Hanoi Lake Temple

The theme letter for our ‪‎travel pics this week is again V, for Vietnam.

For Friday, it’s a temple shrouded in smog, in the middle of a lake, itself in the middle of Hanoi.

Well, strictly speaking, this photo was taken FROM a temple – but the image is of the “Tower of the Turtle”.

The sacred turtle of Hoan Kiem is the custodian of the magic sword of Le Loi, a 15th century rebel leader who vanquished Chinese invaders.

And he has his own tower, in the Lake of the Restored Sword – which can be seen from the nearby Ngoc Son temple, or Temple of the Jade Mountain (A 19th century Confucian temple, where this picture was taken from)