I never read that book. It’s pretty much a required reading in high school, yet I only got through a couple chapters before I opted to do something more exciting. I wasn’t a reader back then. Things have change since. Regardless, I thought it would make a pretty catchy title for this blog post since we are actually cover two cities: Hue and Hanoi.

Vlog #18: Contiki Big Indochina Adventure: Hue- Hanoi, Vietnam

httpvh://youtu.be/-92K35bpf0c

Hue

First, let’s start with Hue and the wonderful drive over the “Pass of the Ocean Clouds” to get there. Very nice, although rather difficult to snap photos of.

To explore Hue, instead of a bicycle city tour we opted for a cyclo tour, which comes with a driver, perfect for the lazy person that I am.

My cyclo driver was pretty awesome, he tried pointing out the highlights of places we passed by; however, half the time I could not understand what he was saying! But it was sweet that he cared enough to try :) Yes I tipped him well.

Once our cyclo ride was finished, we hoped off for a casual stroll through the Imperial Citadel and then to the Thien Mu Pagoda.

Now I am no professional photographer but I love it when the light hits just right and my photos turn out so majestic! I love good lighting!

Lac Thein Restaurant

For dinner we went to a deaf-mute run family restaurant called Lac Thien. Now the coolest thing about this restaurant was not simply the fact that it was run by a super friendly local family who just so happened to be deaf-mute, but upstairs was a graffiti room which was scribbled on from all sorts of travelers whom had eaten there.

Since this is a regular stop on the Contiki tours there was a lot of Contiki written everywhere.

Of course I HAD to leave a little graffiti of my own- on the roof, which was actually pretty difficult to get to.  I thought it would be interesting to see if anyone reading this blog actually goes to Lac Thien to see if my markings are still there. If they are please take a picture and send it to me! AND, if you found my website because of it please let me know in the comments!

Hanoi

And just like that we are in Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam. Now for city tour number two!

As I mentioned in my video here is the Ho Chi Minh Memorial, and the ridiculously long line up to get in. I’m simple in awe of how much the Vietnamese people love Ho Chi Minh.

After the memorial we visited the Temple of Literature, Vietnam’s first national university!

After our city tour we had a bit of free time to check out Hanoi. On thing I noticed is that this city kinda starts to grow on you. Mind you, my opinion might be a bit bias since the two main places we visited were shoe and bag street, in which I proceeded to purchase 1 fake Lacoste bag and 3 pairs of high heels.

Followed by Fannys, the best ice cream parlor ever. They had all kinds of ice cream and sorbet concoctions complete with waffles, syrups, liquors, cakes, chocolates, candies, fruit, you name it and they could make it!

Oh yea Hanoi, you know how to make a girl smile!

My desert of choice, triple berry and passion fruit sorbet – since I’m lactose intolerant. Nom Noms!