SE Asia Part 5: Hanoi

Hanoi

Today we went to the Museum of Vietnamese Ethnology, the History Museum, and the Revolution Museum. All so interesting. Tomorrow we are going to check out the Ho Chi Minh stuff - the mausoleum and museum.

 

Here is another museum we went to today...

Here is the Hanoi Opera House

Here is the Hanoi Hilton!  Ha ha, just kidding .... =)

Here is a sculpture near the lake in the Old Quarter.

Here is a great snapshot of our time in Hanoi -- COFFEE AND PASTRIES.  The little single-serve coffee makers on top of the cups were at all the cafes.  

This One Pillar Pagoda was in all of the guidebooks but I think we both agreed it was the biggest disappointment of our lives...

 

The Lenin statue and park...

 

The tax rules in Hanoi used to be based on width of the residence, so that explains why so many buildings there are so tall and skinny..

 

Today we went to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum and museum and a Chinese temple.  We met these two young American guys and hung out with them for a bit, which was nice.  The Ho Chi Minh Museum was so cool and modern.  Chris loved it and took a ton of pictures there.  The exhibits were very interesting and hiply done.

Ho Chi Minh museum

Mausoleum was intense and the Vietnamese definitely take it very seriously.  No hands in pockets, no talking.  He looked pretty stiff in there.

 

Wait, don't smile!  You must be serious.  This is taken very seriously...

 

  

Chinese temple

 

Some random street shots of motorbikes...

Here is a post office

 Random railroad alleyway

 A wedding!

 Badminton on the sidewalk..

 The center of the lake in the Old Quarter during the dreary day...

 and at night!

Mmm Western food, like ice cream!!

Here is an action shot of Chris buying some weasel coffee.  For those that are unfamiliar, weasel coffee is coffee that has been fed to a weasel.  The weasel digests it and then... Well, you can guess what happens next.  And yes, then the beans are taken out of the crap, cleaned, roasted and then sold for a high price to foreigners as a "delicacy."  I'm not really sure how I feel about this one.  I drank some to taste it there at the shop and it tasted OK, but then when we brought it home and made it ourselves, it just tasted like sh*t.  Which is not surprising for what it is....

Hanoi overall was wet and dreary.  It rained everyday we were here and was just generally very misty and overcast.  Plus, it was cold so it was sort of bone-chilling.


Travel back to China

We had a tiny hiccup on the journey back in Guangzhou. The line for immigration was so long getting in and our connection time was cutting it close already. When we walked out of the customs area I think we either took a wrong turn or the airport is highly inefficient because we had to go back through regular check in to get our second boarding pass (different airline for the connection) and go back through security so we were too late to check in for our flight, even though I think we could have made it. Luckily, there was another flight to Beijing an hour later that we were able to get on so we made it just about an hour later.

We are so exhausted and I have a class tomorrow morning at 8am =(. Time to get some rest and get back into the grind.

I'm glad to be back in China, mostly for the food. I think I was disappointed with the food in Vietnam. The stuff I liked the most was all the bread/baked goods and the coffee -- all French stuff! The Cambodian food I actually liked better, I think because it is closer to Chinese style food! :)