Off to visit Uncle Ho! The queues at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum were ridiculously long but moved fairly swiftly. This place is taken very seriously by the locals - you must be dressed respectfully and conduct yourself the same - or one of the hundreds of armed guards will put you in your place. The man himself looks like he is sleeping peacefully, from what we saw on our 30 second walk past. We then got to into the grounds where the small and simple house he lived and worked out of and the Presidential Palace and some lovely gardens are. After that we went to Hanoi Museum of Fine Arts. While the first floor is interesting, the rest not particularly so. The problem with living in the tropics and having your relics made from sandstone and wood means that after time and a few wars there's not much left. Came back to the hotel where all of us ladies were able to have a manicure/pedicure (guys too if they wanted but none were particularly keen). Then two of the hotel porters took turns taking us for a ride around the city on motorbikes. What a hoot! Experiencing the traffic inches from your knees going round the street with bikes, cars and buses around you and sometimes coming at you. The saving grace is that they everybody travels somewhere between 20 and 30 km an hour the whole time. Then over the red bridge to the Ngoc Son Temple in the middle of Hoan Kiem Lake. The lake is famous for its giant turtle which weighs over 200kg and is 2m long, and the temple is classic Vietnamese style. Deserted Ian for a bit and did some very good shopping. As it was our last nice in Vietnam we celebrated with a group tea out. I can't believe this trip is going so quickly.
