Hanoi

7th Well I got out of the airport in Hanoi which was really easy. Customs was nothing. “Do you have anything to declare?” “No.” Pass through. I wanted to make a wise crack about making a declaration but I bit my tongue. That kind of stuff doesn’t go over very well. Getting my bag from the carrousel took longer. My bag does not move very fast. Some people had backpacks the size of a school bag. The couple I asked is staying three weeks. Next came the taxi. I hear the stories of getting ripped off and I find out they are true. The taxi driver told me the cost would be $14US and then after a long drive he pulled over at an ATM and said I needed to pay for a ticket. He wanted a lot of money for it. I told him no and he got really mad. He told me he was going to go back to the airport if I didn’t pay him. In the end I paid him $20 and had to get another taxi for four dollars. It was all screwy. Finally I did get to the hotel, and a nice one it is too. I got my room and went up to repack my bag into just one. That was not easy.
Since I was the first person to arrive at the motel I decided to go out and see the quite city. I found by accident the Museum/Temple of Literature. It was awesome. It was forever old, 1000+ years, having been a focus of education since its inception. It was a grouping of temples which you entered one by one by walking through the previous temple. A line of temples each more spectacular than the one before. Making ever more spectacular temples was a feat hard to accomplish. Such a long time has been hard on the structures so there was much restoration going on. During certain times in Vietnam’s history temples have fallen harshly into disrepair. After all this time the temples still had places of reverence for the people that come to pay homage. People from all over S.E.A. come as tourists yet the number of people in the temple was small. In a city of turbulent movement and a cacophony of sounds, it was utterly peaceful. I loved the gardens. No part of Phoenix, even our best gardens, comes even close to the greenery.
I found that turtles represent longevity and now I want one.
Facebook is not    accessible using a Vietnam IP which is where I was going to post my pictures so I guess I am going to have to learn to use Picaso or some photo dump. Even with a nice camera I can’t take pictures of any quality.
We had a wonderful dinner tonight. They give you a washcloth in a plastic, sealed bag that has been refrigerated. I was amazed at the cost of such an elaborate, fulfilling, and very tasty meal. This dinner had beef but I will go beyond the normal. That time has come. After we left the nice and neat restaurant we sat on the side of the road with our tour guide (pronounced like zoon) and sampled the local cuisine. I had snails which you had to pull out of the shell. I had fertilized bird eggs that you took the top of the egg shell off and poured into your mouth. I had dried fish with a HOT sauce. Of course to top it all off it came with many shots of rice vodka. I think I will be drinking across Vietnam.
Some of our tour mates have not arrived. This is the end of most of their holidays but all of them have been going for a while on their own. One has been going for eight months and will be another three weeks. My roommate for the trip has been up in China and has worked his way down to here. His name is Sam, a 22 year old Oxford graduate, is here. He is a good guy.
8th Today in Saigon we visited the Ho Chi Min complex an mausoleum. The lines were forever long. After we got through that line we entered another queue that was longer. We had to walk by the pickled father of Vietnam. We were actually pushed along so that we would not stop or slow the progress in the line around his body. 
Our next stop was the Hoa Lo Prison (Hanoi Hilton). We learned of the use of this prison by the French and saw some pretty awful things involved during the time the French were in Vietnam. The uses of torture, execution, and general conditions of imprisonment were shown. Then they told of the residence of U.S. soldiers. It was a story about the soldiers’ great care during a time of economic disparity. I like history and it was an interesting place to go but it made me somewhat mad.
Next we broke off from the main group and four of us went to the Vietnam History Museum. We got lost a great many times trying to find it even with a map and were glad for the aircon when we finally got there. It was an awesome museum with English subtitles on everything. Vietnam and S.E.A. area has a long and rich history. America is just a blip in history.
Afterwards we went to a Café with aircon, almost frozen washcloths, and cheese cake. It was not crumb crust but an actual cake like bottom. I was good but New York cannot be beaten.
That night before and as the sunset we took a Cyclo tour. We saw a lot of Hanoi in a slow and relaxing manner.
We went to a water puppet show. It was cool. There was a story, songs, and a musical ensemble.
We ended with dinner and a walking tour back to the hotel arriving late into the night. I was a big day and I was so tired.