April 6 2012

Our second and last day in Hanoi was spent travelling out to see two more temples (no more temples, please!) in the original capital city of Vietnam, Hoa Lu. It was a two hour drive, and to be honest, we were starting to wonder whether it was worth it, especially since the roads on the last part of the journey were absolutely awful, and we knew we faced the same thing on the way back. The temples were interesting at first (remember when we bought an incense coil for the family?) but the fact is that once you have seen one temple, you've seen them all!  This photo, although no temple is visible, illustrates the point...

The chap in the foreground, in the dark jacket, is Kinh, our guide. The temple entrance is right at the far end of this approach road, which, as you can see, is lined all the way up on both sides with retail opportunities! They're not just stalls, either, because as you progress along the road little women emerge from both sides and virtually beg you to buy the tat they are offering.

Anyway, we resisted the temptation to buy and looked around the temples. Then we were taken to a local restaurant where Trailfinders had arranged for us to have lunch. It was a set menu, which included the dreaded grilled goat. This was more disconcerting than it might have been, because the small mountains which surround this site (you can see them in the background of the picture above) are full of goats and they come all the way down to the tourist area, where they can cadge food fairly easily. You look at the goats wandering around, and can't help thinking that they might be on the tourists' plates the next day. This was our full menu...

After lunch we went down to the waterway which runs all around this area and were taken for a 90-minute punt around in what our guide call "bamboo boats". Actually, they were made of sheet metal, but it was a pleasant journey between the limestone outcrops...

...spoiled only by the fact that about halfway through the journey our boat lady stopped and pressured us into buying a poorly embroidered tablecloth which she claimed her family had made. She needed the money to help her children through school etc., but we succumbed because it wasn't too expensive and it got her off our backs. The tablecloth went straight in the bin when we got back to our hotel.

All the people in the other boats were unfailingly cheerful, and we were particularly enchanted by this little girl...

...just before we nearly ran over a lady swimming along with a washing basket held out in front of her...

...but when we caught up with her, we realised she was collecting clams!

Another astonishing thing we saw along the way was this evidence of modern-day cave dwellers, and our boat lady confirmed that people actually live in these caves. Goodness only knows what they do for a living.

When the boat trip finished we endured the two-and-a-half hour trip back to our hotel in Hanoi, had a bath and then went for a walk around the local lake before a light supper in the hotel (didn't have much room left after the goat lunch!)

Tomorrow, we're off for an overnight cruise in a junk in Halong Bay, so no internet connection. Next post will therefore be from an airport hotel in Hong Kong, where we will hole up overnight before moving into mainland China.

Jenny's bit: We have a very comfortable bed in this hotel, to be fair they have all been comfy, but this place has something extra...a tv channel showing old Celebrity Masterchef programmes. Jx