Hello Moto!

Other crazy things our guide Phuc likes to say - "slowly", "try your best", "oh my buddha", he is the "Marlboro man", "Lord of the Rings", future president, and we are the "nice couple". Anyway, he has ditched us for the last 2 days and we have been left to our own devices until 5.45pm tonight when we get on yet another train, this time for Hue.

Yesterday was a day of solitude. We arrived in Hanoi at 5.30am in the morning and took part in some morning exercises by the river and a nice brekky of Pho Bo (beef noodle soup) on the footpath. Then the rest of the group were off to the Perfume Pagoda while I visited the British Council to make sure everything would go smoothly for the following morning's interview.

Of course, visiting the British Council could not take all day (it didn't - a whole 5 minutes). So I also took in the sights on that side of town such as the Temple of Literature (which is also Vietnam's first national university - laureates got their names and biographies engraved on big stone turtles as a reward and encouragement to future scholars - I think Brett should also get a turtle), the one-pillar pagoda (when the guide book says it is underwhelming, it truly means it) and West Lake. I got tired so took my first motorbike taxi home. It felt quite safe apart from the fact that the driver did smell faintly of stale alcohol.
The afternoon I sat in an internet cafe and read up on current events in preparation for the interview. Brett and I had a lovely dinner at Cafe 69, just a few hundred metres from the hotel. I felt quite extravagant in paying a whole 200,000 dong for the meal (that's $16 for both of us).

So this morning, I was up at 6am and felt quite ill until 7.30 which was when the telephone interview was. Despite all my planning, the interview panel still contacted my hotel first (who told them i had left) and then they called my mobile at which point I told them to call me back at the British Council in Hanoi which was where I was. Oh well, no harm done, and it's over now.

I then met Brett at Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum (although that didn't exactly go to plan since there are several entrances to the massive complex and I didn't quite specify which one). Security around the Mausoleum was intense, including no phones and no cameras. We shuffled around the preserved body in hushed reverance. It was really quite intimate and moving, especially when compared to Mao's Mausoleum which I remember as being big and cold. It's sad though that Mao's wishes to be cremated and scattered across Vietnam (or so the guide book says) were not respected. We also saw the very yellow presidential palace and the small wood stilt house where Ho Chi Minh lived out his final years.

We then went to the war museum with lots of relics from various wars. I was not a big fan but I guess these things must be remembered.

After that it was the Musee des Beaux-Arts which was surprisingly good - from ancient pottery to contemporary paintings. Sadly, the subject material of most recent artworks was war and peasants - reflective of Vietnam's recent history.

Lunch was awesome thanks to Joyce who recommended a great place on Cha Ca St which only served 1 meal - bits of fish served on a sizzling fry pan on top of a coal stove with herbs, greens and rice noodles.

Which brings us to now, just sitting around waiting for the train. I should mention that we will probably get lazy with our blogging from here on in. It's only because we are tired of walking around and eating that we have some time to kill. Just some expectation management.