We arrived back in Hanoi from Halong bay around dinner time so after checking into our hotel we headed out in search of a much needed Bia Hoi (really cheap beer). It didn't take long to find a corner occupied by the familiar children's chairs and tiny stools for tables and a lovely Vietnamese man found us a little spot where we could squeeze in. After a couple of beers we were feeling suitably relaxed and ready to find somewhere nice for dinner. Under a recommendation from our guest house we found a lovely little restaurant called Little Hanoi which rather amusingly had dozens of bird cages hanging from the ceiling and money signed by diners under glass on the tables! The meal was delicious however once we had eaten the activities of the previous days were catching up with us so after a brief walk around the area we were staying we headed back to the guest house.
The next morning we headed first to Hoan Kiem Lake in the heart of the Old Quarter. Hoan Kiem means restored sword and the legend goes that the in the 15th century Emperor Ly Thai To was sent a magical sword which he used to drive the Chinese out of Vietnam. After the war was over a golden tortoise in the lake came to the surface and took the sword back to its divine owners! There are apparently giant tortoises living in the lake however the last positive sighting was in 1996 so I wasn't holding out much hope of seeing any. The lake itself is a good size with lots of roads running off it and if it wasn't for the thousands of motorbike buzzing all over the place it might be a relaxing place to chill out but as it was full of pollution and noise it was more a lake you walked around rather than stopped for quiet contemplation! After circumnavigating the lake we went off in search of the towns shopping district and market. This area of the town was insane with entire streets all selling the same things so there was a street of shoes, one of chemists and then one selling fabrics and sewing paraphernalia it was very strange not to mention chaotic and overwhelming! At one point we passed a woman selling live frogs by the kilo, there were half a dozen of them hanging by their feet from a long cord and much to my horror a queue of folk wanting to buy them!!!! We wandered the streets for a while however after a couple of hours it gets a bit much. If your not walking fast enough the person behind will just push you out the way or in one case a guy just kicked me in the foot to get me to move and let him pass. An hour walking around the market makes you feel that maybe the lake isn't as busy as first thought, soon we were in search of a restaurant to have some lunch and a bit of time out before returning to the craziness. One of the things to see when in Hanoi is the water puppets show and whilst it wasn't really Michael's cup of tea he was happy to be dragged along out of curiosity more than anything else. Being a must see in Hanoi the tickets sold out sometimes days in advance so after lunch we headed to the theatre to see when we could get tickets. We managed to get tickets for the 9pm show the following night and feeling a bit weary from all the walking we decided to take in one temple before heading back to the guest house. The Bach Ma Temple is the oldest temple in Hanoi dating back to the 15th century it was used by our old buddy Emperor Ly Thai To who prayed for guidance when building the cities walls. This temple was the weirdest thing I have ever seen, the front is literally like a shop front and once inside there are the usual shines with the familiar sacrifices of fruit, incense and flowers however there were also giant pyramids of vodka bottles and towers of beer cans and red bull cans? Walking around the whole thing just went from a bit unusual to just plain weird and certainly not what we expected from the oldest temple in Hanoi. Feeling rather cheated we headed back to the guest house to get showered before dinner.
The next day we decided to visit the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum constructed in the 1970's as his final resting place even though he requested to be cremated. He is embalmed within a glass sarcophagus and every November he is shipped off to Russia for "maintenance" which doesn't sound particularly restful to me? Visitors can pay their respects between December and September and a visit involves a brief walk past his body. Unfortunately we hadn't read the part in our guidebook that talks about the mausoleum only being open from 8am to 11am so by the time we walked the 5km across town it was midday and the whole thing was closed for the day and wasn't open the following day as it was closed all day Fridays!! Feeling a bit cheated and foolish for not reading the book properly we were left to walk around outside taking photos of the giant columned building housing the famous remains. Not wanting the entire trip to be a waste of time we decided to pay a visit to the Ho Chi Minh museum which had displays symbolizing peace, happiness and freedom. The success of a visit to this museum really hinges on the ability to understand symbolism which neither Michal nor I are particularly akin to. The result being 90 minutes walking round a museum full of the weirdest s*** I have ever seen and leaving having learned absolutely nothing about Ho Chi Minh or his life. Feeling rather pissed off at the blatant waste of a day we consoled ourselves with a couple of sponge cakes from the café which despite costing "white" prices were actually pretty tasty! To recoup some of the money we had wasted on the museum we made our way back across town on foot feeling pretty disappointed with our Ho Chi Minh experience! Hoping to redeem ourselves the evening was to be spent at the water puppets which having persuaded Michael to go to I was just hoping it wasn't another rubbish waste of money! The water puppets date back hundreds of years and they were the equivalent to the cinema nowadays. Originally performed in lakes the puppeteers would hide in the reeds and with amazing manual dexterity they would be able to dance wooden puppets effortlessly across the water surface. Alongside the puppet show an orchestra of traditional Vietnamese instruments would help bring the show to life with music. More recently the shows have moved away from the lakes and into the theatre allowing us tourists a glimpse of this traditional show. Whilst it wasn't exactly edge of your seat stuff, the show was actually pretty entertaining and at only 45 minutes long even if you weren't impressed you didn't have to put up with it for long! I enjoyed hearing some traditional Vietnamese music and it was pretty impressive to watch the puppets dancing around in the replica lake on the stage. The colours and costumes were fantastic and with a little guide book to take you through what was happening it didn't matter too much that we didn't know what was being said. Its certainly not something you would ever need to do twice in your life but it was nice to experience it and it managed to give a pleasant end to an otherwise testing day!
The next day was our last in Vietnam and with an early afternoon flight to Bangkok we had time for a lazy morning in the hotel before heading across town to catch a minibus to the airport. Neither of us can believe that that's our three weeks in Vietnam over and it has seen us travel all the way from Saigon in the south to Hanoi in the north. There is no doubt that this country is a work in progress and with the poverty glaringly obvious around every corner you can almost understand why as a westerner you are constantly pestered for money and have to pay way over the odds (although still crazily cheap by western standards) for everything from taxis to bottled water, although it can be extremely frustrating at times. Vietnam is a wonderfully beautiful country packed with interesting history and fantastic architecture. If you can give it a chance and get past the greedy exterior you find that many of the Vietnamese people are extremely friendly, always smiling, full of grace and charm and really make you feel at home in their country!