The Time I Visited - Vietnam (Part 2)

I have to be honest, I lost track of which event happened first within my 6-week stay so I'm just combining things we did and making them seem chronological, aha!

One of the places I enjoyed is the Temple of Literature, if i'm not mistaken, it's the first university in Vietnam but know it's just functions as a temple and a tourist attraction.

Note: If you're a student, you get a discount when entering tourist attractions (it even applies to international students too! just present you identification card)

Almost all the temples I've been to in Vietnam has this some sort of a pond, or as I like to call it their swimming pool back in the day. Not too sure what it's for but I found it really interesting.

My co-interns and I inside the Temple of Literature!

Because we had time in the afternoon, we went to Hoa Lo Prison. I couldn't take much photos because it was really dark inside, the ambience was sort of portraying what it could have been back in the days. It was actually pretty creepy seeing statues of the prisoner's in an unlawful and unmoral situation. Definitely a must to check out within Hanoi.

Note: We walked from the Temple of Literature to Hoa Lo Prison, one of my co-interns convinced us to walk instead of taking the bus, it took us about 20-30 minutes of walking.

Now, here's some of the Vietnamese food I enjoyed, and which I ordered too much of. I couldn't for the life of me remember their Vietnamese name, so I'll just describe each dish.

This dish is made up of shrimp in ball form and you eat the noodles by soaking it in the soup (which is cold by the way). I love this dish so much, the shrimp is really tasty, plus this is one of those dishes that is reasonably cheaper. I would definitely pay more for this dish if I had to. 

One thing I really enjoyed about Vietnamese food is the freshness of it with all the greens that come with every dish.

I'm pretty sure this is Bum bo nam bo! Classic Vietnamese dish. Love the peanuts and the beef and the soup and the noodles, basically everything about it! It's a very fulfilling dish as well.

Okay, so I often look at trip advisor app to look for new places to check out and Joma's Cafe has one of the highest ratings. I stay pretty near it so of course I couldn't pass it out. Plus i love coffee! This is a very westernised drink so do check out the local places for the Egg Coffee and Vietnamese Coffee with condensed milk (Ca Phe Sua Da) it is so delicious! Too bad I don't have a photo, I downed the drink pretty fast because it's just so good!

The Hoan Kiem Lake during Christmas Eve! So much people that no cars and motorcycles are moving in the streets.