Day 7 - Hanoi

Today was "culture day" - the kind you have to stand in line to experience. Our official itinerary (thank you Lonely Planet) listed the one pillar pagoda, the house on stilts and the Ho Chi Minh Museum as sites worth a look. To get to the area that housed these wonders however, we had to leave the Old Quarter, so we decided to 'rickshaw' it, called a cyclo here in Vietnam. Having been pestered by a million and one drivers of these vehicles for the last week, it was great to finally nod back and say 'yes, we would like a ride'. With a little bit of haggling (only 50,000 dong), we were off, settled into the rickety cyclo whose brakes sounded extremely questionable but seemed to work well enough at most red lights (the ones we sailed through were definitely a bit harrowing). Within the Old Quarter, the cyclo was great, weaving in and out between the motorbikes, watching the sites roll by. But once we headed further afield, I wasn't so sure, packed in between cars and large rolling trucks, breathing in all the tasty fumes and worrying at any moment we might be taken out. Still, all in all not a bad way to get about.


The drivers were hilarious!

After being dropped off at Ba Dinh Square, we headed to the most obvious site, the huge masoleum dominating the place, draped in the words 'Ho Chi Minh' and surrounded by guards. There was definitely a sense of what communist Vietnam in its glory days must have been like. Sadly, we weren't able to go inside to see Ho Chi Minh's body, as it apparently goes to Russia every year in October for "undisclosed repairs" - can't imagine what exactly, sounds interesting though.

After walking around the square for awhile, we decided to head off to the One pillar pagoda, supposedly "near" Ba Dinh Square, but near must be a subjective term because nowhere could we see the elusive pagoda. So, what does any good tourist do when in doubt? Simply follow the other tourists right? Wrong! Mistakenly adopting this policy, we were herded into the Ho Chi Minh museum, to see the glory that was his house, his lake, his fish, his cars, his plants, his bridge and so on. The people here really love him! Sadly, we weren't so excited by this man and seeing all these things was less than fascinating for us. On the upside, Tracey got to experience the joys of a real Vietnamese toilet, standing in a queue with a rolled up bunch of toilet paper given to her by the directing attendant. The line to the trough-like toilet where you squat over an open urinal was shorter but Tracey decided to hold out for the Western style (and I use that word loosely) toilet behind a door which for some reason had a big circle cut out of it, rendering the door somewhat obsolete. Lucky girl hmm?

After all this excitement, we FINALLY stumbled across the One Pillar Pagoda, which the travel book describes as "interesting" and while it does slightly resemble a lotus flower emerging from the water and was built in 1049, it was a sad let down after so much searching, especially since many Westerners were rudely elbowing their way up to the shrine at the top of the pagoda and taking pictures of people worshiping (sometimes our consumerism is just too ugly to watch). So, we decided it was time to cyclo back towards home.

Tracey and Milla in front of the pagoda

Getting back to the Old Quarter, we went on a mission - to get Tracey some pearls! (There had been a lot of "my precious" moments with the beautiful pearls I had bought in Halong Bay so we definitely needed to get her some of her own). Thankfully, we were successful, finding some beautiful dark pearls, a pendant for me, and even getting Milla's nails painted. So not the best day, but it ended on a good note...