Yings in Hanoi, Vietnam

We got back late on Tuesday from Halong Bay after our 3.5 hour bus ride.  It was a low key night, just some local food and some walking around.  The next morning we had breakfast at the Art Boutique Hotel then bought a few things and ate some more food on the street.  The activities for the day were to shop a little, go to the History Museum, the pagoda park and then the Water Puppets.

We were a little surprised at the chaotic street traffic.  There was huge amounts of beeping, swerving and jams all over.  The streets were narrow and not in good condition.  It was a little hard to walk with the kids since the scooters parked all over place, there were restaurant seatings on the sidewalks and very few traffic lights for crossing.

Water Buffalo

The view from our hotel balcony.  Narrow and tall buildings.

Right across from us.

These were donut-like pastries.  We bought some but didn't
particularly like them.

Power lines were a mess in the Old Quarter part of town.

A music store.  This was a harmonica type instrument.  She
could play it well but we had no clue.

The kids loved the toy store!  Baba didn't like the prices in there.

The prices in Vietnam were cheap but the street vendors were not as interested as we expected in coming down in their prices.  There were a few shops that we didn't buy anything at and that a couple shops down the road offered us 1/2 price.  

The pagoda in the park.

Opera House - quite old.

Hanoi Stock Exchange - humm, don't know what stocks...

They call the Vietnam war here the 'Revolution' (I think). 

We took an over-priced ($4) ride back to our
hotel.

Mark sat on my lap.

The water puppet show.  Interesting and unique show.  The
puppets were about 1 - 2.5' tall and on long poles.  

Many puppets out at the same time.  Choreographed to music
and lights.  A fun $5 show and these were the expensive seats.

They had some old puppets in the lobby.

This was a small Pizza and Pasta restaurant.  The kids had
burgers and adults had Vietnamese food.  After dinner
we had our picture taken by their photographer who was
updating their TripAdvisor site.

Mama balancing fruit on the street.

On the street.

From our Art Boutique balcony.

The weather was nice on the 3rd day including a nice sunset.

Local noodle restaurant.  $2.75 bowl and $0.75
Hanoi Beer.

The noodle place.

The monks heading into the monastery near the
water puppet show. 

Pho is only eaten for Breakfast. This was at the hotel.