Hanoi to Hue

Hanoi




So guys, this is my first post..I actually started travelling on Friday, Dec. 12th (2014), to Ines at Gronau (Dutch border), to get to my noon flight at Schiphol airport the next day. I got up very early, went by train, everything was fine, except that I lacked a little sleep. When I reached Schiphol I figuered I would probably better make sure to get some lunch before flying, not knowing what or when or if I got something any time soon on the flight.. So I decided for a very crazy box of 20(!) chicken mcnuggets..and guess what I got for lunch on the flight? Chicken Tikka Masala. I travelled by Malaysia Airlines, which did NOT go over the Ukraine but Romania instead to head Eastwards. So far so good..
I had to change planes in Kuala Lumpur (which I will be going back to after Vietnam) and arrived at Hanoi airport after 18 hours of total flying time.. puuuh. But I got some useful tipps on Vietnam and Malaysia from the guy next to me in the plane. I arrived at GOLDEN TIME HOSTEL 2 (actually a hotel) and rested a little in our room (with no window!). Tina – who had already been there for a couple of days taking a tour of the beautiful Ha Long Bay – joined me and we went out for the night to meet up with Diep and Thomas, friends from Hanoi. We had a wonderful Pho Bo, a typical soup, in a street restaurant. I love it and could eat it every day. Of course you should be able to handle chop sticks and sit on tiiiiny little plastic chairs. ;-) We were joined by a German guy who Tina met on the boat trip, another Thomas. We threee walked over the night market to lake Hoan Kiem.
The legend says that a magical sword was given to a Vietnamese emperor to overrule the Chinese intruders. After the emperor won the war a turtle of the lake came and took the sword down into the lake. There is still at least one ancient turtle living in the lake – every now and then people see it come up.
The next morning we went to the temple on Hoan Kiem lake which can be reached via a red bridge. Next to the temple is a preserved turtle of 250 kg. This animal is always a sign for old age and wiseness. That could also be seen later in the Temple of Literature, the first Hanoian university, where big stone turtles state the names of famous students and professors from the university.
We also visited Diep in her office in the old town and in the evening – after taking in the beautiful night view of the lighted lake from a hidden roof top cafe (with the best Vietnamese coffee and cocoa EVER!) we went out to try Sushi with Diep and Thomas. I must say: not my thing, even the vegeterian stuff.. ;-)



On the 16th we flew to Hue in central Vietnam very early. Unfortunately this region has the raining season at the moment..so our first thing was to buy very cool purple rain coats which makes us look like Batman & Robin (almost).. ;-)



Hue