Day 47 - 20/11/09 - Hanoi (Vietnam)

After breakfast, we walked back to near Hoan Kiem Lake where we booked front row tickets to a water puppet show for Wednesday 25th. This is said to be a must see in Hanoi, and it was booked out for the next few days, so we are quite excited to see it. It was a whole AUD$6 for 2 first class, front row tickets, and will be an extra AUD$1 for us to be able to take pictures during the show...

We then walked through the Old Quarter and the 36 product streets. In the Old Quarter, we found Dong Xuan Market which was the squishiest market we have seen on our trip so far. The aisles were just big enough to squeeze through and there were quite a lot of people trying to go everywhere.

After seeing more of the Old Quarter, we enjoyed lunch by the lake before seeing the Ha Noi Cathedral. It was then more walking alongside the crazy traffic (we are like locals now!) back to the hotel.

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and enjoying some dinner.

Day 48 - 21/11/09 - Hanoi (Vietnam)

Today was another day spent walking around the streets of Hanoi. We walked to Thong Nhat Park. This park is filled with old childrens rides such as small ferris wheels, rollercoasters, merry-go-rounds and a mini-train track that seems to go all the way round the park. None of it looks to have been used in years except a ball pit that had people around it and kids in it.

There is also meant to be Bay Mau Lake, however we were quite disappointed to see a few large puddles and lots of construction equiptment where the lake was meant to be. We are not sure if there are just doing work to the lake or whether it is changing to something else.

We then thought we would head to another lake on the map to sit and relax for a bit. On the way to Thanh Nhan Lake we stopped and had some lunch. Again when we got to where the lake should have been, we saw little evidence of it.

The rest of the afternoon was filled with resting and packing as we change hotels tomorrow morning.

Take care - Jess & Scotty