Skip to main content

Vietnam Historical Trip, Day 8: Da Nang to Hanoi

We had internal flight up to Hanoi this morning on Vietnam Airlines. Noontime, we arrived at bustling city of Hanoi, VietnamDrive picked us up from Noi Bai International airport.

I used up my membership privilege to book for a suite at Intercontinental Hanoi Westlake. To our surprise, we had been upgraded to a premier suite that facing lake...yeahhh!!We were given a welcoming drink as well as delectable sweet and savory treats at the Diplomat Lounge. We skipped our heavy lunch then. Yup... it was served all-day long and we can hopped in anytime as many as we want to!

Barely 2 days in the city, minus a day trip to Ha Long Bay, so we headed to Ba Dinh Square. That's when we know that the Ho Chi Minh city is named after the Vietnamese Revolutionary leader & President that died in 1969. A mausoleum has been erected as his resting place. Then we continued to walk to the One Pillar Pagoda, which also known as Perfume Temple, breeze stopped for photo shots.

Wiki: The temple is built of wood on a single stone pillar 1.25 m in diameter and 4 m in height, and it is designed to resemble a lotus blossom, which is a Buddhist symbol of purity, since a lotus blossoms in a muddy pond. 

The Ba Dinh Square, Hanoi where the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum is located
One Pillar Pagoda
Apart from temple, it also host as the Imperial Academy, Vietnam's first national university. Hence its called the Tenple of Literature. The Stelea of Doctors caught our attention, of the turtle, dragon, unicorn and phoenix in which the names and birthplaces of the graduates who passed the Royal Exam were carved on the stones.

It's main entrance which required entrance ticket
Our tour guide doing some explanation
The  carved blue stone turtles
The book of elite
The university compound
The classroom veranda
Robe for the scholars
Old Quarter of Hanoi offers several interesting activities and places, from the night market to the water puppet show, which we missed it!

Visiting one of the shop specializing on shell artwork 
Painting shop
Water fountain in the middle of Dong Xuan Market
Then we headed to the Hoan Kiem Lake to take picture with the red ornate wooden bridge as the background. The bridge leads to Ngoc Son Temple. At dusk, we backed to the hotel to call the day.

We didn't take the chance to take picture on the bridge
We decided to walk to our room instead of taking buggy from the lobby
The best time for relaxing our mind
The Diplomatic Lounge, with the lake view

Location: Hanoi, Hoàn Kiếm, Hanoi, Vietnam

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Journey Review

Thinking of the same idea as what Zarin did in his wrapping up post, I'll do the same for the sake of my own record.  This post will be updated from time to time. Some of the trip may have a  specific write-up  and you may click on the travelling month. Here is the world travel map, courtesy of TripAdvisor. A bit of Statistics: Total countries visited = 22/195 [Last updated : September 2023] Our Travel Map. [Courtesy of TripAdvisor. According to them, we only covered 13% of the Earth at the moment :P .... still long way to go and we didn't show USA map as to when we will be there]
3 comments
Read more

Shopping sakan di Langkawi

Kenangan bersama mak... Bulan januari yang lepas, rombongan keluarga Perak buat trip ke Melaka. Sekarang giliran keluarga Johor pulak pegi berjalan.. errr bershopping sakan di Langkawi. Kalau nak diikutkan, gambar tengah syiok bershopping lagi banyak. Tapi takde sapa yang snap gambar . Hujung minggu kali nie serentak dengan Tahun Baru Cina.. ALhamdulillah dapat kumpulkan adik-beradik bersekali ngan mak ayah, buat trip ke Langkawi. Cuma keluarga adik yang bongsu pergi lebih awal. Dapat la die snap gambar kat Langkawi airport. Pagi hari pertama kami ke KLIA dan tinggalkan kereta kat sana. Takut terlebih2 shopping masa balik nanti, payah pulak nak sewa van. Jadi kami bawak kereta memasing. Kadar parking lebih kurang RM150 untuk 4 hari 3 malam. Bila buat kira2, lebih kurang je dengan sewa teksi pergi balik ke KLIA.
2 comments
Read more

Indonesia Island Trip. Day 1: Lombok - Gili Terawangan

Sarapan pagi  kat airport We had been rotating to visit the Southeast Asia country each year and this is the fourth time visit to Indonesia after Bali (2010),  Bukittinggi (2012) and Bandung (2014). Looks like we made a return every 2 years, that's interesting! We may need to consider other countries like Brunei, Philippines or Cambodia in the near future. Three hours later, we arrived Lombok International Airport at noon. We were welcomed by Pak Ibrahim's staff shortly after clearing immigration and collecting our luggage. The weather that day was slightly overcast. En route to Teluk Kodek Port, we stopped at Sukarara Weaving Village. By the time we reached there, it was raining heavily. It is a traditional craft of weaving center located in Lombok West Nusa Tenggara. Not much seen as it felt, we had  ayam taliwang for lunch at Taliwang Alam Nyaman restaurant, known for its famous local dish. Alpukat Jus (Avocado Juice) is also a must try whenever you vi...
2 comments
Read more