Hanoi there!
It's a real nice city - again with the crazy buzy street life, but quite a few good restaurants too.
We went out really to only one recommended site - the literature temple, which contains hundreds of staele (stone tablets, engraved with text, not sure if that's plural or not?). They are nearly 1000 yo, and the temple was the first university in Vietnam, and the names of all the graduates are engraved in staele for enternity, to promote further education, and the pursuit of knowledge. The staele each stand on the back of a stone turtle, which is a symbol for longevity. Can't believe I remember all this! Couldn't do it for MY exams. Won't find MY name in any (no) staele.
Now, I was writing about that temple to get to this bit - We were sitting on a ledge, inside the temple grounds, slightly templed-out, when a local guy with a huge video camera starts pointing it our way. We smile politely, and look sideways, thinking he'll go away. but no! another guy with an equally massive camera joins in, changing angles, etc, and we start to get a crowd! really quite funny for them, and embarrasing for us, as random people start taking still photos too. oh, well, we think, and eventually they let up, and focus elsewhere. we get up to leave, and at the exit, two guys come up: 'can we have our photo with you?' a real celebrity moment, heh.
