We kicked off our Vietnam trip with this WHS. Aeroflot, in its true former Soviet fashion, still determinedly flies to former Eastern part of Berlin and to Hanoi instead of Ho Chi Min. One overnight flight later we found ourselves in Hanoi. Now there are trips that have themes surrounding many of their WHSs. In Iran, almost everything was about 1800 years old. In India, almost every city was a capital of the empire at one point or another and this theme continued in Vietnam as well. So Thang Long Imperial Citadel was the first former (well and present, speaking of Hanoi itself) capital we visited.

It was a lovely walk from our hotel. You won't miss it as the Flag Tower of Hanoi is visible from far away - as you walk the Dien Bien Phu street, pass the Military Museum on your right side and statue of Lenin on your left, walk past the fence of the complex and turn right until you walk to the main entrance. There's a large building with ticket booth (at the time of our visit tickets cost 30 000 dong, or 1.20 euros) and a small display of the area of the complex with some historical information. You will enter by putting the magnetic cards to the machine, it will eat them, but make sure you'll keep your purchase receipt, as you will be required to show it by the entrance to the archaeological site.

The whole site is quite extensive, though not many buildings remain, most of it is just a large park. It's obvious that after the inscription they have started to look after the whole site better, it's now signposted, many buildings used as museums: of excavated artifacts, of Vietnamese artwork and there's even a water puppet theatre, along with many "gifts" to the site like massive prayer drum, turtle, etc. About midpoint through the park, along the "museums and gifts" part there is a small ramp with entrance for the car - leave through that, cross the street and you can reach the excavation site with works still continuing. Show your purchase slip at the entrance to get in. It's covered so provides nice shade in summer and there's a lovely pond in the middle. The site was almost completely empty as we were there and the Citadel was visited mostly by local tourists, so the whole experience was quite chill.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised, it was not as bad or boring as expected reading previous reviews. It's obvious the local authorities started to take better care of the site and made it more tourist-friendly. As a first bite of Vietnam and a light beginning of your WHS-hunting trip, it's ideal. Move other way around, south to north and you might be more than a bit underwhelmed.