Day 2 - Hanoi

The thing about organised tours is that they are, well, very organised. I finally have five minutes to spare to catch up on my blog posts.

We spent Day 2 in Hanoi, a gorgeous town. First up was Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. I think it was my very good friend Peter Warrington who first brought the 'ceremony' of mausoleums to my attention. I love it. Ho Chi Minh's ceremony was exactly the same as Mao's in Beijing. Queue for an inordinate amount of time. Divide the queue into side-by-side pairs. Eyes forward, (almost) march forward. Approach the steps. No talking. No laughing. No smiling. File past what could be a dummy from Madame Toussard's in reverential silence and that's it. Fabulous! The downside was there was very little memorabilia on the other side. The Chinese don't miss a trick with Mao watches and Mao t-shirts. I am on the lookout.

Then we saw Uncle Ho's house and the beautiful Temple of Literature. We had lunch at Koto, a restaurant set up by an Australian Vietnamese who trains street kids in hospitality - all before Jaimie Oliver I believe! we also met with Care Australia's Vietnam Program Director and learned a little bit more about the 43 project Care has on the ground in Vietnam. Then we had just a couple of hours to look around Hanoi. It was nowhere near enough. Note for Emma Baker Spink - the streets are arranged by 'wares'. I spent too much time in spectacle street, but we had no time for shoe street! I was devastated.
No time becaus we had to board Reunification Express to Hue.