Hanoi Day 3

It was another gloriously sunny day, the rain of the previous day seemed to be long forgotten, so I took the walk nice and slowly, so as to try and stay cool. I had decided to go and visit Hoa Lo prison. This was the central prison in Hanoi, built by the French, and is now a museum.

The prison museum was really very good. The exhibits were well chosen and very well presented. It gave a very good picture of what life might have been like in there and gave an insight into the ways that prisoners managed to communicate and plot and even escape. Some of the rooms were more than a little creepy when exploring by myself and the rather large and ominous guillotine in one room gave shivers down my spine.

I had to sort out some money matters and also booked a short tour to Sapa for after Halong Bay.

I enquired about the best places to get cheap street food and an eavesdropping Spanish bloke escorted me to a place he knew nearby. The place was typical of all the little corner restaurants here. Lots of local men outside drinking 'Bia', while the women are out doing all the work! I sat down and was immediately offered a mug of beer, which I gratefully accepted (a bargain at only 6000VND). They had an English menu and I ordered 'fried corn with chilli' and 'rice with beef and vegetables'. The corn turned out to be battered sweetcorn and was delicious. The rice dish was huge and also very good. I started to feel a bit more like I was getting to grips with this strange place.

I used the rest of my afternoon to visit a small temple and to explore some more of the maze of small streets. Then I went to the puppet show! This was much like I had imagined it would be, but actually quite good. All the music was played by a band on the left of the stage with traditional instruments. Some of it was pretty melodic and the two female singers were very good. The puppets themselves were rather funny. Controlled from long poles beneath the water, they bob around in time with the music. We had comical fishing scenes where the humans ended up catching each other rather than the fish. We had a pair of Phoenix's falling in love and soon up popped a baby. It was all pretty timid, but well done. Some of the puppets were impressive and flamboyant with bright colours.

I had some soup and rolls for dinner and had an early night.