Motorbike Mayhem

We safely arrived in Hanoi to the HONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNK of a thousand motorbikes which zoom past you mercilessly.

After the tranquility of Laos it seemed absolutely crazy, much worse than London. Chaos everywhere.

We were greeted off our flight by a bloke in a suit and two others in casual clothes holding up a board with our names on, along with the name of our pre-booked hotel. They hussled us through the crowds, into an unmarked car and sped off. We weren't sure if were being abducted or being taken to the hotel!

We blitzed Hanoi in a day, doing most of the main tourist sites and narrowly escaping death by marauding scooters on numerous occasions.

Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum and museum were fascinating. We got chased by several harpoon weilding, whistle blowing guards as we ran across the grass. Sorry Ho Chi Minh...we didn't realise it was sacred.

After taking the proper 1km walk around the side to the entrance, we traipsed through the mausoleum with many sombre Vietnamese to gaze upon the emblamed body of Ho Chi Minh. Embalmed, or made by Madame Tussauds: it's hard to tell which. At the museum we found out what a lovely, wonderful person Ho Chi Minh is (the North Vietnamese revere him, the Southern Vietnamese who fought against him still can't get good jobs, pensions, education...).

The Temple of Literature was a beautiful haven from the noise with stunning architecture.

Lunch consisted of pointing at unknown food and saying "we'll try that". It turned out to be delicious although we're still not sure what we ate.

In the evening, we visited the water puppets for an unusual tale of Vietnamese legends and history. It was all in Vietnamese so we didn't have a clue what was going on but it looked impressive.