Hanoi

Last night was spent at a farewell dinner.  The Vietnamese cuisine continues to be delightful.  "Knock on wood," two weeks and no GI problems or allergic reactions for Julie.  Walking around Hanoi was a blast.  While we expected a more conservative city than Saigon, the streets and nightlife were amazing.

The streets of Hanoi at 11 pm

No Trump Hotel here, but we did find this place

Gradually over the past day, we have said our goodbye's and wished our fellow travelers a bon voyage as they return to their various corners of the world.  We have had a wonderful travel experience and think a great deal of all of them.  We hope that we have represented our country well.  Please excuse is if when we get home we fine things "lovely" or "brilliant" and when we go swimming we will wear "swimming costumes," but some sayings are catchy.  Our new friends fear that they will be using the word "awesome" far more than is appropriate for their societies after being with us for two weeks.

Since we were on our own today, we opted for an unusual  experience.  We waited in line for 2 hours with 20,000 of our new Vietnamese friends to see the body of Ho Chi Minh (know affectionately as Uncle Ho).  Contrary to what you would think, it was a blast.  There were few other non Vietnamese people in the line and we were a novelty.  We had people taking pictures with us, feeling our white skin and of course the young children (of which there were many, many school groups) practicing their english with us.  Seeing Uncle Ho seems to be a right of passage for 10 year old children.

We would start by saying "hello" then move on to "how are you".... to which they would respond in unison "I am fine, thank you."  On occasion we progressed to sharing names.... It was funny to hear 10 kids saying "Julie."  It made the time go very fast.

Here is the route of the  line which too
 2 hours and was nearly a mile long

We eventually had to surrender our bag and camera, but here is the line early
in our journey

Picture of the Mausoleum (no pictures of Uncle Ho possible)

Odd as it may seem, it was a delightful interaction with the people of Vietnam that we will treasure in our minds.  Uncle Ho did not look so bad considering he has been dead for nearly 50 years.

After that. we wandered back to the hotel doing a little last minute souvenir shopping on the way.  We got a marvelous Bahn Mi sandwich on the way back to the hotel (baguette, bacon and pate with cucumbers and shredded carrots).   We probably will pick up another Vietnamese coffee this afternoon (strong cold coffee with sweetened condensed milk on the bottom)..... absolutely awesome!

We don't have much left except for dinner tonight, perhaps with some friends from Canada and then the flight home tomorrow at noon.  We return nearly the same way as we arrived, fly to Taiwan for a connection and then on to Chicago.  Hopefully home by midnight so Julie can work at 7:30 am.

I hope you have enjoyed my commentary of our journey.  We have had a lot of fun and learned a great deal.  This is truly a wonderful place to visit.  The country is filled with beautiful sites, amazing history and a culture and people that are easy to smile and laugh with a generous and welcoming nature.  Both Julie and I hope to return here some day.