We walked through International Post Center at 6 Dinh Tien Hoang, just beside Hoan Kiem Lake. I decided to mail a postcard back to Singapore to myself. There were postcards on sold in post office, however, only when I was about to leave only got people to man the counter. So I bought a stack of 10 postcards for VND 25,000 (Expensive!) from street sellers that roamed around looking for ‘prey’.
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We walked around Hoan Kiem Lake to passed through the French Quarter. However we didn’t venture afar as the weather was very hot and humid. Anyway, again The Tortoise Tower (Thap Rua) wouldn’t be missed at Hoan Kiem Lake.
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It was our last day in Hanoi and Vietnam, so we went to some places that we hadn’t been to yet and did some last minute shopping. Our first stop was French-built St. Joseph Cathedral, which is located two blocks west from Hoam Kiem Lake, where Ly Quoc Su becomes Nha Chung.
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We saw The Tortoise Tower (Thap Rua) in the early morning, how could we missed it at night?

We went back to the Pho To Tich street to eat fruit shake again. This time we chose a stall that sell Sinh To Hoa Qua Tuoi for slightly cheaper price, VND 6,000. There was a slight different in ingredients for the fruit shake, but it was as delicious!

Old Quarter is located at Hoan Kiem district, and known as Pho Co in Vietnamese. Enclosed by Ha Noi Citadel, Hoan Kiem Lake and the Red River, the Old quarter is also famously known as the 36 Pho Puong (36 streets), and its history spans 2000 years. In the 13th century, 36 guilds established themselves here with each taking a different street. Street names reflect the type of merchandise being made/sold. Nowadays, some of the streets have taken up new commodities, but still cluster together along a single street – Hang Can (once scales, now stationary), Hang Dau (once oil, now shoes), Hang Buom (once sailcloth, nowconfectioneryy and wine) and Thuoc Bac (once medicine, now tools), for example. While some still retain the names as of the original trades – Hang Ma (Votive Paper Decorations Street), Hang Gai (Silk Street), Hang Thiec (Tin Street), and Hang Dong (Bronze Street).
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I initially agreed with Adeline to have dinner at Cha Ca La Vong, at Pho Cha Ca, which is very famous. But after saw the price of VND 70,000, I felt it’s too much expensive and decided to give it a miss, and located other cha ca shop instead.
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Due to the very hot weather, we decided not to walk back to our hotel. So we decided to take either a taxi, motorcycle (xe may or xe om) or xich lo (3-wheeled pedicab or trishaw) to go back. After leaving Four Pillars of Temple of Literature, a xich lo driver was approaching us. We bargained from VND 50,000 to VND 20,000. It was very interesting and exciting to see how xich lo managed to find a winding route among so many traffic on the road.
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Temple of Literature (Van Mieu) was built in 1070 during Emperor Ly Thanh Tong to honor scholars and literary men, and was dedicated to Khong Tu (Confucius). In 1070, the Royal College (Quoc Tu Giam), Vietnam’s first university, was founded here to educate the children of court mandarins, which remained until 1802 when the national university was moved to the new capital, Hue. Here is the entrance gate to temple complex, which reserved for the royalties.
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My feared nightmare became true. The hot and humid weather in Hanoi was always a big consent to me. Worse, the weather today was even hotter than I imagined, reaching 39 ºC. I was sweating non stop just by doing nothing and stood under shade! It’s very tiring and uncomfortable to roam around Hanoi at this steamy weather. Thus we skipped a lot of attractions in Hanoi and even cut short the time spent outside just to get back to hotel room for the comfort of air-conditioning.