We were woken up by a knock on our cabins at 4:30am as we would shortly be arriving in Hanoi. After gathering our stuff we were off the train after a 15 hour journey. We were at our hotel in no time, where we were able to relax and catch up on lost sleep. The breakfast buffet at this hotel was filled with many wonderful foods and left us satisfied. We rested for a few hours before heading out to our first day in Hanoi. We enjoyed a tour of the busy city, seeing markets, historic bridges and many streets filled with shops. Our tour started with a walk over a bridge that was designed by Gustave Eiffel (who also designed a tower in Paris!)
We later climbed into electric cars for a tour through the old quarter of Hanoi, where each street specialises in a certain product e.g. shoes, toys
Today’s lunch was on the fourth floor of a traditional Vietnamese restaurant where we enjoyed a delicious meal.
After lunch, we had heaps of free time wandering around the city and finding our own way to the shops. A lot of us bought many gifts for our loved ones back home, and gained some skills bargaining for clothes and shoes. We then went to a lovely dinner in a restaurant called Little Hanoi where we once again were able to enjoy a traditional Vietnamese meal. We then had the privilege of watching a traditional Vietnamese theatre performance called Thang Longs Water Puppets.
It was a very enjoyable performance that gave us insight into the Vietnamese culture and way of life. It was very colourful, and there was even a small display of fireworks during one performance! It was a great experience overall and we learned a lot about Vietnamese traditional puppetry.
By Paddy S and Zoe H