Another day, another tour, but before that we had more places to explore in the beautiful city of Hanoi.
Our first stop this morning was St Joseph’s Cathedral, a Roman Catholic Church established by the French in the late 1880’s and now supporting the 4m catholics in Vietnam.
The church is situated in the Old Quarter and is of a neo-gothic style and is named after the patron saint of Vietnam.
The church was one of the first structures built by the colonial government of French Indochina, when it opened in December, 1886 and is the oldest church in Hanoi.
The church is located at the end of the Nhà Thờ Street and the corner of Nhà Chung Street, an upscale market area with boutiques and silks, as well as restaurants, many of a French orientation.
After leaving the cathedral behind we walked to the Temple of Confucius. The temple hosts the “Imperial Academy”, Vietnam’s first national university. The temple was built in 1070 at the time of Emperor Lý Thánh Tông.
It is one of several temples in Vietnam which is dedicated to Confucius, sages and scholars.
The various pavilions, halls and statues are places where offering ceremonies, study sessions, and the strict exams of the Dai Viet took place.
The temple layout covers an area of over 500,000 square feet, including the Văn lake, Giám park and the interior courtyards which are surrounded by a brick wall. In front of the Great Gate are four tall pillars. On either side of the pillars are two stelae commanding horsemen to dismount.
The main gate opens onto three pathways which continues through the complex. The centre path was reserved for the monarch and the path to the left for the administrative Mandarins, with the path to the right is for military Mandarins.
The construction of the stone stelae began in 1484. In total there are 116 steles of carved blue stone turtles with elaborate motifs to honour talent and encourage study. The turtle is a symbol of longevity and wisdom.
The first two courtyards are quiet areas with ancient trees and trimmed lawns, where scholars would relax away from the bustle of the outside world.
On each side of the ceremonial courtyard stands two halls. Their original purpose was to house altars to the seventy-two most honoured disciples of Confucius.
In the fifth and last courtyard we entered we came across an upper floor which is dedicated to the three monarchs who contributed most to the foundation of the temple and the academy. These date back over 1,000yrs!
On either side of the rear building are smaller buildings which hold a drum and a bronze bell which are more later additions and all added to the splendour of the temple grounds.
After an interesting few hours, we headed back to the hotel in readiness for our late afternoon food walking tour.
On our way over to the meeting point we came across an interesting promotion with cyclists fully adorned with sale logos and matching outfits.
Our guide for the 4hr tour was a local called Lucy, who proved to an amusing and knowledgeable guy. We were soon off exploring the back streets of the city, going down narrow walkways, observing how some of the residents live in modest surroundings.
Lucy explained the history behind the narrow houses that exist around the city, created as a result of families preserving street frontages for multiple children where they were able to have a trading frontage to sell their goods. Some of the narrow houses go up and up often as high as eight or nine storeys.
Our first food stop was to watch the making of rice paper rolls. Despite looking quite plain on first viewing, the rolls along with a dip of fish soup with onions, chilly and mint proved delicious.
Our rice rolls were made in a few seconds and we were soon working our way through half a dozen each.
From there we walked through one of the busy sections of the Old Quarter where we mastered the art of crossing the road as a local. Walk slowly and ignore all beeps from cars and bikes and just keep going!!
We then tried sugar cane drink, with a touch of lemon, which served chilled was very sweet.
We then did two more food stops, spring rolls & dried beef noodles in one place and the famous Banh Mi. After all that we were truly full and in need of a liquid refreshment. Fortunately our final stop was a beer at the Train Street where we had gone the night before.
It was great to meet other travellers on the tour, there was a great mix from Holland, France, South Africa, South Korea and of course England. A really enjoyable evening and a lovely way to finish another fun day in Hanoi.
Tomorrow we are off on a days excursion to Mai Chau, a 3.5hr drive out west to the countryside to marvel at the rice fields as we cycle around the pretty villages.
With a 7am pick up tomorrow, we left the rest of the tour group at 9.30pm on Train Street and headed back.
@travellingwiththeateam 