Hanoi part 2

I think I'm getting homesick. It's just tiring... and I still have over three weeks of travelling left!!! We did our city tour today, and Hanoi continues to underimpress. To be fair, I don't think it's the city per se, rather I think it's just the fatigue that settles in after approx. 2 weeks. The day started off on a frustrating foot as they told us they would pick us up between 7:30 and 8, and we were ready at 7:30. At 8:20 we had the hotel call... 15 minutes later a guy showed and corralled us into a cab with 2 British girls (who had a similar pick-up experience). We think the tour company actually forgot about us and when both hotels called they threw something together.

Anyway, it was hot and sunny and our guide repeatedly chose to expound on long explanations of Ho Chi Minh's character and how it was exemplified while standing in the blistering sun!!! (Though Ho Chi Minh is a fascinating individual and I really want to learn more about "uncle ho")

We saw the outside of the mausoleum (closed on Thursdays...), his old house, his house on stilts, etc. Very pretty grounds, trees and foliage from all over Vietnam, and the buildings are painted a bright yellow with red trim.

The highlight of the day was the Ho Chi Minh museum. It opened in 1990, and while it has very limited subject matter, the presentation is fantastic. It’s quite possibly the coolest museum I’ve ever been too--I’ll have to post pictures, because I just can't figure out how to describe the decorations.

We saw a few temples and pagodas (the difference, we learned, is that a pagoda is dedicated to worship of Buddha only, and temples are dedicated to other individuals and spirits etc), and the temple of literature which was essentially the first university in Vietnam, dating back hundreds if not thousands of years. Again, beautiful grounds, cool stone carvings of turtles commemorating the scholars, and enormous drums made out of wood and buffalo hide.

The tour ended early so we headed over to bank of America.... only it wasn't there. The guidebook (2006 version!) said there was a BofA on the ground floor of this one hotel, but when we got there they said it had closed several years ago and there were no other locations. this was disappointing since JoAnn banks w/ BofA and we thought she would be able to take out money w/o a fee... here ATMs charge $2, our banks charge $5 (despite only charging $2 in every other country either of us has been to--outside of Asia), and there is a per transaction limit of 2million dong, which seems like a lot but is really only $126. UNLIKE South America, it appears VERY easy to cash traveller's checks here, and some of the banks don't even charge a commission. Unfortunately, after the difficulties that both Jen and I had finding people to take or change traveller's checks in South America, I chose to travel w/o here. Live and learn...

Back at the hotel we booked our trip to Halong Bay for tomorrow (we'll sleep overnight on the boat and go kayaking, etc, amongst karst rock formations and caves), napped, and then headed out to dinner at Kangaroo Cafe because we were both craving some western comfort food. A cheeseburger and club sandwich later we were revived...