As you can imagine, after such a sour start to Hanoi, we really didn't have our heart in it. We met up with Wes and Amanda who arrived on a different bus, and did a couple of things in the city: We went to see the Mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh - the Communist leader of the North during the Vietnam War. Preserved in formaldehyde, he looked like a Madame Tussauds wax figure. Apparently there are only 2 other people preserved in this way.. Lenin, and Chairman Mao of China. Ho Chi Minh gets sent to Moscow 3 months of the year for 'maintenance', which made us laugh.
We wandered around the old town and all the streets are named and sorted in to specific things that they sell. There was clothes, gravestones, tinbox, Buddhas and shrines, mirrors, towels, 'counterfeit street' (fake money for offerings), blacksmiths, musical instruments, etc. After this tour, our main priority was to book a trip to Halong Bay, and once we got that sorted, we found 'Bia Hoi' junction- this time cheaper - 2000 'Dong' a glass - that's 7p (12.5 cents), and chatted to a local, called Huang who owned a kebab stand and turned out to be very nice - of course, they're not all out to get you! Bia Hoi junction had a bia hoi stand on each corner and the little plastic chairs often strewn out into the street until the local police drive by, sound their siren and all the drinkers have to scurry up onto the pavement again - quite funny.
We also fitted in a water puppet show. This tradition started back in the flooded farm fields where the puppeteers actually stand in the waist deep water behind a screen and move puppets on long sticks in front. It was really impressive and even included some fireworks, smoke and some crazy actions. All played out to some beautiful Veitnamese music played on traditional instruments. *Stub and Mush
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