Hanoi, Day 1
We flew into Hanoi on Monday night, though we originally planned to come on Saturday night. We had to change our flights because we forgot to arrange Visas in advance.
Whoops.
I thought it would be a big deal since we had booked our plane tickets through LastMinuteTravel.com, but it wasn’t a problem at all and we were able to communicate with the airlines directly.
Deeds, in particular, was extremely 
excited about riding on the airplane. We had a good flight but when we arrived, the immigration workers were dragging their feet and made us wait an inordinate amount of time before they glanced out our papers, nodded, and allowed us into the country.
Happily, everything else went smoothly and our hotel picked us up from the airport as we had arranged, via a Skype call the day before!
We were slowed by road work but were all checked in and ready for bed around 10 pm.
In the morning we had complimentary breakfast and went out on the town.
Our hotel is in the Old Quarter of Hanoi. We booked tickets for the Water Puppets on Wednesday night and then walked to Ho Hoan Kiem lake and explored the park and Ngoc Son Temple.
In Ngoc Son Temple there was this huge taxidermied tortoise that was caught in the lake in 1968. It weighed 250 KG when caught, which is well over 500 lbs. It is random unbelievable things like these, the Ho Guom Tortoises, that make me love traveling in Asia even more.
We walked around in the Old Quarter and parks for several hours. Then when it was close to lunch time, we went to my old favorite, Fanny’s Ice Cream. This is what awesome tastes like:
Hubs ordered for the boys, and Jojo loved his vanilla snow man. Deeds had a mango sorbet butterfly. You can see from the picture that he is entering the “exaggerated fake photo smile” period. It is extremely adorable, he closes his eyes for 5-10 seconds for a photo.
Hubs got sushi-shaped ice cream, how fun is that? Strawberry sauce and chocolate syrup are in the condiment tray!
I had a scoop of dark chocolate ice cream, and was ready to take one for the team and help the boys finish their treats. They didn’t need much help, after all.
We continued our explorations, stopping to buy a Tin Tin shirt for Jojo (about $3 I think) and later some Tin Tin lacquered illustrated plaques to hang in his room. They were 3 for $11.
We were making our way back around the park and toward KFC so the boys could have some fast, familiar lunch.
As we passed back through the Ho Hoan Kiem park, Jojo spotted this old tower surrounded by a bunch of stones. He had a great time climbing up to it, and was 
very proud of himself. He wants to do it again tomorrow.
After KFC we walked back to the hotel for nap time.
The whole family napped, even Jojo!
When we went back out, we bought Deeds a cute jacket and Jojo insisted he needed a hat so that he could be in disguise.
We had a very average dinner at Pepperoni’s Pizza & Cafe (tell: 928 5246; 29 Pho Ly Quoc Su; mains from 40,000d; lunch & dinner). I was disappointed with my Vegetable Lasagna; it was “Shoney’s” quality, and I have had some really good Italian food in Laos, so I was expecting the same in Hanoi. Better luck tomorrow.
We needed something to do after dinner, and I had read that the Thu Le park and zoo was open until 10pm. We took a taxi and when we arrived (around 6pm) it was all dark and the rides were locked up for the day.
We paid 10,000d for the 4 of us to get in, and looked at some sleeping birds.
It was seriously dark, no lights on, and a bit spooky! People were randomly riding motorbikes right through the middle of everything as a shortcut or something.
Obviously we couldn’t stay there so we walked to Nguyen Son Bakery [543 Kim Ma, Ha Noi. Tel: 04. 771 2550] and had some treats, like home made marshmallows, before making our way back to the hotel around 8:30.
Tomorrow we are going to try to do some real Hanoi sight seeing, and more awesome restaurant choices.
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22 December 2009, 1:45 pm
It’s a bit harsh to compare a whole country’s Italian food with another on the basis of the cheapest chain Italian restaurant in Vietnam. Two minutes research would have found several better ones in Hanoi alone.
I know you have kids with you but a day of ice cream , KFC and pizza/pasta? Really?
22 December 2009, 9:06 pm
Sounds like a way better way to spend the holidays than rushing around trying to pick up last minute stuff at the mall and supermarket. Bleh. Hope you have a good time and safe travels!
23 December 2009, 6:28 am
Wow, so cool to see all the pictures from so far away. Those ice creams are so detailed! They look yummy!
23 December 2009, 1:26 pm
Wow, that ice cream is SO cool! Love that hat on JoJo too! Looks like a very neat time for all of you! Enjoy! Happy Holidays!
23 December 2009, 4:26 pm
Hope the rest of your trip is safe and fun too.
23 December 2009, 8:55 pm
Those ice creams look amazing! I was envious when you wrote about Fanny’s a few months back, but now it makes me want to travel to Southeast Asia.
Have a wonderful holiday!
26 December 2009, 8:49 pm
Jojo’s TOTALLY in disguise!! Why didn’t I think of that while I was in Ho Chi Min?! I’m not as clever as he is…