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Published: March 29th 2011
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Today I decided to take the city tour offered by my hostel; Sally took it yesterday and said it's quite good. The tour will allow me to visit a lot of the places I want in the city in less time than if I tried to do it on my own, simply because of transport and the lack of proximity. I love that while traveling in Asia, you can book nearly everything from tours to tickets at the front desk for a small fee. For the time and effort it saves me, often it's well worth the extra fifty cents to a dollar.
We drove around in a little bus and picked everyone up. First we went to Trac Quan Pagoda, a temple/pagoda that was beautiful and cold. I know it was famous and it's on the Red River by a lake... but I think we were all too cold to care. The worst decision was when we had to decide between going into the temple to get out of the strong winds or keeping our shoes on while we walked on the temple's stone floor. It was at this point that I made the mental note to buy a
winter hat.
Up next was the Ho Chi Minh complex. I was surprised the line for the mausoleum moved as quickly as it did. Part of it, though, was that all the tour guides were taking their group's things (bags, cameras, etc) so no one had to stand in line to secure their belongings. Uncle Ho looked like he was just resting peacefully; the ironic part, I've read, is that he wanted to be cremated. We also got to visit his old home, his stilt house, and would have seen the museum if half our group hadn't wandered off, leaving our guide running around trying to find them.
We next toured the Ethnology Museum, which had really nice exhibits for all the different ethnic groups in the country. Having a tour guide was well worth it for this museum alone, since he was able to give a personal touch to the tour.
After a tasty, vegetarian lunch we went to the first university in the city which I found quite impressive. There was a lot of history presented that didn't make much sense to me, since I know so little about Vietnam. There was live music, as
well, and that was a nice treat at the end of the visit.
Then we visited one more pagoda, conveniently located in the middle of the lake right next to my hostel! Not bad for eight hours.
Edward, Tom, and I decided pizza was up for dinner. Sure, it's not Vietnamese, but when you live in Asia and have the opportunity to get good western food at low prices, you do it. We all ordered large gourmet pizzas, including me; I still can't believe I ate it all. We went to bed early, all of us tired and a bit cold.
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