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Today Alice, Emily and I did some sightseeing and exploring around Hanoi. We started off with a trek across to the other side of Hanoi to find a samsung service centre which would unlock my phone so that I could use a Vietnamese sim card. It was really difficult to find and involved crossing some of the busiest roads in central Hanoi, but Emily and Alice managed to get us there in the end (I of course had no role to play in the navigations!!!)
We had lunch at a lovely restaurant called Koto, which helps train street children and disadvantaged young people in Hanoi as chefs. I had Bun Bo Nam Bo, which consisted of a massive bowl of rice noodles with wok fried beef, peanuts and chilli. It was delicious and gave me the opportunity to use chopsticks for the first time ever! It was actually fairly successful, though there is certainly room for improvement! Thank you Jasmine for teaching me the technique before I left for Vietnam, you saved me from potential embarrassment!!!
We then went to the Temple of Literature, a pretty courtyard complex built in 1070BC to honour Vietnam's finest scholars.
On the way to our next stop we encountered a minor crash between a car and bus while we were crossing the road. The traffic then descended into chaos and we were trapped in the middle of the road screaming! Somehow we made it across, and then saw that everyone on the bus was laughing at us!
We also saw the Lenin statue and the flag tower, and were scalded by some scary policemen for loitering!
We were also approached by two men who wanted us to pay for a motorbike ride to some other siteseeing destinations. After saying no they tried to warm us up by talking about football and I was asked if I supported Arsenal!! Don't worry Dad, I quickly corrected this assumption, and I was pleased to discover that they had heard of Tottenham!
We then made our way to Hoan Kiem lake (pictured) and crossed a pretty red bridge (the rising sun bridge) to the centre of the lake, but we were too stingy to pay the entrance for the Ngoc temple sitting on the island!
We took a seat around the outside of the lake for a water break- at 6pm the weather was still hot and very humid. We were soon approached by three Vietnamese students eger to practice their English, it was very entertaining! I also had my first experience of haggling when I bought a phrasebook off a street seller; I was probably still a bit generous though!
It was a really lovely day, and I am pleased to say that as of yet, I have had no nasty insect/animal encounters!
xxxxx
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