This morning I had a lay in trying to catch up on some of the lost sleep during the 3 days in Halong Bay, so I didn't leave the hotel until after 2pm, so I went for a walk around the city to some of the places in the Lonely Planet that I hadn’t seen yet.

The first place I headed that was called The Memorial House, which was a restored traditional Chinese-style house that shows you how local merchants used to live in the Old Quarter. The house was quite interesting to see as it showed how they used to live, cook and sleep but as with everywhere else they charged for entry which I don’t mind as it goes towards the upkeep of the house but they did try to make me buy one of the many unusual souvenirs that they had for sale there. I had a look but didn’t buy anything.

My next stop was a temple, I know that I have said that I have seen loads of temples, but there wasn’t much else left for me to see in Hanoi and this one, called Bach Ma Temple, was the oldest one in Hanoi and did have a legend that went along with it.....

Bach Ma Temple (originally 1010, rebuilt 18th century onward)

The Bach Ma temple at 76 Hang Buam Street honors a white horse which was thought to be an incarnation of a local river god. In the spring of the year 1010, the founder of the Ly dynasty, Ly Thai To (also known as Ly Cong Uan) issued the "Edict of the Transfer of the Capital", which declared the transfer of the capital from Hoa Lu to Dai La (today's Hanoi). After Ly settled in Hanoi, his laborers worked for a year and a half to construct a mighty citadel, but each time they erected the walls the marshy soil would give way. One day, while the king was praying, an apparation of a white horse appeared before the king and marked off an area using its hoof prints. The king understood that the horse was indicating a safe area to construct the citadel, and indeed, the fortress erected at the site remained standing. In gratitude, the king established Bach Ma temple in 1010 to honor the White Horse who assisted the fledgling city.

The temple has been damaged by flooding and other natural disasters over the course of the past thousand years. The present buildings date from the 18th and 19th centuries.

I went to bed at around 10pm and while I was on Facebook I got a message from Quong asking me if I wanted to go out for dinner. I asked him if he meant tonight and he said that him and Summer were going to meet at 12am for something to eat. As I hadn’t had much to eat today since I got up so late, I agreed to meet him in my hotel reception at 11.45pm so I got up and dressed ready to go out.

At 11.45pm Quong picked me up and we drove about 10 minutes down the road on his bike to a small local restaurant and waited for Summer. Summer was running late so we went inside and waited for her. At 12am the restaurant closed their shutters and moved all the bikes that were parked up outside as if they were closing as they get fined by the police if they are open after 12am but it was OK for them to be open after 2am, it was all quite strange. It was almost like the police just wanted some extra cash on their way home.

Summer turned up at around 12.15am and we ordered our food. I had chicken noodle soup and a coke, Summer had the same as me (I think) and Quong had pigs kidney and heart noodle soup. I think the cost of my dinner was 25,000 dong (about £1). After we had eaten dinner I made plans with Quong to go to his museum where he worked tomorrow.