Fwd: Hanoi 2

Right...where was I? The internet's going a bit funny here, but I
think I was talking about the prison.

After the prison we wandered further to the Văn Miếu (Temple of
Literature). It was basically a university for very accomplished
scholars. The archetecture's very chinese and old, and in between the
gardens and trees there's a complex of buildings and quaint tablets
mounted on stone tortoises (Hanoi has a bit of a fixation with
tortoises) with a lake in the middle. We slowly wandered through,
taking it in, and then inside the last building was a stage - after a
few minutes a band of musicians started playing. It was amazing; they
were so talented, and of course they were playing on instruments we'd
never seen before. We stayed for a while and a tour group arrived, and
when they started "audience participation" we slipped away. On the way
back Alex bought a small souvenier water puppet as we looked round the
gift shop. The chess sets were beautiful but there's no way I could
even fit it in my bag!

We walked back via the Lenin Monument. It wasn't spectacular, just on
the way...but I'm not quite sure why it's there, even. Incidentally,
the hammer and sickle symbol is as about as prolific in Hanoi as the
Vietnamese flag, which you can generally see one or two of wherever
you happen to be standing in the city.

Back to the hostel for a bit of a rest (the room's up four flights of
stairs so even if we didn't need one before, we definitely did by the
time we got there) and in the evening we ate at a resturant
specialising in vegetarian food, that we found in the Lonely Planet.
After, we headed next door for a beer (cheapest in Hanoi, according to
the Lonely Planet) and then somehow ended up in two more places for
beer as well. Alex is beginning to get a taste for Eastern lager.

The next day we headed to the train station to book tickets for the
next stage of our journey. The train station itself seemed to be
reasonably efficiently run, but the standards of the rooms and seats,
etc was the same as you might expect in India (or maybe a bit worse!)
The person behind the counter managed to explain to us that you could
only buy tickets from two hours before departure, so we went back
empty handed. It was a good job too - one of the guys that runs the
hostel suggested that the bus was a lot easier, as it includes ferry
crossing and transfers, etc.
We took a taxi back and then headed out, vaguely with the idea of
finding a mall that might have a cinema in. We eventually found one;
compared to what we're used to it was a bit disappointing, but I
suppose we've been spoilt by KL and Singapore! There was definitely no
mall. We went in search of cinemas (the Lonely Planet has a few in it)
and, as it started raining, we discovered that the first no longer
existed, and the second only showed two films a day (both fairly
rubbish and neither for several hours). So we headed back, stopping to
eat a cafe on the way.

In the evening, I forget where we ate, but we did go to a Jazz Club. It
was really expensive (one cocktail cost as much as a meal elsewhere)
so we made our drinks last and watched the live band, sitting in
squashy sofas bathed in the glow from neon signs on the walls. It was
really good!

The next morning we began our journey - to Cat Ba island, a small
island off the coast that we thought would be relaxing (we still
haven't had enough of sea and sand!). The journey
was...interesting...but I won't go into that now.
We're still at Cat Ba at the moment; I'm sitting on my own in the
internet cafe because Alex hasn't been feeling that great for the last
couple of days. We've both had the odd bout of illness while we've
been travelling, it's just the different foods and waters (and maybe
some questionable cooking) and they only seem to last two or three
days.

We're here until the 17th, then we're heading back to Hanoi for a
night, and then flying to Bangkok the next day.