My Travel Adventures

Our ship left Halong Bay in the morning, though not until we had made a small boat excursion to a nearby cove. Our local guide clearly hoped we would see monkeys there, to attract which he bought a handful of bananas. No one was more disappointed than him when the monkeys failed to turn up, and he munched on his bananas with an air of resigned gloom. The sun briefly came out as our ship headed back to the port, but the clouds set in once again by the time we got there, breaking into light rain as our bus returned to Hanoi.

We left Hanoi in the morning, riding our tour bus for almost two hours to Hoa Lư. Known as the ancient capital of Vietnam, Hoa Lư was elevated to prominence by local warlord Đinh Tiên Hoàng, who successfully unified the region following the expulsion of the Southern Han. His short-lived Đinh dynasty was succeeded by the Early Lê dynasty of Lê Đại Hành, which continued to rule from Hoa Lư. While the Đinh lasted only twelve years, the Early Lê did not do much better with their paltry twenty-nine. The ruler of the subsequent Lý dynasty, Lý Công Uẩn, then moved Vietnam’s capital to Thăng Long, now called Hanoi.

Our tour group began the first full day of our Vietnam trip by walking around the old city of Hanoi, taking pictures of fruits vendors, fishmongers, birdmen, butchers, and many more. Our first proper historical stop was Hanoi’s oldest temple, Bach Ma, which is called the White Horse Temple in English. The shrine was founded in 1010 by emperor Lý Thái Tổ, founder of the Ly dynasty. Legend has it that the emperor struggled to construct a citadel in Hanoi, his buildings sinking into the marshy ground as soon as they were finished. Finally, a white horse led him to a suitable site, tapping its hoof on a piece of solid ground that would become the foundation for modern Hanoi.

My redeye from Delhi arrived close to five in the morning, and I did not catch a jot of sleep. Once I got to my hotel, however, I did not feel particularly drowsy, and instead of napping for a few hours, I started sorting through my photos from India. This exercise lasted for as long as it stayed cloudy outside – that is to say – until around eleven, when I grew bored of the very mechanical editing process and decided to go out.