Adventures of Zac and Natasha: Hanoi, Vietnam

Hanoi was awesome. We travelled here during Tet (Vietnamese New Year) so it was especially busy. We stayed in a cute little hostel in Old Hanoi, which had an Old Asia type feel. There were little streets that scooters and cars zipped around on and cute little shops with silk scarves, of which I had to buy several, of course :)

WHAT WE DID:

Wandered the Streets:

This was especially fun in Hanoi and to be honest, the main reason we stayed in Old Hanoi. I loved going into the cute little shops!

Zac tries out a traditional hat

Busy!

Scooters much?

Cute alley

Streets lined with Tet decorations

There were lots of art shops, which I loved

Exactly the type of tree Zac gravitates towards :P

What a poser!

Kites for Tet!

Art!

We Observed Scooter Culture:

I loved taking pictures of some of what we saw on scooters, but they were often too fast for me to get a good shot. Here are a few examples:

No biggie: we saw whole families on one scooter

Being on the phone while driving is common

Scooters carry all sorts!

Water Puppets:

This was recommended by every travel guide and site and listed as a must for kids. I'm so glad we went - it was such a cool experience, and a type of theatre unlike anything we have ever seen before. At the front of the theatre was a section of water and wooden puppets danced on top of it to create the story. Zac's favourite show was the first, because it included a cool dragon. It wasn't until the end that we found out just exactly how the puppets were controlled.

Inside the theatre

Puppets

The puppets were accompanied by beautiful music, too

The puppeteers come out from behind the backdrop

We ATE:

We had some delicious food in Hanoi - cute cafes and nice restaurants with lovely atmosphere.

Our first taste of lasagne in months! :)

I loved the Vietnamese spring rolls

Some dish you `MUST` eat before you die. It was good, but
not good enough for me to remember what it`s called :P

Dinner at a cool restaurant with amazing ambiance

And delicious food

A tasty chicken dish

Visited a Temple (of course):

We were almost templed-out but we went to The Temple of Literacy on the edge of the old city. I was curious as to what a temple of literacy would look like. It looked like all the other temples.

Symbol for Life :)

Cool details!

Visited the Tam Coc Caves

This was a spontaneous decision and I was so glad we went! We went on New Years Day, knowing that everything in the city would be closed. I was super excited to see the caves but the weather was crummy to say the least. As I stood there in the freezing cold and misty rain with the wind whipping my hair all over the place, I looked at the dinky little boats we were expected to climb into and had some serious second thoughts. Then I looked around for the life jackets and saw none. As some other tourists and I tried to ask for a life jacket for Zac, our guide merely brushed off our concerns and I realized that if we wanted to do this, it would have to be without life jackets. Staring at the boats, I thought this was a terrible idea, but swallowed down that nagging common sense and stepped in. At the last moment, right before we rowed away, our guide threw his jacket on Zac and we all burst out laughing, realizing that the poor guy had no clue what a life jacket even was.