The Mediocre Wanderer's Hanoi City Tour

Packaged city tours are a great way of seeing a good part of the place you're visiting. They're also a great way of burning a lot of calories. Pictured above is the 3 of us, 6 hours into the tour, on a Hanoi summer's day, taking refuge from the sun's rays and enjoying the free WiFi at the Temple of Literature

No visit to a foreign country is complete without spending a day to get to know the city you're at. Booking a city tour through our hotel , The Emerald Water Trendy Hotel  (US$40 for adults, $30 for children), we had an 8-hour itinerary to see Hanoi.

tour guide Tony

The itinerary was inclusive of entrance fees, transportation, an English-speaking tour guide named Tony, a bottle of mineral water and lunch at one of the ancient houses in Hanoi's Old Quarter.

Hanoi is the capital city of Vietnam. With over 7 million people living in it's borders and a colorful past to boot, there are quite a lot of interesting places to visit. Here's a look at what we did during the city tour:

1. Tran Quoc Pagoda
- known as the oldest Buddhist temple in Hanoi, it's located on a small island near the southeastern shore of Hanoi's West Lake. Visiting the place on a Saturday, we were pleased to know that the strict monks weren't in the area, allowing us to a. get in the place without long lines and b. no restrictions on wardrobe (in our experience, while visiting temples in most places; shorts and sleeveless top-wearing adult females aren't allowed). I, on the other hand was in a long linen button down dress with sleeves, just in case we ended up in places that DID follow such dress codes.

- Linked by a small causeway to the mainland, the place was quite breezy and pleasantly cool. As is significant in Buddhism, lotus flowers and symbols dot the grounds and structures of the pagoda.

A Bodhi tree was prominently planted in it's grounds. The tree has been alleged to have come from a cutting from the very same tree that Buddha sat under, and achieved enlightenment.

monk cemetery

There is also a small, beautiful structure that serves as the area's shrine, as well as a monk's graveyard, wherein only monks who have died past the age of 80, can be interred in.

**FUN FACT:
- a stone's throw from the pagoda, on the banks of West Lake, are duck boats (yep. boats shaped like ducks) which can rented out (with a boatman) to bring you and your child/ren around the lake

- turtles and goldfishes are are sold near the entrance of the Pagoda. They're said to bring luck to it's owners

- this particular pagoda is host to female monks who are highly respected and deeply esteemed

Check out the end of the line! - Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum

2. Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum
- the final resting place of Vietminh leader, Ho Chi Minh, this compound houses a museum, the tomb, a pagoda and a couple of restaurants and souvenir shops.

ended up with a sausage bahn mi wihle waiting for the rest of our tour group to finish visiting the mausoleum

- the mausoleum is open to visitors on certain days and only in the mornings, to minimize environmental agitators that may affect the preservation of Uncle Ho's body. Because of this, the lines getting in are quite long, wherein a 30-minute queuing is considered quick. Strict rules also apply once you enter the premises such as: no bringing of cameras, eating, drinking and smoking. A guard at the entrance will make sure to confiscate contraband items, so leaving these band items in your tour bus is prudent. They also have issues with big bags.

- given the long lines (4 blocks long!) and our son MAX (who might not be too keen lining up and walking throughout the huge compound), we decided to skip this part of the itinerary and settle ourselves into the snack bar below the mausoleum.

**FUN FACT:
- aside from the restrictions listed above, visiting the tomb also comes with more protocols such as not putting your hands in your pocket, not crossing your arms and observing utmost silence.

3. Vietnam Museum of Ethnology
- a museum that focuses on  the 54 officially recognized ethnic groups in Vietnam. Tour includes a look at their tools, homes and lifestyle

- an utter snooze fest. The highlight of this visit was our MAX's appreciation of a life-size replica of an actual wooden hut. Our son even observed proper village tradition by taking of his shoes when he entered the home (all without being told to do so).

village ceremonial dolls

4. Tourist Trap 1.0
- booking a tour always comes with a price and that is being shuffled off to a stop that sells stuff. For this city tour, we were brought over to a lacquer ware factory and showroom. It was interesting to see just how the intricate and colorful lacquer designs are made, but then again, given that they're on vases, cabinets and other heavy items that one would have to worry about shipping home, we were not in the lookout for anything sold in the area.

since we were prohibited from taking photos in the laquer ware store, here's a pic of MAX taking off his shoes to walk around the life size replica of a village hut inside the Museum of Ethnology

**TIP:
The bathrooms are really clean

5. Lunch at The Blue Butterfly
- #69 Ma May Street is a restored ancient house in Hanoi's Old Quarter. Built over 300 years ago, this beautiful wooden two-story structure offers great Vietnamese food, cooking classes and food tours.

- Lunch was a simple, varied affair. This was what was served:

6. Temple of Literature

- home of the Imperial Academy, Vietnam's first University, the temple was built in 1070. Covering 54,000 square meters,there are 5 courtyards to go through, all still maintaining it's ancient architecture.

courtyard upon...

courtyard upon

courtyard

- the overcast day the we started out turned out to be a typical Hanoi summer's day by the time we got here. At this point, I was too exhausted to explore every nook and cranny. Tired as I was though, this structure reminded us of a much smaller Forbidden City in Beijing. It however, was patterned after Confucius' birthplace which was a temple in Qufu, Shandong.

**FUN FACT:
- free Wi Fi's available within the Temple of Literature Compound

mornings at Hoan Kiem Lake

7. Stroll Around Hoan Kiem Lake
- since leaving our hotel at 8 AM, we saw a good part of Hanoi. If we didn't join a group tour, we would've been able to see more of it as we were bound to follow the time table given by our tour guide. That being said, we skipped out on visiting the Hoan Kiem Lake. For one, our hotel was a 2 minute walk away from said lake and second, MAX, Phil and I were quite exhausted (despite riding a tour bus to each destination, my pedometer still counted a little under 8,000 steps, which explained the stiff and sore legs the following morning). We did however, get to see parts of the lake on our own:

light, comfy cotton wear; lightweight walking shoes and a light bag to carry our foldable waterproof windbreakers, sunglasses, wet wipes and mini medicine kit plus some cash and tech

And there you have it, a city tour worthy of the the "Touristy Things To Do When in Hanoi" list. If you come during the colder months, I think a cyclo tour around the lake and beyond would be a great way to experience the city. That's something I'd love to do (plus a street food tour), the next time we head back to Hanoi.

From TMW, may all your wanderings be better than ours!!