Our last day in Hanoi, and therefore Vietnam. We were at a bit of a loss what to do as we understood that the National Museums/galleries were closed today. Anyway we opt for a walk around the lake. I saw that there was a Catholic Cathedral nearby and Hoa Lo Prison. We wander off in search of these. We find the Cathedral first which is open everyday between 9-12am and 2-5pm, good news, BUT at 11.00am it’s closed! A few photos of the outside, looks a bit worse for wear, but that’s common in Vietnam, where buildings grow black mould in the humid atmosphere.
From here we went to Hoa Lo prison, built by ‘The French Colonialists’ in 1886, to house communist sympathisers of Ho Chi Minh. The Vietnamese propanda machine is in full flow, and the anti French rhetoric goes on and on. It does flow into anti Japanese and then of course the US. Actually it was very interesting and quite well laid out, if a bit heavy on the antis. The North Vietnamese did, according to the info, treat the American Pilots they shot down very well!!
After this we managed a little lunch near the Cathedral. We then set off to find Coffee Street. It seems to us that each street in The Old Quarter, specialises in a product. We’ve seen silk street, cotton street, stainless steel street, Bamboo street, sun glasses street and coffee street. The trouble is we couldn’t find coffee street again! Don’t know where they’ve put it! We’ll have another look tonight when we go out to eat. Quite fancy The Orchid, which is also a cookery school. They can usually be relied on to provide tasty food and use hygiene!
We have thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Vietnam especially this manic City of Hanoi, one has to see it to believe it.
