Following a nice nap at our new hotel "Stars Hotel" we were ready for a touristy day in Hanoi. We headed next door to our guesthouse for breakfast. There was another couple from Belgium having breakfast at the same time and we agreed to share a taxi to go see the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. A short taxi ride and we were dropped on a very wide street that looked perfect for staging communist military style parades. There were guards everywhere, in very smart white and gold uniforms, almost all with hand guns in their belts. Following strict instructions we left our bags in a locker and went through security to go see Uncle Ho as the Vietnamese call him. The Mausoleum is an impressive but rather gloomy looking building with best air conditioning we have come across! Inside the building we filed slowly past his embalmed body (not allowed to stop), the dark granite room was dimly lit and had 8 armed guards standing rigidly still. The wall behind his crypt had the Soviet Hammer and Sickle as well as the Vietnamese Star engraved on the wall. Overall it was certainly one of the most atmospheric places we have visited and has left a lasting impression.

We took a walk along the road outside still impressed with the stature of the Mausoleum. We took a tour of the presidential palace. It was surprising to see the small and modest house that Ho Chi Minh lived in, we both agreed this man certainly seemed humble. We took a look his garage where we could see cars gifted to him by the Soviet Union and France. Amusingly the sign post refered to this as Ho Chi Minh Used cars, giving us images of a used car saleman. The grounds were beautiful and secluded, we almost forgot we were in Hanoi not being about to hear the "beepbeep" of scooters.

Tom then wanted to go check out the B-52 lake where one had crashed during the Vietnam war and had just been left in the lake (he saw it on TopGear and wanted to do it too!). It was amazing how hard it was to find, the map was useless but with a bit of local help we eventually found it tucked away down a back alley! It was nice to have found it but it clearly wasn't something tourists come to look at very often.

We had a nice lunch at the side of a road (where for the first time we seemed to be the only tourists in sight!) of a popular local dish deep fried tofu with noodles and nettles, it wasn't as tasty as one we had the other day but can't complain at £1 for the two of us!

Following lunch we took a tour of the Ho Chi Minh museum. To be honest it seemed to be more of a modern art gallery then anything and we both found it very hard to follow the time line of the exhibits as it showed no real chronological order and had little information about any of the people mentioned (maybe we should have forked out for a guide?). Tired out we decided it was time to head back to the hotel for a siesta.

That evening, after our final walk around the lake, we treated ourselves to dinner in an AC restaurant, Charlie had the local speciality of make your own noodle soup. It came with a bowl of soup, bbq'd pork, a bowl of nettles and mint and some noodles. You combine the lot in a seperate bowl for tasty results. Following this we crashed out early for our journey to Ninh Binh in the morning.