Hanoi

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We decided to have a day in Hanoi to recover from our trip to Halong Bay. In the morning we got up early and went to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum as the last entry was 10.15am. We ended up having to have both of us pile on the back of a motorbike to get there in time. We went through the security checks and you had to leave all your belongings in storage as you couldn't take anything with you as you file past his body. It is all very strict and organised, we were the only people walking down the walkway to go and see him, as we were about to walk past a guard he put his hand out and made us stop and wait, we couldn't see any reason for it - but when a guy with an AK-47 tells you to stop walking you do actually stop walking. Had to wait a few minutes, then we were allowed in with the accompanyment of a guard and were filed past the body. You couldn't stop walking while in there and were supposed to be completely silent but there are some disrespectful people out there.

Also at the mausoleum complex are a few other buildings including his old residence which we couldn't get into, the Ho Chi Minh museum which we had a browse around and the one pillar pagoda.

While we were deciding what to do next in Hanoi, we had a very persistant cyclo driver come and harrass us. He finally convinced us that we should let him take us to the temple of literature, we managed to talk him down from equivalent of NZ$10 to NZ$2! So we went to the temple and had a look through it - no books in sight though, which I thought was strange for a temple of literature??

We decided we would walk back to our accommodation in the heat of the afternoon, and thought a walk round and through the army citadel would be a good idea. We walked up one side of the citadel and there was a road through the middle which would have led us pretty much straight to our accommodation which we thought we could take, but once we got there we realised we weren't going to get through about 4 guards again with AK's and a massive big gate! So we had to circumnavigate the whole citadel to make it back to our hotel.

The rest of the day we just went for a wander and had some dinner as we had to catch the night train to Hue - leaving at 11pm it arrived in Hue approx 11am the next day, so we were in for a long journey. We had splashed out and gone a/c cabins with soft sleeper beds which was a good option. Struggled to get a decent nights sleep as you were jolted awake every hour or two, but made it there in the end.

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