Last days in Luang Prabang, first days in Hanoi

Phillip and I are now in Hanoi, Vietnam, having flown here on Sunday afternoon from Luang Prabang, Laos. Before we left Laos, Phillip and I wandered again around Luang Prabang as the town's shaded, well-maintained sidewalks call for strolling. We didn't visit the town's 33 wats, in fact, we didn't go inside any wat as I always wore shorts so we couldn't meet their dress requirement. We walked past several wats, and I took pictures from the sidewalk of the prettiest ones. This one was on the grounds of the Royal Palace museum.

This is part of Wat Sibounheuang, a large Buddhist complex near the Mekong River.

We went to an afternoon bamboo weaving class at the Living Arts Center, affiliated with one of the shops we visited in town. The class fee included the tuk-tuk ride to the Center at the edge of town and back. Since it was solely a weaving class, we had time to make bamboo placemats.

The Center was next to the Mekong River, so another picture of it.

During a lull in the rain that settled in during the last two days that we were in Luang Prabang, we walked to the construction area near our hotel. The workers were almost done with the dragons they were constructing on either side of the steps down to the Nam Khan river. The scales of the dragon are tiles, cemented on, but this worker was carving the spine in the damp cement.

Our flight, late afternoon on Sunday, was again on a propeller plane; I'm getting used to them now! I had arranged for our Hanoi hotel to provide transportation from the airport, as people always complain about being overcharged by airport taxis. Our driver was waiting for us and tried to drive us to our hotel. He got within 350 meters (about 3 blocks), but the van could not navigate thru the closed streets. Every weekend, Friday-Sunday evenings, some streets around Hoan Kiem Lake are closed so that vendors can set up. The driver called our hotel. They sent a bellman to walk us and our luggage to the hotel. Once checked in, Phillip and I went out into the crowd of vendors and people. This is one of the streets that the van driver could not get thru.

Yesterday, our first full day in Hanoi, we did two of our favorite things from our last visit in 2018, walk around Hoan Kiem Lake and visit Note Coffee.

east side of Hoan Kiem Lake

"Have a beautiful time in Hanoi"

After our coffee frappes as Note Coffee, we headed out to visit Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum. This day showed to be the coolest day of our week here ("least hot" is a better description, as we still sweated during the hike) so we walked to the farthest location on my list. Enroute, we passed a display celebrating the Vietnamese winners at those recent SEA Games in Phnom Penh!

At our destination, I thought we had just missed the changing of the guard at the mausoleum, but apparently they were running late and we got to see them from across the grass. 

We did not go into the mausoleum to view Ho Chi Minh's body, again a location where long pants are required. We planned to go into the park's museum, but it was closed for lunch, so I just took a picture of a really interesting tree on the museum's patio.

After wandering thru this park area, we walked about a block east to the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long, a UNESCO World Heritage site. 

The Citadel was built in the 11th century by the ruling dynasty, Ly Viet. It was constructed on the remains of a 7th century Chinese fortress. The Citadel was the center for regional political power for almost 13 centuries. The structures had been torn down and rebuilt by successive powers, but archeological digs, still ongoing, have unearthed many remnants of the early buildings and their contents.

In addition to the stone buildings, several exhibit halls contained artifacts and pictures of the excavations. 

Because of its cultural significance and the beauty of the grounds, several graduation class pictures were being taken while we were there, kids who appeared to be graduating from kindergarten! They were cute as a bug, with the girls in the traditional ao dai. The funniest part was watching them run out so they could change back into their regular clothes. In the picture, one class is under the tree, having already changed clothes right there. Another class is dashing for their bags of play clothes. 

Just as the naga (multi-headed cobra) was common in Cambodia, the dragon is common here. It graced several staircases of the Citadel.

Phillip bought some sugar cane juice from a vendor on our first night here. I can't stand the stuff as it tastes like sugar water to me. He's had it before, but this drink must have been from a bad batch because he started feeling ill on our walk back from the Citadel. He's fine now, his digestive upset only lasted about twenty-four hours. Today, we had a cooking class scheduled. He went with me, but he did not participate. 

For the first time on this trip, our class/tour had additional participants. Every other class and tour until today ended up being a private one for us because tourism is down so much in the region. Two Englishmen, a couple from Finland and a guy from Scotland were with me as we prepared five traditional dishes. 

Our dishes included egg coffee, fried spring rolls, beef pho, papaya salad, and bun cha (pork balls with rice noodles). Feeling fine this evening, Phillip ate a banh mi (sandwich) for dinner, and we walked around the lake again at dusk.