18th November 2008

Woke up early and had breakfast in the hotel.  We then took a taxi all the way to Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum.  We marched through to see Ho Chi Minh’s embalmed body along with the rest of the Vietnamese tourists.  We were shushed by the austere looking guards as no speaking or stopping was permitted as you passed his glass display case.  We then passed by the one pillar pagoda before taking a peddled rickshaw back to Hoan Kiem lake.  We then walked through the Old Quarter and went to a very disappointing market.  It was dangerous crossing the road with a million mopeds all closely packed zooming by all the time.  We then walked halfway across the Long Bian Bridge over the Red River.  We then walked back to the lake and had lunch at the Dinh Lang Thung Ta restaurant looking over the lake.  We then went back to the hotel for a nap before emerging again and going for a drink at Bobby Chin across the road from the hotel Zephyr.  We then went to see the water puppets, which was quite interesting.