The honking never stops!!!

We get to the airport with plenty of time to spare, and it's a darn good thing. As we get to the check in desk and i had over my passport the agent flips through at and asks "Where's your Vietnamise visa?" huh?  What visa! We thought we could get one at the airport!  mmm nope...  so it was a mad frenzy of rushing to get a visa for us, they made it a bigger deal then it was, they were able to do it right there in the Vietnam airlines office, we just had to pay more then double the price, or would have to wait for the next day.  We didn't want to wait.

picture in case the plane didnt make it

We arrived in Hanoi all in one piece, the flight went smoothly.  My first impressions of Vietnam, nosy, dirty, and smells funny!!  Let me say that you have never seen traffic like this. It's like nothing else, it makes no sense. It's like a big free for all.  The streets are packed with mostly motorbikes, some cars, busses, etc.  But at an intersection you would think people would pause and look both ways before crossing, nope, everyone just go's for it!! So everyone is going in every direction at once, and they are all honking their horns , its more of a way to say 'hey watch out for me im right here' and the honking never ceases. I found it really hard to sleep and shoved my earplugs as far in my ear canal as possible. We had dinner next door to our hotel, a place called the Green Mango, it's pretty much a gourmet restaurant, linen napkins, impecable service, and we walk in looking like backpacker bums, but they treated us just the same, every thing was on coasters and they refill your glasses for you and take them away the second its empty.  Everyone was very nice and the meal was fantastic and only cost us maybe 7 dollars each or so.  You'd never find that at home! We went to the waterpuppet show, and had i known what the heck was going on, i might have been more interested, but i was bored and exhausted from the previous night and was almost falling alseep like all the kids in our row, sprawled out sleeping on the chairs.  The next day we sent out to the Ho Chi Minh Masoleum and Museum, i was already dissapointed because his body wasn't going to be there, it goes to Russia for 3 months a year for repairs, and then we get there and the museum is closed.  Who ever heard of a museum being closed on a Friday!! A Sunday or Monday, sure, but Friday??  ahhggg.  So we went to the Museum of Ethnology. Its displays were about the lives and cultures of some of Vietnams 54 ethnic minority groups. It was interesting, but too difficult to keep them all straight.   Next we stopped at the Temple of  Liturature, which is about 1000 years old. It has a very pretty garden area . We rubbed a brass turtles head like everyone else was doing, and prayed for good luck on the slot machines!

water puppet show

temple of lit.

tutles

temple

smelly market packed with crap.

street