this is a continuation from the previous post.
in the afternoon, my cousin and i continued to hao lu prison or also known as hanoi hilton. well, it is not the hilton hotel we are talking about. it is called hilton because american soldiers who were captured here during the war were treated way better than the local civilians outside the prison ground.
the condition in the prison was really clean and it was not spooky or scary at all. so different from the torture prison in cambodia.
entrance of the prison.
a guillotine.
corridor of cells.
wall mural on the prison walls.
some exhibits showing things left by captured american pilots and their living condition in the prison. there was video playing on the tv which gave very detailed story of hoa lu prison and its history and the american occupancy in the prison.
a black and white photo of the prison ground.
the underground sewer which prisoners used to escape.
we spent about 1 hours exploring whatever is left ofr the prison ground.
the last destination of the day- women museum.
get your ticket before enterin this building.
statue of a woman holding a baby.
this museum was built to celebrate the roles of vietnamese women in their society, detailing their struggles in the past, their roles in the family, the cultures, rituals, etc.
it was indeed a celebration of women. every country should have this kind of museum.
i think there re 4 levels in the building and each has its own theme. i can't remember them so won't go into details. just going to share some photos i took.
i was attacted to the beautiful ao dai which shimmered under the spotlight here. on the left, was a picture of a woman in tribal custome.
portraits of vietnamese women.
couldn't remember the name of the goddess they were referring to in this exhibition but their prayer's paraphernalia is really elaborate and grand.
hats hanging in the museum.
these are the normal conical hats but have been painted in different designs and colours.
some elaborate customes used in prayers for the goddess.
we spent about an hour too in the museum. we exited at closing time which was 5p.m.
outside the museum, we saw this:
bottle green house. how creative and it works just like a glass green house. what a great way to recycle plastic bottles.
some creative phrases on notebooks found in the gift shop outside the museum building. keep calm and....
af ter that visit to the museum, we decided to head back to the hotel before going out for dinner.
on the way back, we passed hoan kiem lake again and this time, we were seeing the lake in lights.
turtle tower in the centre of the lake.
we saw a few couples taking their wedding photographs around the lake. guess this is the most popular site for photo shoot.
entrance to the temple of the jade mountain....we did not go to the temple as we were required to pay. we only walked all the way till the ticket point.
this red bridge; the huc bridge will bring you to the temple.
the entrance to the temple....where we stopped.
lights all around the lake.
we did some window shopping on the way back to the hotel.
my cousin bought a painting from this shop here. again....one whole row of shops all sell similar things.
ok, there was no one whole row for this stall here. just them....selling roast pork and roast chicken.
coffee anyone? i did not buy any vietnamese coffee back but my cousin did. she bought those instant mix.
and at weekends, there was a night market....a lloooonng stretch of road with stalls in the middle of the road selling all kinds of stuff. we did not see many youngsters during our walk in the city in the day time, but came this night market, they were all out in pairs.
the street was just a stone's throw from our hotel...so convenient.
dong xuan street is the street to go to if you want to buy your christmas and chinese new year decorations. definitely spoilt for choice.
we put our things back at the hotel....and off we went out again. i was already not feeling well at that time. the throat was actually very dry and inflamed because of the dry air and i could feel a fever coming. however, eat i must and we ended up at a the moose and roo pub and grill. this place was rated number 1 at tripadvisor.
talking about tripadvisor, i have come to notice that most of the highly rated places are actually nearby backpacker places or places where lots of foreign tourists stay in. hence, you wouldn't find many local restaurants or street food in their list. so don't trust everything you see in the list.
anyway, we didn't really choose this place based on its number 1 ranking. i was craving for some good western fod, hence we chose this place. but seeing my almost sick condition, i wasn't really able to enjoy whatever was placed in front of me.
all foreigners in this pub. and there are a few backpacker places down the road. see, this place was rated so high because it is like in the centre of a backpacking district.
\
my cousin had red wine, while i had cocktail.
roast pork and mashed potato. only i ate. my cousin was saving her tummy for her bon cha, a vietnamese dish which she had near the hote.
the roast pork wasn't that bad but i felt that it was too lean and there was not enough fat. it was pork belly but lean pork belly. man, they didn't eve give me the crispy skin!! haha....i craved for that. the mash potato was so-so. the ambience at this place was good and the servers were all friendly. even the boss was there serving customers. but in the end, i did not finish my food. i just couldn't wait to get back and go to bed. i was going to be really sick if i did not do that.
and bed was at legacy hotel previously known as an hung hotel. they have 3 hotels in the old quarters itself. my cousin and i had passed all 3 in our walks hahhaa.....so all 3 are definitely conveniently located.
the big bathroom we got in our second bedroom after coming back from ha long bay and checking in again. we insisted on twin room and this was what they gave us. a queen bed and a single add-on bed. my cousin could not sleep with someone else on the same bed....so that was how it turned out. this was really a big room. of course i got the big bed ;P
well, that was my last day in hanoi. it was all in all a good trip except the haze and dry weather. definitely worth visiting if you ask me and i won't mind going to vietnam again.....but to other parts such as ho chi minh city or sa pa in the north.
No comments:
Post a Comment