Welcome

The overnight train trip from Hué was 13 hours. My roomie Alexander and I shared a berth with Clare and Bryan. They are both from Ireland and met in Australia when working for an IT company. After 7 years, they are in the process of moving back to Ireland hoping to get jobs and build a house. They decided to travel for two months on the way home. Risk takers !! Luckily no one snored in our teeny berth. Of course in the bumpy train with 10 stops before Hanoi and no heat, we didn’t sleep soundly. 

A rather chopped up day. The train arrived in Hanoi at 5 am. We bused to the hotel and were given 4 rooms to share until bus tour at 9 am. Most went out for breakfast, I showered and blogged. Then luggage left in the hotel foyer and off to see the Ho Chi Minh complex. He is the “venerated father” of modern Vietnam. He became the leader of the country in 1945, introducing a Communist society until his death in 1969, so never lived to see the unified country. His mausoleum is a monster.  We walked past his preserved body with guards prodding us to hurry along. When he became leader, he chose not to live in the former French governor’s house, the yellow building. He lived in a house on stilts in the hills to the north and asked that a modest house on stilts be built for him. It had an office, a bedroom and an eating area under the house. No toilet or kitchen 

I heard a woman playing very distinct peaceful, Zen-like music in the complex. I had heard it when I attended a cultural event in Hué. It’s a single string and she gets the various sounds by plucking the string at different spots while changing the tension with her other hand. She can add tremolo to the sound too. Takes great co-ordination to create such beautiful music. It’s called a dàn bâu. 

The Literary Museum aka the Confucius Museum contains no books. The works are inscribed tablets sitting on turtle backs. Turtles represent stability. The tablets are quite smooth now, having lost the letter definition. 

As it is 10 degrees, my sweatshirt over a tee and sandals (running shoes are still wet) are not cutting it. Tomorrow we are sailing a junk on Halong Bay. Eating three meals and sleeping on it. Will be windy and colder. So I went to the Old Town Market and bought a North Face Gortex jacket for 35 CDN. Might be a knock off, but it’s a very warm knock off. Don’t think I’ll be doing the kayak option!!! Temps after we finish the tour on the 30th will be back in the high twenties. Drat!