Last days were dedicated to Hanoi. After having travelled South to North, there were no more expectations left; rather curious time for how much relax can one get in busy Hanoi. See the central map below? Some reference points marked in green, including History Museum and Geology Museum. Geology Museum was really far out and I think I just didn't have the energy to go through the motion of changing buses and relying on the local advice. I decided no to do it and instead wander around the city to get the feel for it.
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| Hanoi City Map with points of interest. |
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| Museum of Vietnamese History admission |
At the end of my tour a surprise - a questionnaire for tourists conducted by students. Wanting to be helpful I took a pen and started going through pages of questions. You could think they will be asking for historical value of the place from tourist perspective and such things. They did of course in first few questions, together with asking for reference points to the region in questions like: which of the following capital cities would you consider visiting for cultural experience? And there was like 15 cities named, but of course as I have not travelled Asia extensively before, it did not mean much to me, whether it is Hanoi, Shanghai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or something else...I know little about cultural experiences in those places. No worries, I have time! I will get my own opinion on it once I have visited all of them!
Afterward the questions changed direction. Suddenly they were asking me for my occupation, place of work, annual salary, amount of money spent on holidays... Unbelievable, isn't it?
Nevertheless I finished my questionnaire, leaving some blanks, and left the place. Just as I was leaving the front gate I bumped into a bunch of gymnasium girls with a request to interview me. It was so funny to be seen as "a rare occasion" to get the opportunity to speak in English and ask a tourist some questions. This time it was much more reasonable asking though.
They asked me what I have seen in Vietnam, what cuisine I tasted, was it enjoyable etc... One girl was interviewing, the other was shooting me with her camera, the third one was making notes. Then they changed and the other girls started asking me similar questions. They were very polite and shy, and only after a while they got more comfortable to start smiling and giggling like girls do. It was all very funny experience to be perceived as an interview object :-).
Busy morning I had!
Around lunch time it was the time to relax. And the relaxing spot was Temple of Literature, a place to be in!
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| Temple of Literature admission |
A little bit on the right to the History Museum there is the Temple of Literature - a very pleasant place, full of open space, gardens, courtyards and nice little benches to sit on and admire the place. If not the sudden rain, it would have been a rather lazy afternoon. But with the rain approaching fast, I decided not to hang around for too long and instead try and get back to the hotel while still dry.
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| Fourth Courtyard - Temple of Literature |
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| Beautiful tree in front of the gate to the Altars |
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| I love trees..beautiful example this one. |
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| The Temple of Literature - Confucius Altar |
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| Cleaning Lady - Hanoi was much cleaner than HCMC, at least that was my feeling. But the number of cleaners on the streets seemed to be aligned by subjective judgement. |
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| Third Courtyard of the temple with the Well of Heavenly Clarity and the red Constellation of Literature pavilion (by Wikipedia) |
Hanoi is capital and second largest city of vietnam. I like this all images so much. I will visit again and thanks for sharing your blog with all of us. Its very informative.
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