A few cultural stops

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So far we’ve been pretty immersed in Hanoi life. We’ve stayed away from Western food (other than an occasional French fry) and spent lots of time wandering the streets of Old Hanoi poking in shops and buying cool things to bring home for ourselves and our friends.
At the end of the afternoon on Monday we met Ngan and Josh at the Temple of Literature, an ancient Vietnamese university. It was founded in 1076 - as Bill says, about the time William the Conquerer was slogging his way through England. It’s a beautiful space with open courtyards and several interior temples. The outside consists of a ring of sculptures - all turtles with tablets on the back, a way of recognizing the ancient scholars who attended the university. We also took a walk to the One Pillar Pagoda and saw the outside of Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum (which we will visit today - Tuesday - but wasn’t open when we went at the end of the afternoon). Josh said it felt very much like the national mall in Washington, DC as it had a large open green space, flags, walking paths and large government buildings.
At the very end of the day we had a simple dinner at another nearby restaurant and were able to sit outside on the 5th floor balcony of the building to watch traffic (always entertaining) and the lake. Everyone was in bed by 9:00!
Today (Tuesday) we’re going to visit Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum right after breakfast, then head off to Ha Long Bay for a visit. We’ll be back late Wednesday. Not sure we’ll have a chance to post before we return, so thought we’d get everyone caught up before we left! We all continue to have a really great time and are soaking it all in. Hope everyone back home is doing great, too. Colleen.

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