Hanoi walking tour

Who needs a tour group when you have a map and two feet? It amazes me the things that people will pay for unnecessarily. I have a tour leaflet which offers a three-hour ‘special evening’ in Hanoi; compromising of a water puppet show, a Vietnamese meal and coffee in the old quarter. It sounds like a nice way to spend an evening, but what is the need of paying the extra money to do it as a ‘tour’? Thanks for the suggestion, but I can do that quite easily by myself.

Overlooking Hoan Kiem Lake

Today I took my map and my two feet and planned my own walking tour of Hanoi, albeit I got lost at one point. After breakfast I headed for Hoan Kiem lake. The name translates to ‘Lake of the Returned Sword’, relating to the legend of the turtle that snatched the magic sword of the 15^th century emperor Le Loi while he was boating on the lake. The sword was never seen again but many Vietnamese believe that it rests at the bottom of the lake. Certainly there are turtles in the water, although they are endangered and sightings are rare, it seems. I felt very lucky to briefly glimpse one as I walked around the lake. In the centre of the lake is a stone pagoda on a small island, called Turtle Tower. This is very symbolic of Hanoi and it was a very nice morning's walk.

The Turtle Tower

I spent the rest of the morning walking around Hanoi’s beautiful old quarter. I was surprised at how peaceful and free of traffic the streets seemed to be. The dusty streets, old narrow buildings and women in conical hats selling fruit made it the closest to the romanticised image of the ‘old Vietnam’ that I have witnessed; it was lovely. Each street seemed to specialise in a different product- one was full of colourful children's plastic toys, another was for shoes, one for flowers and my favourite, a flamboyant haberdashery street lined with feather boas, glittery fabrics, zips and buttons. It seemed you could buy anything you wanted on the streets of the old quarter.

 After lunch I went to see the famous Hanoi water puppet performance. Clacking wooden puppets dance upon a pond on a stage in the theatre, the puppeteers waist-high in water and hidden behind screens. This very traditional form of entertainment originated in villages along the Red River Delta, with puppet shows held on the water of rice paddies. The performance told a folk story about the origins of the Vietnamese people. A dragon and a phoenix (both important creatures in Buddhism) find an egg (‘sac’), out of which 100 sons are born, representing the origin of the Vietnamese people. The puppets jumped from the water and began to dance and splash. There were dances to demonstrate agricultural life, courtship and to represent ethnic minority groups such as the Cham. The show featured light and water effects and was accompanied by traditional Vietnamese music and narration. I suppose there must have been around 150 puppets used in the fifty-minute performance.

Later I walked further to see some of the city’s main sights. As soon as I had crossed under the Long Bien Bridge and left the old quarter, the walk was much less enjoyable and I got lost. I walked a long way to find the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, which happened to be closed. Soldiers in crisp white uniform guarded the entrance to the imposing grey block of a building. There was a yellow line a hundred metres from the building and if anyone crossed it they would by faced with a sharp whistle blow from a guard. It was all very ridiculous. I was even less impressed with the one-pillar pagoda next door, which I was told I should visit. To me it was a small and unexciting wooden structure on a very ugly, thick concrete pillar. I didn’t see the point of it and I saw no beauty in it. Even so, I stopped to take photos, just because I had walked to see it and felt that I should! I wondered if the crowd of people around me were taking photographs for the same reason, or because they really thought it was interesting.

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

Tran Quoc Pagoda

I continued to walk away from the centre, to West Lake, which is by far the largest lake in the city. By now, I was right at the edge of my tourist map. I went to see the Tran Quoc Pagoda at the edge of the lake. This was much nicer to look at- a dark red tiered tower with white Buddha statues in windows all the way up and around. By now it was 5pm, so I took a motorbike back to my hotel. In the evening I went out for tea at an outdoor restaurant recommended by my hotel but which I found to be nothing special. Then I went out the night market. I was disappointed that the road was not pedestrianized and motorbikes rushed passed endlessly; it was not pleasant, and the markets themselves seemed soulless. It’s a shame that my good first impressions of Hanoi were tainted after spending more time there, but I cannot judge so soon. I have another full day in Hanoi tomorrow to get a better idea of the city.