Tina takes over

Hello everyone! Tina Tour Guide here, with my report from Hanoi, in the lovely north of Vietnam. Today I decided to get this group moving so first thing this morning, we hailed 2 taxis for a short ride to the Hanoi History Museum, as the group were foot weary after yesterday's wanderings in town. We tried to tell Bob the taxi he was going to get into was the 'wrong' sort, not Mai Lin or VinaSun, but the guy quoted him $5 US for the trip, so he was happy. The Mai Lin taxi we got in ticked up 30,000VND for the same trip, but we didn't tell Bob. I always enjoy this Museum and I think the group enjoyed it as well. As expected Anke found the jewellery displays, lucky there is CCTV protecting the treasures! When we finished there, we took a very short walk to the Hanoi Opera House and admired the architecture of this building and those nearby.

While sitting in the shade on the steps, a very shrewd business man (cyclo driver) offered us his services for one hour ride round the Old Quarter, which we didn't really need because that's where we walked our feet off yesterday. Bob commenced negotiations for a ride to see Uncle Ho's mausoleum, but the cyclo driver told us it was closed after 11am. So maybe we go to One Pillar Pagoda and the nearby gardens then over to Dong Xuan Market? How long? How much? One and a half hours $15USD per person/cyclo. !!!! Are you kidding me??!! That's double what the cyclo's out the front of our hotel wanted! Bob gave up in despair and Carolyn stepped in. Smiling and cajoling, she soon had him down to our price. He made some calls and out of nowhere more cyclos arrived and off we went. At a very leisurely pace, you see so much more and get closer to the everyday life of the locals.

Cyclo time

Once we arrived at the markets, we decided it would be too hard to stay together, so off we all went on our separate adventures. T & T weren't very interested in the markets so I suggested we follow a bit more of the Lonely Planet walking tour. So after finding a bar for a cold beer, we were off. It seemed much hotter today, no cooling rain shower, and after about an hour or so, we'd all had enough and headed home. We found a bit of interesting street food to sample. What looked like potato fries clumped together, battered and fried. Very tasty and only 15,000VND, so not even $1.

After we got back, we headed up to the roof as Bob had told us there was a bit of a view to be had. The lift only goes to the 10th floor, so we had 3 more to walk up. It's a different perspective and Brenda and Carolyn joined us up there too. Oh! Good news! Carolyn is ok after her brush with the motorbike yesterday and it looks like Brenda's bag has been found and should be delivered here by 8pm. Happy all round.

Hanoi rooftops

Off to Halong Bay tomorrow for an overnight boat trip.