Lenin Park, Hanoi

I read in our Lonely Planet book that there is a flower arranging competition in Lenin Park for two weeks after Tet, and since we ended up staying a while in Hanoi, we went to check it out one afternoon.  We didn’t find a flower arranging contest, but it was interesting to visit the park.  The entire park is fenced in, by a very tall fence, requiring you to enter through the main gate, where you pay a small entrance fee.  The park is mostly intended for young children, as there are bright colored balloons and popcorn for sale and play ground equipment and rides.  I wanted to ride the little train to get a tour around the park, but we didn’t have a kid with us as an excuse ;).  At the far end of the park there is a lake, with more swan peddle boats.  It’s great to see how many parks Hanoi has!  We stumbled across a much smaller park near Hoan Kiem Lake the other evening where little kids were riding toy cars and teenagers were practicing hip hop routines.  If you’re traveling with kids to Hanoi, I’d definitely recommend taking them to Lenin Park for an afternoon.  But there’s no real restaurants, just junk food, so it’s best to eat lunch beforehand.