I woke up this morning to the first day of a wet Hanoi. Rain arrived 3 AM I was told. Packed everything up in preparation for leaving for the evening. had breakfast (one of the banana pancakes with honey), some papaya, and coffee and then took a cab to the Museum of Ethnology. There are some interesting exhibits about the lives, customs, dress, and homes of some of the different ethnic populations in Vietnam. I took careful notes to be able to label my photos, but somehow managed to lose my little notebook later in the day with all my little notes, e-mail addresses, etc. That is not the end of the world but just another little bump in the road. The exhibit on AIDS in Vietnam, not visited by many people while I was there- AIDS was introduced in Vietnam through drug use in the early 1990s. The exhibit described the government sponsored methadone programs in a number of cities, hopefully to expand to more and the changes with access to anti-retroviral drugs. . It addressed tother ways the HIV virus spreads - HIV+ men who do not tell their wives, sexually promiscous women, perinatal transmission, but no mention of homosexuality ( an official taboo in this country). Individual stories were featured focusing on positives such as the methadone program and support groups and access to anti-retroviral drugs, but also amazing and disturbing stories about the stigma - e.g. a young man died and his father left his bicycle in the sun for a month and periodically poured hot water over it to remove the contagiousness, a woman whose husband died of AIDS and left her with three young children; she had to work in the fields and no one would touch the children so she had to take the children into the fields with her to be able to work and support herself as best she could, and others.

From there I went to the Ho Chi Minh Museum in the only available cab by the museum in the pouring rain. In Hanoi there are like 70 cab companies, totally unregulated, and about two that are recommended by the hotels. This cab was one of the other 69. The distance was shorter and with much less traffic than my first cab ride with one of the good taxis, and as I saw the meter go up and up and surpass my first cab fare, I knew I was being ripped off. So I told the driver who spoke a little English that the fare was too high and he told me he agreed, that his cab company charged a high rate/km. When the cab arrived at th museum, I paid him what I thought was fair and jumped out of the cab into the rain as he was yelling at me, but he did take the money.

The HCM Museum has many exhibits recounting the history of Ho Chi MInh and the Communist Party in Vietnam including many many letters and documents. However, there are some artistic exhibits focusing on such things as anti-fascism in the military context, (the Spanish Civil War and WWII), HCM's desire for world peace, the bad bombings by the Americans, and so one. He is truly revered by the Vietnamese people.

Then I left to walk to West Lake where I had not been an area that is the upscale area of Hanoi - which means there are some very upscale hotels and private residence clubs interspersed with the usual Hanoi street life. I needed to find a bank to exchange traveler's checcks - I think only one does this and charges a very low (0.5%) commission. Well, I found a different bank that was actually open at lunchtime that didn't do the exchange, but the woman there was kind enough to walk me down the street to Vietcombank. I had to wait about a half an hour for the bank to open and then do this transaction with non-English speaking tellers who, I think, had never done this before, because they had to pull out a handwritten notebook that had, I think the instructions. That took another half an hour. Then I walked back, visiting the oldest Buddhist pagoda in Hanoi. Much renovating construction is being done and I caught a bit of what a French tour guide was saying, but left as I was hungry and damp.

My first day here I had passed this really lovely large and spacious restaurant in a sort of park-like setting near the government buildings. It was the closest to where I was and on my way back so I stopped there. It seemed to be primarily a coffeehouse with fruit juice drinks that looked like lovely cocktails, but had a small bar menu. I had a really good beef in a tomato-coffee sauce with French Fries and a small green salad and a nice cup of coffee and felt much better. Coffee here is served with an individual drip filter over the cup; the coffee is very strong. Then on to this very unVietnamese cafe I had found that serves deli sandwiches, bagels, and smoothies to pick up something to take to the airport for dinner.

Back to the hotel to wait for the pre-arranged driver to take me to theto airport..He arrived, my bag was loaded in the car, but my backpack (with my computer in it) that I had left at the front desk in the morning with other luggage and specifically told the man on duty that I was putting it there was gone. It took about ten minutes to find it - it had been taken upstairs with the stored luggage. So a bit of a late start to the airport in the rain. I was getting organized in the care and then I looked up and we were at the bus station (not driving by but pulled up at the bus station). The area in front of the station was like a huge parking lot filled with cars and motor scooters and no one moving. The driver spoke about one word of English and after several cell phone calls back to the hotel and my rather agitated and repetitive pronouncement that we were to go to the airport, we got that worked out. So I was supposed to be there around 7 (a 45 minute drive from the hotel at best). At 6:45 we were inching along in this worse than dry weather traffic making almost no progress. Soon after the traffic lightened (a bit) and the driver did some very creative Vietnamese driving and got me there at 7:20 (for an 8:10 flight), dropped me off at the wrong end of the airport (Singapore and Thai Airlines). I finally found Vietnam Airlines and checked in, to be told that I was being given the last seat on the airplane which (unfortunately) was in business class. For the one hour flight to Hue, I had some special treatment, a nice snack with little pieces of bread with salami, cheese, and smoked salmon, and warm towel before and after.

We hit some big turbulence descending and had a less than smooth landing, but overall a good flight. I was unsuccessful at finding anyone to share a cab into Hue, but as I walked out of the airport, there was a place to buy a bus ticket (1/4 the price of the cab), so I did, was told I would be dropped off right at the hotel. Well, I had my own private bus because I was the only passenger and the bus left before any of the cabs or tour groups. Hue (at least at 10 at night) is quiet and peaceful. Around the corner are restaurants with names like Hot Tuna and What's Up, a number of places to get a massage, and many art galleries. My hotel room on the top (7th floor) is a lovely sort of lime green with a lavender wall behind the bed and with sheer lime green curtains with sunflowers on them. I have a balcony with a little rock garden and a switch that if one turns it on, music is played on the balcony. And I was given a serving of fruit on arrival - a green pomelo about the size of a small coconut.

Now time for bed - need to be ready to meet my tour at 8 AM.