Hanoi 2008

Time to reminisce: Three years ago (25-28 Aug 2008), my spouse went on a business trip to Hanoi and as usual I tagged along. We stayed at the Hilton Hanoi Opera Hotel.

Hanoi Opera House (next to it is the Hilton hotel)

After we checked into the hotel, we walked to a nearby cafe for lunch. I find it difficult to cross the roads in Hanoi as there are many road junctions without traffic lights and the local pedestrians just weave through the traffic confidently.

The cafe where we had our lunch

After lunch we walked to Hoan Kiem Lake (Lake of the Restored Sword). There were many people resting or exercising around the lake. We continued walking towards the Old Quarter and when we were there, we just walked a few streets before taking a taxi back to the hotel.

Turtle tower in the middle of the lake; Lovely big trees around the lake

We had dinner at Ba Mien Restaurant in the hotel before calling it a night.

Our meal at Ba Mien; The hotel room

Day 2-4: For the rest of the days that we were in Hanoi, I would accompany my spouse to his office where we would eat breakfast near his office and then he would go to work while I would walk back to the hotel which is located about 2km away. Then I would continue to explore the Old Quarter by foot with a map in hand. When it was about time for him to leave work, I would walk to his office to wait for him and then we would have dinner together before taking a taxi back to the hotel.

I walked past the St Joseph's Cathedral one day; The many motorcycles on the road

We ate at Quan An Ngon Restaurant many times as the restaurant is near his office and it serves a variety of traditional food of Vietnam.

Quan An Ngon Restaurant; One of the stalls

Alas, I can't remember any of the names of the dishes that we had.

Need to wrap the rolls ourselves;  Waiting for food

All in all it was a walking holiday for me as I did not buy any souvenirs nor did any shopping.

The many dishes we had at Quan An Ngon