Insight Pocket Guide: Hanoi and Northern Vietnam

#74
Title: Insight Pocket Guide: Hanoi and Northern Vietnam
Author: Samantha Coomber
Publisher:  Insight Guides
Year: 2005
Genre: Guide book
104 pages

A pretty good city-specific travel guide, though anyone over 40 will need a magnifying glass to read the maps. I didn't follow the itineraries provided, but did visit many of the sites listed. I particularly enjoyed the water puppet theater and circumambulating Ho Hoan Kiem (the lake where a sacred tortoise gave Le Loi a magic sword with which to beat off the Chinese invaders). The book includes a color-coded, full-sized map, which is useful.

The guide is somewhat deficient when it comes to accommodations and food, though it does cover some landmark institutions. It ought to have stuck with that rather than take on low-cost hotels, for example. That's what Lonely Planet is for.

I did eat cha ca at Cha Ca La Vong (featured both in this guide and in 1,000 Places to See Before You Die), though I've got to say that the cha ca across the street was better.