Hidden Hanoi

on monday we went to our hotel room and rested.

hotel: VND$7900 per night (US$45)

on tuesday we went to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. it was so cool. we got to see his dead body but it looked kind of like he was still alive but kind of like he was fake. we could not take pictures and we had to keep moving fast but many vietnam …

Ah to fly. We arrived in Hanoi far more relaxed than we had felt on a mode of transport for a long while, though the free G&T's helped considerably. We were greeted by a very enthusiastic and cheerful Vietnamese man in a pink shirt who was holding up a card with 'Jessica' on the front. We hurtled down the motorway and as we entered the …

... teach us how to prepare and cook traditional dishes such as spring rolls, chicken and catfish. You can find Pho everywhere in Vietnam and our hotel offered it for breakfast. It's a sort of noodle soup with chicken or beef served with onions and ...

... manipulate painted wooden puppets over a pool of water--the stage. Immediately, the choice of water made sense: Northern Vietnam's people are intricately connected with water, whether through growing rice in paddies, fishing, boating, or raising ...

... on a single bamboo pole, who are probably stronger and tougher than most men you'll see at your gym. - rice paddies (though Vietnam is only the 2nd largest producer in the world, Thailand being 1st) - the incessant honking (the idea behind it is the ...

... ; We've heard a lot of negative reports from travellers about Hanoi.  True, its hard to like on the surface.  Vietnam, like many other Asian countries, is almost drowning in motorbikes.  Hanoi has almost 3 million of them.  There are ...

... as she ripped her clothes off to stop the burning of her skin, it's a powerful depiction of the controlling forces in Vietnam. It's powerful stuff). When leaving the museum a Vietnamese guy asked martin if he was American "No, No oh no defiantly not". ...

... airport baggage claim area, but sadly this was what we had to do. Because of our time-scale, we caught a flight from HCMC upto Hanoi, Vietnam's second biggest city. It was on this flight Jo and I sat next to a really nice man flying home. Like most ...

... both hands and jump of the nearest cliff! In other words we wanted to do our own thing, get away from the confines associated with tourist organisations and get out there and see the real Vietnam for ourselves (read on to find out what happened ...

... in Hanoi. It also contains some figurines of a lady who was said to have had 50 sons and 50 daughters who created population of vietnam (seems a bit wrong!)  09:34 Next we went to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. Ho chi minh died in 1969 and was embalmed ...

... my favorite places I have visited on my trip so far. It was a Vietnamese hospital that was built into a hidden cave during the Vietnam war. The cave contained 25 rooms, operating rooms, wash rooms, medicine rooms, recovery rooms, meeting rooms and ...

... Bay (Cristine opted for some much needed alone time). Halong Bay is one of the quintessential tourist sights in Northern Vietnam. Its' picture-post card limestone islets are on nearly everyone's Vietnam itinerary. There are over 2000 islets in the Gulf ...