Hanoi

What madness! This huge city is crazy but it's a great introduction to Vietnam and what the country has to offer.

We left Bali, flew to Hong Kong where we had to spend the night in the airport. Unfortunately, the Business Class lounge closes around midnight, but the HK airport has another pay lounge with a sleeping area. We paid way too much money for a place to shut our eyes for 6 hours, but the hotel alternative would have been more expensive.

The following morning, we caught a flight to Ho Chi Minh City, then another flight to Hanoi. We were so happy to see our driver at the airport and to finally check into our hotel.

If we had one word to describe Hanoi it would probably be motorbikes. They are everywhere, going in every direction, doing whatever they please.

Now try crossing the road. :/

Our guide told us cars made in China are relatively cheap, however the Vietnamese government imposes a large tax on Chinese cars to dissuade people from purchasing them. Imagine replacing all of the motorbikes with cars and the city would come to a complete standstill.

We guessed some people spend the extra money they would have used for a car and pimp out their motorbikes instead:

It's also a great way to transport a large number of ducks in a really small cage:

Ok, enough about motorbikes, the city does have other things to offer. Our guide picked us up the following day for a full city tour of the major attractions.

First stop: The Confucious Shrine, or the Temple of Literature. Vietnam's first university, it was built in the 11th century to educate the warrior class.

The inside, very ornate:

The next stop was the Mausoleum, the resting place of Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam's president who established the communist party, defeated the French in the '50s, and lead the country during the Vietnam War before his death in 1969. No cameras are allowed inside, so we give you this picture, courtesy of wikipedia.

His body is on display in a similar fashion to other communist leaders, a la Stalin and Lenin. Frankly, it's a bit creepy.

There were large groups of school kids walking around - it was really cute to hear them all saying, "hello, hello, hello" to us as we passed by. We're guessing they were about 10 years old.

Our guide took us to visit a few pagodas in the city, Vietnam's version of a temple.

We ended the day with the guide after he dropped us off with two guys peddling cyclos - basically, a cart attached the front of half of a bike. Ha! We thought we were going to die a few times, but it's all part of the experience, right?

::Steven almost looks like he's in a wheelchair - really, he's not::

Speaking to other people who have visited Vietnam, we were told a must-see is the water puppet show. We ventured out after dinner and had a good chuckle at the story even though we didn't understand what they were saying. The visuals were so colorful and pictures really don't capture the detail. We tried. We blame it on the camera.

The group of about 8 people behind the curtain, in the water, controlling the puppets. Sorry for the blurry picture.