Back in Hanoi

Xin Chau.

I am back in Hanoi and it has been good to unwind a bit after China. "The Boys" (2 of Julie and Richard's coworkers) took me out to see the Hanoi nightlife on Thursday. It was great to see some of the local places.

Mom arrived on Friday. It has been great having her here and fascinating to see someone experience Hanoi for the first time.

Today we went to see Uncle Ho's Moseleum. Kinda creepy to see a preserved dead guy, but seeing the throngs of Vietnamese who had come to pay their respects was indeed fascinating. The system they have is all whacky as well. They take your cameras from you but let you kep your cell phones (like they don't have cameras?) Anyway, you go through this metal dectector and have to have your bags scaned like at the aitport. They take away all food and drinks, cameras and ipods. They put the banned visual items in a red bag and shoo you on your way. You follow some signs and (if you are lucky) you come to a little counter where you hand over your cameras in exchange for a claim ticket. The cameras got tossed on a tray with 50 or so other cameras. I thought for sure that woud be the last time I saw it. I was very surprised when we got to the end, after surrendering my claim ticket, I recieved the cameras back. Cray system, but it works. How? I have no idea.


Apres Bac Ho, we took a lil walk to Ho Tay near J+R's house before heading out to se the water puppets.

These things are amazing. If you are ever in Hanoi, it is definately worth checking out. Buy your tickets early (a day in advance) because the front row is great. I had been warned earlier about the temperature and the extremely small seats. The front was cool and we had all the legroom we could want. The view was fantastic too!

Fun, Fun Day!