During the second stop, we saw the Hanoi of 4:30AM (after arriving on the overnight train from Sapa)… the streets were quiet and empty and we were tired. After sleeping for a couple hours in the only seedy motel open at that hour, we regrouped and decided to get a feel for the history of Hanoi. First stop: a traditional Vietnamese breakfast of pho: noodle soup with vegetables and meat (just veggies for me, of course). We toured around in little chair pushed by a tough Vietnamese man who showed us the sights, a statue of Lenin, a military flag tower and Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum – a monolith of stark concrete architecture located in front of Ba Dinh square where he delivered a speech declaring Vietnam’s independence in 1945.
We then toured the Temple of Literature, Vietnam’s first university and a structure that is about 1000 years old. The university originally centered on the teachings of Confucius.
After walking back to the seedy motel to grab our stuff, we headed on to the airport for our flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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