Pho the love of Hanoi

Pho - Beef Noodle Soup (actually pronounced 'fah' but the possibilities for puns aren't nearly as fun)

Vietnam's capital city is busy and bustling and mental - but in a very different way to Ho Chi Minh in the south. After establishing lodgings in the Old Quarter, we got ourselves on board one of the many ships bound for Halong Bay.

 

We went for a brief spin around the Bay before heading to an impressive, albeit crowded, cave, complete with awed crowds of oohing tourists...

 

Then we just let the ship cruise around as we watched the sun go down with some new shipmates on the deck.

The next day, after a refreshing kip aboard the boat, we got up at sunrise for a spot of early morning kayaking to take in the views...

... then a trek through Cat Ba Island's national park. Argh rickety stairs!

 

But the views from the top was worth it.

After a hard morning's trek, we chilled out for the afternoon on one of Cat Ba's beaches.

 

As we waited for our chariot to bear us back to Hanoi, we had a few swift local beers with the captain of our ship!

The next day we headed back to continue our  Hanoi adventure...

Crazy Cyclo Man

  

 

Opera House

 

ANOTHER Notre Dame Cathedral

 

Temple of Literature 

 

 

 

Matt being a bit of a bell... 

Of course we couldn't visit Vietnam's capital without seeing Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum complex. Unfortunately his embalmed body had been sent to Russia for maintenance, so we weren't able to view that but we DID see a lovely statue of him and some rather morbid paraphernalia  including the lamp used to preserve his body at the hospital and the embalming fluid bottles they used on him...

 

 

Hanoi from on high 

 

Matt and a giraffe in Lenin Park 

 

Jenny and some 'things'