
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Since this was going to be our only full day in Hanoi we decided to get up early and make the most of it (we would end up nearly killing ourselves in the process but ... that's the price you pay for having an action-packed day).
First off, we avoided the front desk clerk who wanted to steer us to his lackey's (probably wretched) tour of Halong Bay. One of the cool Aussie-dudes we befriended at our Kampot guesthouse, Tony, had given us a business card for the Kangaroo Cafe, located just a few blocks away from our hotel. Tony had such a great time on this tour and since the price was more than reasonable we thought this would be a good deal. Like we stated before, it turned out that in-person recommendations were better than anything from the guidebooks.
En route to the Cafe we passed St. Joseph's -- the cathedral we had seen the previous evening. Tons of children in school uniforms (from the Catholic School next door) were lining up, chanting, dancing, playing, acting goofy, and doing all

Ahhh...sweet Jesus... the search for so noble a necessity paid off better than we could have possibly hoped! The Moca Cafe was the hip, bohemian-looking coffeehouse we had noticed the previous evening. For some reason we didn't save the business card of this wonderful joint but we do have the receipt -- go figure! It appears we had cafe au lait, cafe mocha, crepes and french toast! TASTY FOOD AND STRONG COFFEE. What more can a person want in life? Though we had nothing against Vietnamese food (particularly not the stuff we ate in Hoi An just days before) it was great to be able to sample a western breakfast once in awhile -- particularly when it was done as well as the folks did it here. Judging from the architecture of this structure we surmised that it was built during the French colonial period...fortunately it wasn't bombed by the Americans or -- worse yet -- re-developed into some hideous-looking Russian-style apartment complex. One could easily imagine the elite French in the early '50s, sipping their coffee for hours on end and discussing the rapidly deteriorating political situation of the day...

We quickly found the Kangaroo Cafe and looked over their "menu" selection of trips to choose from. While it was possible to do Halong Bay in one day, this had been discouraged by everyone -- it would take several hours just to get to the Bay and by then we'd only have a couple of hours to experience it, then we'd have to head back. Forget that! We opted for reserving the overnight boat trip which would only cost $75.00 each. After signing off on some liability forms and told to bring a bathing towel (which would turn out to be completely useless) and our passports, we were instructed to meet back at the cafe early the next morning to meet up with our fellow travelers and board the bus to the Bay.
Having taken care of this important task we headed out towards Hoan Kiem Lake. Along the way we enjoyed checking out the odd mixture of French and Vietnamese architecture, the sophisticated boutiques
We reached the Lake. It is well-described from thingsasian.com:
Hoan Kiem Lake means "Lake of the Restored Sword" referring to some legendary fifteenth century Vietnamese hero, whose magical sword - so the story goes - was swallowed by a golden tortoise. Hence on a tiny island in the middle of the lake stands appropriately "Tortoise Tower," an ancient three-tiered pavilion in memory of the famed tortoise. On another islet to the north, inside the fourteenth century Den Ngoc Son Temple, a giant preserved turtle encased in glass keeps the legend alive. This picturesque temple is linked to the shore by the red-lacquered Huc Bridge, which is resplendently mirrored in the murky waters below.
Upon reaching the very-cool, red-lacquered Bridge we attempted a photo from another tourist. Unfortunately the locals don't seem to care too much about this sort of nonsense, hence our sad results:

Ok...this is getting to be a long post so we'll make this "part one" and post "part two" next...
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