joseph's Cathedral and then took us over to the French Quarter. Here we saw a totally different side of Hanoi; different architecture, high end shopping, and some beautiful buildings like the opera house, Government Guest House, and Metropole Hotel.
By then we returned home to get dinner with Sam and stayed in after to chat and play with Sari.
Tomorrow morning we leave bright and early for the cruise. There will be no internet so we are going dark for a few days. We are immediately traveling to Sapa after the cruise so that will be an 8 hour night train. All of this means that we will not have Internet until Sunday (Sept 28).