We did the Lonely Planet walking tour of the Old French Quarter. It was blistering hot, very noisy and crowded. The walk took us almost three hours to complete; by which time, we were driven half-mad by the constant honking and tooting.
I felt a little bad making TBH do this walk with me on his birthday.
We strolled along the narrow streets with shops packed tightly next to each other, taking in the street sights and smells of the Old French Quarter, and constantly rejecting cyclos wanting to offer us a ride.
Mid-way through the walk, we made two stops to rehydrate. At one of the stops, I decided to order a mojito. I figured that a mid-day alcohol was essential in providing me with the motivation to resist hopping onto a cab and heading back to the hotel where there is air-conditioning. And shade. And a bed.
We started the walk at the Ngoc Son Temple located on the Hoan Kiem Lake and ended at the St. Joseph’s Cathedral.
^The red-coloured timber wooden bridge leading into the Ngoc Son Temple.
^I find it very fun crossing the Vietnamese roads, darting around scooters, motorcycles and cars. It is like playing a game of dare with no rules.
^ Love the architecture.
^Bought a stick of deep-fried dough fritters from this hawker. The fritters look like doughnuts but unlike doughnuts which are chewy, these fritters were very hard.
^Walked through the fresh produce section of the markets and saw hawkers skinning frogs (argh..!).
^Marketing on a scooter.
^I was tempted to get one of these conical Vietnamese hats to give me some shade from the sun.
^ St. Joseph Cathedral.
End of walk.
I don’t think I will repeat this walk again unless it is at temperatures below 20 degrees Celcius. The weather is just too hot for the walk to be fully enjoyable.
てんきはあつくて、散歩したあまり楽しくなかったんです。
We visited the famous Hanoi ice-cream parlour, Fanny, for a much-needed ice-cream to cool down.
