Hanoi- home to the weirdest museum!

So Lucy and I almost never made it to Hanoi. After Hoi An it was time to catch our flight with Jetstar Pacific. We arrived at the airport at 7am for the 9am flight only to find out they changed the flight. Every single time we have flown with Jetstar they changed the flight. This time it was due to leave at 8pm! They made loads of excuses about why we were never informed and in the end (after much arguing) gave us a refund. Then came the emergency running round airport looking for a new flight that would take us to Hanoi. We found one and bought our tickets there and then. Something I had never done before. We then had 5 minutes to check in and 15 minutes to get through security but... We made it!

We were picked up by our hotel driver and taken to our hotel. On the way for some reason he stopped to talk to someone on a motorbike and exchange items. We were a bit put out by this and it seemed strange but nothing else eventful happened so we left it.

We arrived at our hotel and were told that our room was occupied and would we accept a double. I mean who gives away a room that is already paid for? As compensation he gave us cheap taxi back to hotel at end of our stay. So we ended up in a double room looking at the lake.

The old town is quite pretty and the lake is lovely:

We walked round the lake and to the temple in the middle of the lake:

There were exercise classes going on round the lake and it was quite busy.

We walked to the opera house and saw a man walk right through the traffic without even looking!

Then we sat in a lovely cafe for a couple of hours looking at the traffic and people watching. We then walked back in the evening round the lake and went to our hotel.

The next day we had a tour of Tam Coc and it was pouring in rain.

We were picked up by our tour guide in a small bus with no seat belts or proper seats and driven out of the city. We were almost at our first destination when we crashed into a lorry! Thankfully no one was hurt and the bus ended up with a big dent in one side. Yes this is how scary driving in vietnam is. The driver was constantly on his mobile phone and not looking where he was going! This is typical behaviour of Vietnamese drivers. But we kept going to our first destination, Hoa Lu the ancient capital of Vietnam:

It was beautiful even though it rained but this added to the mystique.

Then we headed to Tam Coc and had lunch and then Lucy and I went on a bike ride which turned out to be awesome!

The pictures did not do this justice to how greeny yellow everything was and how massive the mountains were.

Then we went on a boat tour along a river in Tam Coc.

The lady pushed the boat with her feet:

The scenery was spectacular:

This was my best day so far and I highly recommend Tam Coc. The rain just added to the atmosphere.

Our last day together and we started of with the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum:

For those that don't know Ho Chi Minh is a pretty big deal in Vietnam. He was a major political leader for the people and everyone loves him. On his death he said he didn't want any fuss or wastefulness of land in vietnam and just wanted a simple burial. So in respecting his wishes they resurrected a massive mausoleum to him where thousands go to worship him every day and they post guards outside that shout at you if you get too close. From 9am to 11am you can go visit his body and spend two hours queuing for the pleasure in hot cramped conditions. We decided not to do this but walked by the place anyway.

We then made our way to the temple of litrature:

Then we had to go learn more about Ho Chi Minh at the Ho Chi Minh  museum:

It was weird and hardly any of it was in English.

This is his brain apparently:

See weird. We left more confused than ever.

We walked through the park seeing a one pillar pagoda along the way:

Lastly we went to visit the tran Quoc pagoda:

Then had dinner which included a coconut drink!

Overall I really liked Hanoi especially Tam Coc. If you have to choose between hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city I would definitely choose Hanoi.