Day 2 - Hanoi

7.30 start this morning to walk as a group to the Ho Chi Min Complex. Ie. The HoChiMin is the guy that everyone loves in Vietnam because he was the President and helped the country through all the wars. They love him that much that against his wishes that when he died he was to be burnt and his ashes spread across the country they build the Mausoleum for him and we all had to solemnly walk into the building and then quietly shuffle past him laying there. Hes been dead for 30 years but hes still lying there. Every couple of months they take him to Russia to be cleaned up ( i presume its a bit like looking after a stuffed animal). We then went around his house on stilts and also the museum.

Whilst walking to the complex. Kym has told us to follow him crossing the road, so we was crossing a one way street and i stepped off the curve to cross and then suddenly i felt a scooter wheel on my knee, didn't hurt and she apologised but really it was because i didn't look the other way on the one way street i was to busy concentrating on the traffic going the correct way not the wrong way. At least i can have the memory of: I got run over in Hanoi.

In the afternoon we chilled out, and if I'm honest this is the first city ive found ive disliked. However this soon changed in the evening. We were going to a puppet show, but to get there we had to go via cyclo. Which is a seat on the front of a bicycle. It was great fun but scary. We all went in convoy together and i was at the front. The first road we cycled down was only the road where the scooter ran me over and of course we were also going the wrong way as well. My driver kept saying No problem, no problem. We both loved the cyclo because it gave us a chance to see the city especially the Old Quarter.
The puppet show was very clever, it was like a Vietnamese punch and Judy show on water. The puppeteer's had to stand in water behind a curtain, the one problem with it though is that it was a Vietnamese story so we didnt have a clue what was happening.

Later on we went to a lovely restaurant where i had the pho noodle dish which is a traditional Vietnam dish. So far the food is okay but nothing to rave about.

Hanoi is great, its a very amusing city and if the rest of Vietnam is anything like this then we are in for a great time.