Cliched, I know, but its difficult to avoid, although titles were extremely plentiful: Welcome to Indochina, Bienvenue in Indochine, something along the lines of the 'real asia' that Anna used, but probably not anything aimed at "soldier boys". Assuming that trade has moved mainly to Vietnam, there were no offers for sucky sucky, but instead countless things you could get for 'five dolla'. Our journey into the southeast asian peninsula began at a simple hotel, reccomended by the local expert, Jonas, a Georgetown comrade who spent a good deal of time here recently, including a week getting to know the family that runs this hotel, as well as eating all sorts of weird things and drinking a lot of Hanoi beer. Being further south, Hanoi was expectedly warmer, but unbelievably humid. A typical touristy itinerary was impossibly difficult, even though I forced anna through it the first day, as you got tired a half hour after starting. Luckily, the hotel was in the historic colonial center of Hanoi and quite close to almost everything you want to see. Our first stop is a lake in the middle of the historic center, with a temple on a small island on the north side. The temple itself was to be a nice example of confucionist temples to be found in the rest of the city, but stood out for its location, and thus its roll in the mythos of the city. The story goes that a ruler of the local Vietnamese empire was faced with invading hordes of Han chinese, who looked destined to take over first his empire and then all of the region. The warrior-king begged for help from higher powers and was entrusted with a magical sword, that he then in fact used to lead his armies and defeat the Chinese, driving them back into the east. Having completed his task, the king rowed into the heart of the lake where a giant turtle emerged from the water, and took back the heavenly sword, to the powers that be that in this case reside in the botttom of the lake. As a result, the turtle is the most, or among the most, important creatures in Vietnamese religious symbolism. Coming back to the temple, however, the giant turtles of the lake are not just fairy-tale, but in fact biological truth, as this temple on the island houses an embalmed example, a huge amphibian almost like a Galapagos turtle in size, but with a much flatter shell. Another ancient temple sits in the middle of the south side, ceremoniously an ancient dwelling for the eldest of these giant creatures. The presence of the giant turtle comes up again in perhaps the nicest of Hanoi's sights, the Temple of Literature. This giant complex of courtyards, with nothing to envy the Forbidden City, and having only handfuls of tourists, contained a Confucian university, founded in the early 11th century, in addition to various traditional gardens. Besides being the place of study, examination, and currently graduation ceremony, it was most importantly use to keep a public record of its students, in a very unique manner, for the school decided that the names and titles of its graduates, its doctors, would be inscribed upon stellae, large stone pillars, that would rest upon the backs, as you guessed it, giant turtles, in the main courtyard of the entire complex. A confucian temple is the largest structure in the complex, and as such it could easily be missed that a pair of courtyards still reside behind it, the last of which holds a rebuilt building with a smaller confucian shrine, a small museum about the later history of the grounds, a large drum and a large bronze bell. We saw another turtle stellae in the Vietnamese Museum of History, housing mainly archeological pieces of the various empires that lived and ruled Vietnam up until the French occupation, as far back as archeological sites of stone age sites. However, it was the building itself that was the main attraction, being the best example of the fusion between french colonial style and the traditional 'indochinese' style of the 19th century, and it definitely did not disappoint, being a remarkable cream-yellow two story structure. The best other examples of this blending of styles was found in the embassy district, where, clearly, most of the embassies in the city are found, but is also the new heart of the city as layed out by Ho Chi Minh. The new government quarter was centered around Vietnam's answer to Red Square or Tienanmen, with the mausoleum of Ho chi Minh, which was remarkably similar to that of Lenin, but not quite as imposing on the rest of the square. I found it to be more similar to the mausoleum of Che in Cuba, with a grandstand built around the mausoleum, set up for speeches of future insiprational leaders. The mausoleum was part of the larger 'ho chi minh complex', but which like the mausoleum itself was not open for visits when we went. This was most unfortunate as we were unable to visit the old palace of government of the French colonial powers over Indochina, although we managed to see it in its inmensity from the outside. In addition, there was the stark stilt-house that Ho Chi Minh was supposed to have inhabited, with none of the grandeur and luxury of the french predecessors, but with ordinary simplicity, cementing his identity of a man of the people. In the complex was also the white Ho Chi Minh museum, full of bizzare, symbolic communist exhibits, and the one-pillar pagoda, a mini-temple in a miniature lake near the HCM museum. The real treat of this stop was the food, a simple example we found while taking a break just off of Da Binh square. Anna went off to a street stall to take break, get something to drink and a small snack to eat. I followed a short time after, only because a woman from Singapo(as she said it) kidnapped me take pictures of her with the giant vietnamese flag (make shu yu get de sta!) and with her and the white-clad guards of the mausoleum. From the pho street food, eaten on the tiniest of plastic chairs, to a 5 course 'spice journey' the food in this part of the world is a reason on itself for which to visit. I am sure we will see a degree of variation in the fusions between Gallic cuisine and the local specialties and spices of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, but so far it has not failed to impress. Now, we head off on a plane to the tiny town of Luang Prabang in rural Laos, which was intended to be our last destination, but with the arrival of a tropical storm(former typhoon) our next sea destination was unreachable for at least a couple of days, and this way we can come back for another evening in Hanoi before setting off towards the south.