After a bit of a disappointing trip to Halong Bay we were back in Hanoi hoping for a more enjoyable experience. It didn't start well, with our pre-booked hotel selling our room to someone else, instead transferring us to the related 'same, same... but different' hotel about 3 blocks away. The network of narrow, clustered streets are very confusing in Hanoi's Old City; you're almost guaranteed to get lost at some point! Therefore it took us a while to get our bearings from our new location! Despite its charming description of picturesque narrow lanes and old buildings, the Old Quarter of Hanoi is absolutely crazy. There are pavements on all the streets but everyone tends to set up shop stalls, bars, restaurants and bike parks on them so you are forced to walk on the road! The roads are jam-packed with cars and motorbikes so it's only a matter of time before someone runs you over. And they all toot their horns at you as well, making walking down just one street a pretty stressful experience. On the Saturday morning we thought we'd go to see Ho Chi Minh, preserved in his Mausoleum about 30 minutes walk from our hotel. The queue is usually very long, and with it being a weekend we had planned to leave in plenty of time. However, we had to change rooms in our hotel (due to not getting any sleep because of the hotel's very loud and very broken water pump) and when we went to see how the new room was getting on, we found the cleaner sitting in there eating a baguette, watching TV with her feet up! I think she made most of the mess in the room. Running a bit late we took the quickest route possible to see Uncle Ho, but succeeded only in trying to pass through the Military Zone in the centre of town. Needless to say, we weren't allowed. An hour worth of detour meant we were practically running to make sure we got there in time before it closed at 11. It was raining too. Imagine the scene: Two wet westerners, one of whom couldn't walk properly because their flip-flops offered no grip in the pavements, trying to run towards this big grey building, after walking for about an hour, and there was a huge lawn in front of the building which as soon as we tried to cross, a man with a whistle told us off and made us go an even longer route to get to the entrance! We were raging (the one of us with the slippy shoes even more raging) and said a lot of things about Vietnamese people that we maybe shouldn't have. Never mind! In his will, Ho Chi Minh asked for a simple cremation in his home village. Instead, he is preserved for everyone, including us, to oggle at as they file past by the thousands every single day. He is then taken to Russia for his holidays to be re-preserved. It seems like a bit of a shame, seeing him there lying in his glass case, surrounded by guards who make sure you don't have your hands in your pockets, you're not eating, speaking, that sort of thing. He doesn't look very peaceful. He also looks like he's come straight from Madam Tussauds, but don't tell the Vietnamese that.It was pouring with rain when we left, so after a quick look at the very disappointing One Pillar Pagoda we took a taxi to get back to the hotel and get out of the rain. The taxi's meter was rigged, so we ended up paying a fortune for it. We spent the rest of the afternoon having a walk around the Old Quarter before going to see the Water Puppets in the evening. A traditional form of entertainment in Vietnam, the puppeteers stand behind a screen in the pool of water controlling the ornate wooden puppets in a variety of short scenes depicting every day life in rural Vietnam. It was, despite my initial pessimism, quite entertaining, though a few of the people in the audience were using the darkness to have a quick nap!On the Sunday we travelled on the local bus to the Museum of Ethnology, where you could find all the information about Vietnam and the rest of SE Asia's ethnic hill tribes. There was quite a lot to read, but it was really informative and interesting. In the grounds, they have built replicas of the houses found in the local villages that are popular for the local newlyweds to have their photos taken in! It was a bit weird walking around. Usually you try to make sure you're not in another tourists photo (especially other Asian travellers, they hate it!) but here we were trying not to be in their wedding pics!

In the afternoon we did a little souvenir shopping, including some incredibly cheap DVDs and explored the Old Quarter a bit more. In the centre of the town there is a lake in the middle of which is a small temple containing an embalmed turtle. I bet you the turtle asked for a simple cremation in his hometown too! In the evening we met up with Jess and Pete, who we met on the sleeper bus. We spent the evening on a rooftop bar, knocking back some very cheap beer and putting the world to rights. Good times indeed!

-B