Month: October 2026

Hanoi, Day 4

The hotel we stayed at for our first two night in Viet Nam was on Hoan Kiem Lake. Now we are a bit further north staying near Truc Bach Lake. This morning we walked around the lake.

Looking at Tay Lake the largest lake in Hanoi. It is north of the lake we walked around. According to Google Translate the sign says Proud to be Vietnamese. The Dawn of a new Era.

Today was another very hot day. The temperature was 94 and the humidity was 80%. Half way through the walk we were very hot so we stopped for drinks to cool off.

The coffee shop is called Highlands Coffee
This is the Tran Quoc Pagoda. It was closed for some reason so we couldn’t go in.
I don’t know the name of this shrine.

For dinner we went to Hanoi Fusion Pub and Restaurant and had an excellent dinner.

Dinner
The ceiling on the level we ate on wasn’t high enough to stand up!

Today was our last day in Viet Nam. It is a fascinating country. Tomorrow we fly to Hong Kong.

Hanoi to Ha Long Bay Cruise and back to Hanoi

Wednesday morning we were picked up at our hotel at 8am for the transfer to Ninh Binh, on the coast. From Ninh Binh we were scheduled to take an overnight cruise on Ha Long Bay.

From our perspective the traffic leaving Hanoi was crazy
Once we got out of town the toll road was excellent

At the dock in Ninh Binh we had to wait a while but eventually we bordered a tender boat which took us on a thirty minute ride to our cruise ship.

On the tender boat as we approachedour ship

We had a wonderful big room with a balcony. The food was delicious and the islands all around us were like nothing I have ever seen, absolutely stunningly beautiful.

On our balcony
When we got back to our room after dinner the moon was coming up
This morning the islands were especially beautiful
In all of our travels I have never seen islands rising up out of the ocean like these.

This morning after brunch we boarded the tender and repeated our journey back to Hanoi where we are tonight. We have another wonderful room in a different hotel, in Hanoi, the Tonkin Boutique Luxury Hotel. We had welcome drinks at the rooftop bar as the sun set. We had dinner in the hotel restaurant and then went to Blake’s House of Jazz for a show.

Our view of Hanoi from the rooftop.
The Jazz concert tonight