We visited Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum this morning. The queue was a couple of city blocks but it was very orderly and moved at walking pace for most of it. To be honest, he didn’t look very different from Lenin.
We then taxied to the Temple of Literature. This Confucianist temple is a quiet oasis (in relatively terms) in bustling Hanoi.
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- Presidential Palace.
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- How to make sure you don’t lose any one from your kindergarten field trip.
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- Ho Chi Minh mausoleum.
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- Temple of Literature.
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- Temple of Literature.
After lunch we found some great bargains walking around the Old Quarter:
- Kim had two pairs of glasses made for USD60. Nice frame for USD15, even nicer frame for USD25, lenses for both pairs (one tinted, one plain) for USD20. Turnaround for plain lenses was 1h while tinted was 2h. Optometrists in Asia are so hard to beat!
- Near the Cathedral, we found a massage place. 90 minutes of foot massage was USD7 and that included feet, calves, back and head. Don’t know why it’s marketed as foot massage when it is so complete. The set-up was amazing too … you’re on electric reclining chairs (I don’t want to call them electric chairs) that have concealed pull-out foot baths that are fully plumbed in.
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- Exploring near the Cathedral.
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- Hanoi Cathedral.
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- Around Hanoi.
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- Around Hanoi.
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- Around Hanoi.
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- Around Hanoi.
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- Around Hanoi.
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- Around Hanoi.
In the evening, we went to a water puppet show. It is a unique Vietnamese form of puppetry where the puppets are controlled by people behind a screen with the controls hidden under water. While it was something I would have really wanted to see, it was promoted to “must see” a few months back when I sas that the performance in Auckland’s Art Festival cost about NZD70. It costs NZD3.60 here!
Not everything is cheap in Vietnam though; some prices are more expensive than Malaysia and are comparable with developed nations like Singapore. This makes life difficult for many Vietnamese. Our guide reckons 80% of people have two jobs.
Some items at Singapore price points are:
- We had a bowl of noodles on the roadside at VND45,000 (NZD2.70) that was delicious and chocka full of beef. This was the actual placarded price in Vietnamese so we had not been ripped off. Other places are at half the price … so this shack may have been a well-known one.
- Metred taxi rides between sights in the city were about VND90,000 (NZD5.40).
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- Water puppets are controlled by underwater mechanisms operated by people behind the curtains.
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- Water puppets are controlled by underwater mechanisms operated by people behind the curtains.
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- This one is more like normal puppets.
