Hanoi: Day 2

Saturday, we spent the day tackling Hanoi. With only one full day to explore all Hanoi had to offer, we had to pick and choose what we wanted to see the most. So we started off with my pick, the Museum of Ethnology. I first read about it on Tess’ blog and then heard about it in a few guidebooks and websites. They all raved about it so I wanted to check it out for myself. 

 The Museum of Ethnology focuses on the 54 ethnic groups within Vietnam. The museum provided different details about the different ethnic groups- from daily lives, to clothing, and food, language etc. I was amazed at how people are able to survive today- some of the ethnic groups still rely on hunting and gathering methods for food and survival! The Museum also had life-size replicas of houses of the different ethnic groups. We were able to explore the houses; they were all so different- one was about 15-20ft off the group and around 100ft tall while another was just 2 or 3ft off the group and about 100ft long. 

After the Museum of Ethnology, we took a cab to the Ho Chi Minh Complex. The museum there was closed for lunch when we arrived, so we wandered over to Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum. This too was closed- it’s closed every year from September to December for renovations/fixing ups (gotta keep him looking good! Haha).

 We walked to a place for lunch, in search for pho, but the café that was recommended to us wasn’t serving lunch- only tea, so we found another small café and grabbed a quick lunch before heading to a local market. This market was very different from the one we visited in Ho Chi Minh City. It was definitely geared to local people- as it barely sold any touristy things. It had three levels and was packed with people and goods. There was barely any room to walk. Needless to say, we didn’t spend too much time here.

Our next stop was Hoan Kiem Lake, one of Hanoi’s famous lakes. We walked around part of the lake- it was just around 4 or 5 so the sun was slowly setting, providing some nice pictures.

We stopped at Fanny’s, a French ice cream parlor along the lake before heading back to the hostel.

We met up with Tess and the group she is abroad with (some HWS and Union kids)again later that night before packing our bags for Halong Bay the next day.

  HWS kids in Hanoi!

Tess and I

Halloween and Museums!

FYI-Trick-or-treating is a no go here in Hong Kong, but bringing your young children to Lang Kwai Fong is perfectly okay.

For Halloween, I went with a group of American kids wanted to check out Lang Kwai Fong’s famous celebrations. Kat and I dressed up as professional ping-pong players (easy and comfortable- shorts and tank tops). Other costumes included Madi Gras, an angel and cheetahs. Every year they have a huge street performance from 7-10 and then the party continues all night long. But a few years ago people got trampled/maybe even killed-I’m not sure- so the area is patrolled by cops and sectioned off and just crazy overall. We just wanted to check it out.

We grabbed a quick Mexican dinner in Soho and then grabbed a drink at a bar doing Happy Hour before heading over to Lang Kwai Fong. We probably got there around 9:30 or 10 and it was PACKED (think Times Square on New Year’s Eve). The streets were all closed off and the main street in LKF turned into a one-way street. After wandering around for a little while trying to figure out how to actually get into LKF we found the right section and followed the mob of people. When we finally got to LKF about 20 photographers welcomed us. Yep. 

 Smile for the photographers!

Once we were inside LKF, we could barely move. The street was packed, and the cops were strictly enforcing this one-way movement and would barely let groups of people stay together even if they got separated. After about an hour of the craziness a bunch of us were fed-up and headed back to campus.

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Sunday, Lex and I went to check out the Space and Art museums. The Space museum is on my Hong Kong To See/Do list and the art museum was literally right next to it so we decided to check it out as well. Each museum only cost $5HKD, which is less than $0.70USD so it was a nice cheap afternoon.

The Space Museum was interesting, but rather old. It had a lot of cool information and some interactive things but a lot of the interactive things were broken and there wasn’t much besides some pictures and short captions describing things. Nothing like the Museum of Science or the Planetarium in NYC Luckily, we also got tickets to see a show at the planetarium called ‘Cosmic Collisions.” It was interesting; it talked about cosmic collisions in the past and in the future, stars, how earth was formed, the Milky Way and other space-stuff. 

The outside of the Space Museum

The Art Museum had some cool art pieces and exhibits. It was very different from what I have seen at the MFA in Boston—not too much color in the pieces and more silk-screens and pottery. While we were wandering around Lex and I were talking about how the pieces didn’t seem old at all. A lot of the art pieces were from the 1300s, some were even from B.C.E. but they just didn’t seem old, like they didn’t have the wear and tear I expected.