Hanoi

New Year's Eve, Vetnmes cocktail for man and vietnamese cocktail for woman
The water puppets (or the people for controlled the water puppets)
Dad asleep during the water puppet show

Mom and Dad in the cyclo ahead of us
Halong Bay

Madi and I in a cave
Steve and I at the top of a five hundred stair climb...great view

Okay, so it has taken me a long time to finally sit down to write about our trip to Hanoi with my parents at the end of December.
We left on Boxing day after a wonderful Christmas day. We arrived in Hanoi and got to our Hotel, we were staying in the French Quarter, sounds nice eh…hmmm, it wasn’t awful, but it doesn’t come close to what images that ‘french quarter’ conjure up in your mind!
Anyway, we got settled and went to bed as it was late.
The next day we hopped in a ‘cyclo’ and took a tour of the area, very nice way to travel and see the sights. The poor guys that had to bike us around though, they sure earned their 5 bucks!
Hanoi was about 16 degrees, so quite chilly compared to Singapore’s 30+ degrees. We had checked the weather before we left and it said 25 degrees and sunny, so we packed shorts…we all wore the same pair of pants everyday! Madi wore her pajamas everyday as those were her only pants.
Anyway, we spent the next four days exploring the area. Hanoi was the most authentic place we have been in to date. It really felt like we were amongst the local people, seeing how they lived. There were a lot of touristy things and a lot of tourists, but still the daily lives of the Vietnamese could be seen. This was nice and shocking at the same time.
We ate at some great restaurants and got a few great treasures. My Dad had a suit made and we bought a silk duvet cover.
We spent a day on Halong Bay, one of the most beautiful places in Vietnam…but it was overcast and freezing, so we are sure it is prettier in the summer, but still nice. We got to explore some neat caves and kayak and stuff, so that was fun.
We spent New Year’s Eve at an authentic Vietnamese restaurant…it was an interesting experience…then we were off to the famous Vietnamese water puppets…hmm…an experience, yes, really excellent entertainment…I’m going to say no.
All in all we did enjoy ourselves, we had a wonderful time with my parents exploring the area and experiencing Hanoi.
We arrived back in Singapore on January first, a great way to begin 2008.