Vietnam

Backpacking in northern part of Vietnam – Hanoi, Halong Bay and Sapa.

Mail a Postcard at Post Office

We walked through International Post Center at 6 Dinh Tien Hoang, just beside Hoan Kiem Lake. I decided to mail a postcard back to Singapore to myself. There were postcards on sold in post office, however, only when I was about to leave only got people to man the counter. So I bought a stack of 10 postcards for VND 25,000 (Expensive!) from street sellers that roamed around looking for ‘prey’.
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Shopping at Old Quarter Hanoi

Old Quarter is located at Hoan Kiem district, and known as Pho Co in Vietnamese. Enclosed by Ha Noi Citadel, Hoan Kiem Lake and the Red River, the Old quarter is also famously known as the 36 Pho Puong (36 streets), and its history spans 2000 years. In the 13th century, 36 guilds established themselves here with each taking a different street. Street names reflect the type of merchandise being made/sold. Nowadays, some of the streets have taken up new commodities, but still cluster together along a single street – Hang Can (once scales, now stationary), Hang Dau (once oil, now shoes), Hang Buom (once sailcloth, nowconfectioneryy and wine) and Thuoc Bac (once medicine, now tools), for example. While some still retain the names as of the original trades – Hang Ma (Votive Paper Decorations Street), Hang Gai (Silk Street), Hang Thiec (Tin Street), and Hang Dong (Bronze Street).
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Xich Lo (Cyclo)

In the Xich Lo
Due to the very hot weather, we decided not to walk back to our hotel. So we decided to take either a taxi, motorcycle (xe may or xe om) or xich lo (3-wheeled pedicab or trishaw) to go back. After leaving Four Pillars of Temple of Literature, a xich lo driver was approaching us. We bargained from VND 50,000 to VND 20,000. It was very interesting and exciting to see how xich lo managed to find a winding route among so many traffic on the road.
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