We went to sleep last night to the sound of rain and woke up this morning to more of the same. That darn typhoon! The remnants of it are heading directly our way and tomorrow’s forecast calls for 100% chance of rain.We braved the weather and took a taxi to a suburb to visit the Museum of Ethnology, devoted to Vietnam’s minority tribes. The 2 floor museum had an impressive display of crafts, clothing and artifacts from a variety of regions. By far, however, the best part of the museum was the outside exhibits which had homes represented the architecture of different areas. The rain had subsided to a drizzle by this point, which the boys tolerated well so we were able to check out all the different buildings, including some unique tombs, one of which may be too risky to post of picture of.
After a very brief nap, we were anxious to get out of the hotel room—it is just too small for the amount of energy the kids have. Unfortunately it was still raining, though Bill felt it was letting up. We are definitely outdoors people, and there were no indoor places left we wanted to see. We decided to risk the weather and explore the nearby Old Quarter, an area of small streets filled with a variety of shops. As the rain increased, we worked our way towards the indoor market. Within 30 seconds of entering it was obvious that this was quite different from the market we frequented in Ho Chi Minh City. Surprisingly, there were no calls of “Sir, Madame, what are you looking for?” This market seemed more geared towards the local people and sold lots of clothes, fabric, and household supplies, not the endless stalls of souvenirs.
Having discovered that the forecast calls for rain through Saturday, we decided that we needed to find some other activities to entertain us for the next 2 days. Based on the recommendation from one of my adoptive parent yahoo groups, we scheduled private tours for Friday and Saturday. Tomorrow we head to an area referred to as “Inland Halong Bay.” It has many of the same limestone structures as we had hoped to see at the real Halong Bay, but hopefully the weather will be nicer (and it is only a 2 hour drive). We’ll return here to our hotel for the night, and then explore an ancient village on Saturday. Hopefully by Sunday Hanoi will dry out a bit and we can visit some of the outdoor areas on our last day in Vietnam.
1 comment:
I know the risky picture of which you speak! We took the same picture, in particluar for my brother who used to live in Malaysia and would occasionally send similarly themed artwork as a joke! I had to edit it out of our mass audience slide show. I hope the weather works out for you.
Post a Comment