Apologies in advance if not very detailed or mistakes, very tired today but forcing myself to get up to date!Alarm set for 7am today to get a full days sight seeing in. Boy were we tired. Liam's now got my cold so he could have quite happily stayed in bed and I'm having woman issues plus a giant headache so I could easily stay in bed. Between us we've been a right pair today.Again we stuffed our faces at the buffet, pinched some bananas to eat later and went to get sorted for the day. We took a taxi to Ho chi Minh mausoleum but it was closed do we didn't get to see his mummified corpse which was pretty disappointing! But we did go through the grounds and see his house and cars etc...it was ok but if you're not a massive 'uncle Ho' fan it's slightly boring. It was an interesting half hour or so all the same. We could have gone into the museum but we had to pay extra so we decided against it. We saw the one pillar pagoda then walked to the temple of literature which was about 15 minutes away.
The temple of literature was the first university in Vietnam built in 1070. It's a lovely area, with some information on the students and all the subjects and exams they took in that time. It was a really prestigious place, and the annual exam that the excelling students got to take was done by the king himself. If you graduated your name was put on a stone plaque alongside all the other graduates. There are loads and loads of them, all carved on top of a giant turtle because it's one of the symbolic animals of Vietnam. I think the others were a Phoenix and a unicorn, all 3 have long lives.
We sat and watched some men fishing in a nearby lake for a little while before moving on again. We wanted to go to the museum of ethnology but it was too far to walk and we didnt want to pay for a taxi so we walked to hoa lo prison. It was built by the french in the late 1800's or early 1900's, i forget which. It held vietnamese and then in the vietnam war held captured american pilots. We paid to get in, I wasn't that fussed about tit but Liam fancied it. I really enjoyed it! We both did. It was really informative and emotive too, we must have spent a good hour in there looking around. The prisoners were kept in terrible conditions, it was awful reading some of the things but so good to learn about it all.
We then found a nice little bakery and treated ourselves to some wonderful baguettes, so so good! Then we went to the women's museum. It was really good in there, 3 floors dedicated to the women of Vietnam over the ages. It had tributes to modern women, women in the war, information on rituals and ways of life of different areas in Vietnam, and lots of short videos and relics. We spent a good hour and a half in there, I could have spent longer but Liam got bored quicker than me!
We wandered around a bit more, feet hurting looking for a supermarket for cheap food and drink to eat and take in the boat tomorrow as the price will be a lot on the junk.I saw a lovely Vietnamese dress and we were naughty and bought it even though I've been banging on all day about our budget! I feel awful for spending money on it but it's so pretty!
We finally got back to the hotel at 6pm, and although we had to pack and sheer etc, I ended up talking to Shelley on Facebook for ages and Liam watched 2 episodes of stargate. I'm writing this now with a godawful headache and very very tired. Liam's got a tissue shoved up his nostril watching the presidential debate for some reason.
Early start again in the morning, off to halong bay and we're both looking forward to it.
