Day 26 - Bonkers Hanoi

Today has generally been a day of bonkersness. Before today the most bonkers thing I'd seen so far this trip was probably the pick up truck carrying the giant Buddha and a monk in the back blasting out pop music. I'm not even sure that's top 5 anymore.

Fuelled by cheese and ham toasties we powered the 40 minute walk to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum complex. Sadly we missed the times to go actually see Uncle Ho's embalmed body but we did get to walk around the rest of it. This involved seeing his classic cars gifted to him by the Soviet Union and his old house which is on stilts. Also their equivalent of the Changing of the Guards which is a lot camper than the Buckingham Palace version. Something weird we have noticed a lot in Hanoi is groups of friends and family all dressed the same, in this case a group of 4 in striped Where's Wally? style tshirts but also more subtle things like groups of girl friends all wearing pale pink skirts or having matching handbags.

We headed towards the botanical gardens next which was mostly underwhelming, except for maybe the man doing some of the worst singing I've ever heard at an event in the park. On the way out we saw something amazing though. At first it was only semi weird. A lady next to a moped with two small dogs, one of which was wearing a tiny muzzle and she put it into her hand bag. Then just after we went past she climbed on to the moped and shouted something and 3 larger dogs appeared. The original non-bagged small dog and one of the big dogs jumped on the moped floor in front of her, one jumped to stand on the seat behind her and one followed along side as she drove off. The picture I hastily took does not do the scene justice. After that nothing else on a moped compares be it a potted tree, two of those toy ride on jeeps or a family of 5. It was truly bonkers thing number 1.

We headed towards the lake and grabbed some noodles and rice for lunch. Then we took a swan boat out on to the lake (minor weird thing, there was a man flat out asleep in a swan boat moored at the collection point). At least this was some minor exercise for the day. On the walk back from the swan boats we went to a pagoda where a woman was burning brand new, out of the pack dolls houses, hats and shoes (?!) and to the Temple of Literature where kids were graduating in brightly coloured robes. At this point Matt's flip flopped feet were about to give out so we headed for dinner (more noodles, more rice) and back to the ranch for a hot shower (we're getting much better at selecting places to stay with decent showers now)

After dinner we went to the Water Puppet Theatre. Again bonkers. I didn't take any pics of the show but go on YouTube and search for the Hanoi Water Puppet theatre for clips. We weren't really sure what to expect seeing as all we knew was that it involves water and puppets but it was so much fun and passed the six laughs test easily - how could it not with acts named 'chasing the fox that tries to catch ducks'? The set is a shallow water tank set in a pagoda and my best guess of how it works is that the wooden puppets are on underwater rods controlled by puppeteers at the back of the stage behind the curtain that the puppets enter through. (They all came out at the end wearing waders). There's musicians too playing along on instruments I've never seen. It's very clever and charming, we never saw the rods even when the puppets jumped out of the water. The stories didn't make much sense to us as 1. any speech was in Vietnamese and 2. it was crackers but I'd definitely go again.

After the show we walked around Hoan Kiem lake. At the weekend they pedestrianise the roads around the lake which makes it an enjoyable walk rather than the stressful dodging vehicles walk it was when we visited a few days ago. In Hanoi there's either no pavements so you have to walk in the road, there are pavements but you can't walk on them for parked moped or there's mopeds driving on the pavements. There is no absent minded strolling. The closed-to-traffic roads are where friends and families go to meet up, playing keepy uppy games, hire hover boards and picnic on the pavement. There's also lots of people who bring instruments and/or a mic and amp and just perform. As with the guy at the gardens there were some terrible singers, including the one which looks like a semi professional set up involving fire and dancers.

We leave Hanoi tomorrow. It's a cool place. Would be cooler without the vehicles.Read more