Let's Go Back a Day

I'm (Alison) giving the chief blogger a rest and wielding the cursor for a change. He's busy watching a National Geographic documentary on Hitler, so I'll let him enjoy that.

Our day before we headed to Ha Long Bay was spent traipsing over Hanoi to visit the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum and the Temple of Literature. Tourists don't use the buses here, so it's either walk everywhere or take a cyclo or taxi. Consequently, we have covered about 10 - 12 kilometres per day sightseeing in 33 degree humidity. Here are some photos showing sights along our walks.

The mausoleum was a little disappointing considering the reviews all said it was well worth visiting. There was the usual propaganda reinforcing how successful the North Vietnamese were in defeating the nasty American and South Vietnamese, but we had been looking forward to filing past Ho Chi Minh himself. His body lies in state in a room closely guarded and tourists are permitted to file past slowly and reverently, but..... he wasn't there. He was in Moscow undergoing 'annual maintenance' (for a guy that old, I guess the maintenance must be pretty considerable, I know it is for Edwin). I have visions of him having a full body detail, that is to say, vacuum, wash, polish and perhaps a paint touch up. Lol.

This is the best we could do

I'm the itinerary supervisor and discovered the Temple of Literature on the map, so dragged Edwin another 5 km there and back based, once again, on favourable reviews. This time we weren't disappointed; a village of temples and ancient rooms showing how students learned years ago. The buildings were beautiful and the gardens serene and peaceful.  There weren't huge numbers of tourists which made it a most enjoyable visit.

Beautiful bonsai garden beds

Inside one of the many temples

Our evening was spent sitting by the lake enjoying the breeze - it's so hot and humid any breeze is welcomed. Once again we were approached by youngsters wanting an English speaking lesson - a young boy and a 22 year old lad. Edwin dutifully chatted to the young boy (parents standing close by. They didn't speak or understand any of the conversation) and I chatted to the  older boy, Zey. He was a translator of written language who taught himself to read and speak English by studying British politics and reading lots of accounting and business books. He hopes to go to Berlin next year and work as a translator. One thing we have noticed in Vietnam is that many people who speak reasonable English sometimes can't answer our questions but then later in a conversation will tell us what we wanted to know a few minutes earlier.  Zey explained that they have difficulty hearing sentences and following questions. Obviously, that's why speaking with tourists in casual conversation helps. I hope our numerous English conversations have done that.

Edwin's new friend. Unfortunately, he couldn't remember his name.