If you have a short time in Hanoi some of the things to see are: Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and Museum to explore the architectural and historical aspects of Uncle Ho’s final resting-place. Next door is Ho Chi Minh’s house on stilts and lying to one side of the Mausoleum is the One Pillar Pagoda which was founded by King Ly Thai To in 1049.
We also visited the Buddhist Tran Quoc Pagoda on the West Lake (One of the oldest pagoda in Vietnam). You can skip the water puppet theater (most of the tours include that – but you can use that time to rest or just to walk around the Old Quarter or sipping a much needed chilled beer and soaking in the local atmosphere. ).
Ninbinh is a pretty small town outside Hanoi (2 hours’ drive) – we had a car with a guide to take us there – beautiful landscape along the way. At Tamcoc we went on a boat tour – boat was being rowed by local fisherwomen - went along the Ngo Dong river and under some limestone caves; since it is rowed manually the trip takes about 1 hour. It is known as Halong bay on land. We also visited a temple - Hoalu is a sacred land with two temples - worshiping those kings in 10 century who gave great contribution for the nation.
For a third day you can visit Halong Bay – we took a 2 night cruise which turned out to be too much time – one night is sufficient as all the activities from the first day were repeated on the second day. There is also an option to do a shorter day boat ride in Halong Bay if you are pressed for time.
Tip: We used a local travel agent "Blue Dragon Tours" www.blue.dragontours.com and the guide was very good explaining the local history and all the background about each Pagoda. We had a min-van to ourselves seating 6-8 people although we were 4 in our group.
We recently travelled to Vietnam and enjoyed every minute of it. It is an amazing country to visit;the people were very nice and the food was delicious. We had pre-booked the hotels and the local tours using a local travel agency. They provided a private car with an English speaking guide. the stay in Hanoi was very nice - we stayed at the Sofitel Metropole in the middle of the Old Quarter. It was close to many shops and restaurants, a short walk to the lake. The hotel is a beautiful property where many celebrities have stayed in the past - there is a bar named "Angelina" - it had exotic drinks at reasonable prices. one of the hallways has photographs with historical outlines showing the hotel's history and how it was a shelter during the bombings. The guide picked us up at hotel and we visited Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, Vietnam
