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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

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