Good Night Vietnam!

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We are back in Hanoi for our last day in Vietnam. Our train arrived in the station on Saturday morning, well more like Friday night as it was 4am. As you can imagine no where was open so we walked the familiar route from the station to the Old City. We sat next to the lake for over an hour, Erica danced around and I did a bit of aerobics to keep warm. We fitted in well as there were lots of locals stretching and doing something similar to yoga. At 6.30am we finally managed to get a hot cup of tea and checked into a hotel.

Once we had freshened up from our over night experience we headed out to see what we had missed last time we were in Hanoi. Our first destination was Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum; it was a bit strange seeing a guy who died 10 years before I was born. Also I felt a bit bad as if it wasn't for us visitors he might have actually been cremated as was his last wishes!

We then went to the Presidential Palace which you only get to see it from the outside; Ho Chi Minh declined to live in the palace and instead lived in an electrician's house for four years before moving to what is now known as Ho Chi Minh's house, which is on stilts. He designed it with the help on an architect, and it is situated next to a lake and made of rare hardwood. The area underneath the house was used for meetings and upstairs was his personal space. Apparently behind the house are his bomb shelter and also the hut where he died in 1969, although we didn't get to see them.

By 11am we had seen everything we wanted and after finding a few things to do to pass some time we went for a coffee in one of the Vietnamese versions of star bucks, highland coffee, which was not bad. We then headed back for an afternoon snooze as we had been up since 3.30am.

In the evening I bought some Hanoi vodka and Erica bought Brandy and Coke, we sat in our room and watched MTV and played cards... We are easily pleased these days!

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Photos

Over the lake
Ho Chi Minh's House on stilts