City walkabout

We took Orlo to school for 8.0am and then got a taxi into the Old Quarter of the city centre. We wandered the streets, many of the streets sell just one commodity, so there were paper lanterns and kites, bamboo poles for scaffolding and ladders, haberdashery like you have never seen it before, elastic and Velcro in a large range of colours, plus binding, ribbon, and buttons galore!  In amongst this were women carrying fruit and vegetables to sell, the flowers sellers, the scooters and cars, and raw meat being sold on the street corner.

Many of the streets are lined with trees and some are still decorated for the annual holiday which took place last week.  

We took a coffe break at the Avalon Cafe, which we really like, it has a great view over Hoan Kien Lake

. After an iced coffee and map studying we set off again to the lake. We went over the red bridge to the temple on the island. This is an important temple for the Vietnamese people, and I think it is in better condition than when I visited two years ago.  

We walked  around the lake coming across some lovely sights. A group of girls beautifully dressed on Ao Dai, celebrating their graduation we think, a newly graduated student sitting whittling bamboo into beautiful models, a bicycle with rickshaw, a woman selling flowers, we bought the flower seller and he made a clear box to put her in while we waited. He told us that he had studied economics and that this was his hobby.

A short stop for a drink and cool down and we set off to explore more streets, we found an old wood turning workshop, the street where all the ceremonial stuff is sold, and walked past many tempting shops selling clothes !

Back to Avalon for lunch, I know it sounds as though we are not very adventurous, but it is cool and comfortable there!!

After lunch we made for the Chua Ba Da temple, hidden away in a small courtyard. It was amazing inside with lots of copper gods. By way of contrast we then walked a few yards to the St Joseph's Cathedral, which was beautiful inside, less ornately decorated than many Roman Catholic cathedrals and with some lovely traditional stained glass windows.

We returned home via the Bookworm bookshop to replace the map which Amanda had bought, it is really good and full of information, but it is looking worse for wear now, despite treatment with magic tape!

We got home about 4.0pm, 8 hours after we left.....to find the electricity was off. It must have only been off a short time as the fridge was still cold, and it came on again at 5.0pm went off and on again a couple of times, we are ready with torches!!! Not sure of the plans for tomorrow yet, we may take a stroll around the part of Tay Ho which we didn't do last week.......