Hanoi – what a place!  It pulsates and buzzes and weaves and blares.  Twelve million people live here who collectively own 30 million scooters.

Traffic rules seem non-existent – drive on either side of the street and on the sidewalk if that is faster, and weave in and out and just make your way willy-nilly through intersections and don’t worry if the light is red.  Need to transport something bulky?  Just tie it to the back of your scooter.  And don’t worry about parking either; find a place on the sidewalk.  The pedestrians can walk on the street. 

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We were sent on a 45-minute cyclo (bicycle rickshaw) ride through the old section of Ha Noi to experience traffic first-hand. Amidst the pandemonium were women carrying baskets of produce on either end of a long pole slung over their shoulders.  A man riding a scooter and talking on his telephone while smoking a cigarette zipped by; as our dear group leader Thuyen would say, oh my Buddha!  A young man with a bicycle-load of baskets rode alongside us.  And everywhere people were selling things to other people – meals, produce, pharmaceuticals, luggage, clothing, car parts, tours – and amazingly no one seemed distressed by the reigning chaos.

We started the day with a visit to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum where we were asked to walk silently in pairs, hats off, hands out of pockets past his embalmed remains.  The regimentation seemed fitting to this Communist country and its spiritual leader.

Ho Chi Minh is revered by the Viet Namese and not without reason.  He apparently was a simple man of the people.  The grounds around the mausoleum are beautifully kept, replete signs asking us to stay off the grass and to not enter certain walks.

There is a huge parade ground where 10,000 people can gather for the trooping of the colours.

We also visited the Temple of Literature dedicated to Confucianism.  It is the site of the Imperial Academy, the country’s first university founded in 1076.  At the time this was a university for royalty only and all students had to pass a series of rigorous exams during their education.  While at the Tenple of Literature we were treated to a performance of traditional Viet Namese music which was quite lovely.

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Dinner this evening was at Au Lac House.  Au Lac was the former name of the Viet Namese state from 257 BC to 207 BC.  As usual dinner was a feast – salad roles, shrimp paste on sugar cane, grilled eggplant with spring onion, deep-fried soft shell crab with egg, stir fried prawns with tamarind sauce, and most wonderfully we have finally reached a country where dessert includes a sweet along with fresh fruit.  Yum!

Tomorrow – lessons on crossing the street!