On the last day, I had no set plans. I asked Tony if he wanted to hang out with me, and he said “sure.” I figured I could get him to show me some more authentic Hanoi (this time for free). Once again, we met for lunch, and he showed me a place close to my hotel.

When we finished, he decided to take me to a market area. The streets were filled with motorbikes, fruits and vegetables, and some treats.

He showed me through another narrow alley that led to the market.

After that, he took me to a bridge to walk across (a very long bridge) to see the Twin Red Rivers area. There really wasn’t much to look at along the way, but I thought that the scenery itself was an interesting mix of vegetation and authentic (poor) local living.

Along the bridge, we saw two men painting what looked like ID numbers onto the train track planks.

As we got toward the center of the bridge, we could see more of what was happening on the river.

After we finally made it to the other side, he asked if I wanted to go see the pagoda on the lake. He tried to order a taxi using the app “Grab,” but it wasn’t working out, so we had to take the bus. While waiting, I saw a man with five golden retrievers heading our way. I could tell he was letting them out to relieve themselves. It was really cute (and unexpected) to see someone with that many dogs as pets. While on my cruise, I met a Vietnamese couple who live in Florida, and he told me that in northern Vietnam, they love to eat dogs. Hence, that’s why I found it surprising that someone would have that many dogs as pets. The past and present definitely coexist here.

Later, I was looking at traffic and noticed that people seemed to be going both ways on the road, and it was unclear as to whether there was even a right direction. I asked Tony about the traffic here, and he said it was supposed to be a one-way road (the key word being “supposed”). A short time later, I noticed a motorbike going by that had one, two, three, four—FIVE adults on it! This had to be a record for me. I would have gotten a photo if I had noticed them in time and they weren’t going by too quickly.

(While waiting at the bus stop…)

Two buses later, we arrived at the…pagoda (I’m not sure what its proper name is). There was an abundance of the color yellow here, and the color reminded me of the temple I visited while in Hangzhou. Here, there were many women dressed in their temple-appropriate attire, and over the loud speaker, they were broadcasting a prayer or chant session. Tony is also a Buddhist, and I noticed that every time we went somewhere that had a temple of sorts, he would stop to pay respect and do his bows. While at the temple behind the Citadel, he even kissed the heads of both of the turtle statues next to one of the alters. He told me that the official religion in Vietnam was Buddhism. I knew that other Southeast Asian places like Thailand and Cambodia were Buddhist, but I didn’t realize that so was Vietnam.

The whole time that we were in the back with the chanters, there was the potent smell of burning incense. There was also a nice breeze blowing, and I could hear the windchimes above dinging.

While coming out of the temple, I noticed a woman sitting on the grass with a bunch of poster papers that had what looked like calligraphy on them. I managed to get a shot of her at work.

Earlier in the trip, while visiting the Citadel, I was reminded that in Vietnam they used to use Chinese characters and wondered exactly when they stopped using them and started using their alphabetic system. After looking up information online, I read that the Vietnamese system of writing using Latin script started in the 17th century, known as chữ Quốc ngữ (“national language script”). It was introduced by Portuguese missionaries.

I also walked around the lake for a bit. With the sun on its way down and the sky looking somewhat clear, it made for some nice lighting. When I got to the water, though, I looked down and noticed a not-so-pleasant sight. Apparently, looks are deceiving, as this is clearly not a fish-happy place.

On the way back, we noticed a beautiful-looking red bird. I was surprised that it wasn’t trying to fly away. Then, of course, I looked down and noticed it had one of its legs chained down (siiighhhhh).

Once again, our very last stop was to get some coffee (this time it was at a chain café, sorry). The view was sort of nice, overlooking the intersection area. My final look at the city before leaving the next day.

No, wait, I lied. The morning that I left, I did get a few more snapshots from the nearby lake area.

I’m glad I had a chance to visit Vietnam’s capital. I had heard that it wasn’t a very exciting place to visit compared to its southern counterpart, Ho Chi Minh City. Overall, I would have to agree, though there are still some things worth seeing in and around Hanoi. Much like HCM, it too is a busy, crowded, and dirty city that could be crowned the motorbike capital of Asia. I do hope to come back to Vietnam to see areas like Sapa and possibly Hoi An and Nha Trang.