Hanoi

We found the lake that is in the middle of the city and apparently very popular with the locals.  There is a pagoda on the island that is in the middle and Renee was kind enough to pose in front of it.

As you can see the traffic is a little ridiculous, but they don't really want to run over pedestrians.  The trick is to wait for the best gap you can get for the time of day and they start crossing slowly and with purpose.  The cars and motorbikes will avoid you, just don't make any sudden moves or stop in the middle of the street.

Enshrined in the box is Ho Chi Minh himself.  They don't let you take pictures and his corpse looks pretty fake.  They move you around him quickly so you can't get too good of a look at him, but it is an entombed communist leader that I can cross off my list of entombed communist leaders to see.  I tried to get there early and it wasn't really necessary.  The line moved quickly, they just make you jump through hoops to see him.  I got yelled at for walking on the grass in front of the mausoleum, so you have to walk all around the side of the building the get into it.  cyclo drivers were trying to get me to pay them to drive me there.  Don't fall for it.  They said it was 2km  to get around the building; it was more like 200m.  They said it would take 30 minutes to walk there and that I would miss the tour time; it was more like 10 minutes with a bunch of tour time left.  You also have to check you camera before you enter the mausoleum, but you give it to a worker of the complex and they give you a ticket.  You claim your camera as soon as you leave the mausoleum.  Behind the tomb, there is a museum to Ho Chi Minh that has a replica of his houses before and after the war and some of his belongings.  It was kind of interesting, but it was the HCM gift shop that really showed how they feel about their beloved leader.

We stayed at Youth Hotel the night before our Ha Long Bay tour.  It was 290,000 VND was a three bed room with a/c and private bath.  It did the trick as it was only $5 a person, but the roomed smelled moldy and there was a hole in the shower that looked like a person kicked through it.  

The last two nights in Hanoi after the HLB tour were at Hanoi Memory Hotel where it was much nicer and only a little more expensive (~$12/ppn).  We did have to switch rooms at one point, but that was because they received a reservation and we were only booking night-to-night.