It felt like I had barely closed my eyes when my alarm went off in the morning. It was tough to get out of bed and it was actually pretty chilly. The day before Van had lent me a cardigan which I was very grateful for. She told me I could use it until I returned to Hanoi in a few days. Anyway, we were up and off to Hanoi by 6am. It was still dark when we left so Van felt a little sorry I didn't get to see her house in the light at all.
She dropped me off at my hotel and I went in. I was originally planning on simply dropping off my bags and wandering the city, but the lady at the front desk told me my roommate had already arrived and I could go to my room. I considered, but then realized it was 6:30 and figured she was probably still sleeping. I mentioned this and the lady said there was a room that someone had checked out of already I could go into for a little bit. I decided I would do that and thought I would fall asleep. I wasn't able to go back to sleep but it was nice to lay down. Around 8:30 they called my room and told me I should move to my room.
I was greeted by a friendly Australian named Olivia. After I arrived, she started getting ready and we both decided we would go out and explore the city together. We wandered around and tried not to get hit by the motorbikes constantly whizzing around. The trick is crossing the street-the motorbikes don't stop and there aren't really any traffic lights. You should just step out into oncoming traffic and move at a slow and steady pace. The bikes will move around you. Olivia and I wandered around and found an information center and got some tips. Then we went to find lunch, a special fish dish my friend Van recommended. Yes, I actually ordered a fish dish! It was alright. After eating, we decided to go to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum. We consulted the map and determined our route. About halfway there we got a little bit confused and also saw a few other tourists with maps out trying to figure the way there. One was an older German couple and the man was quite friendly to us letting us use his map and brainstorming the right way. The most hilarious part was when we stopped and asked a police officer which way to go and the German man acted out "being dead" (by choking) and saying Ho Chi Minh. The policeman chuckled and pointed us in the right direction. We finally got there and realized that the mausoleum itself closed around noon so it was no longer open. Kind of a bummer, but we went to the museum right next to it. That was interesting. There were a lot of documents and strange modern artworks and not much information describing exhibits.
Next, Olivia and I walked to the Temple of Literature, which was the first "college" in Vietnam. We bought our tickets and walked in, but then were confused and unsure we were actually in the right place. I looked again at the ticket name and it didn't have the same name as we were expecting, but I looked it up and we were in the right place. We walked through there-it was almost more a park than anything else, with a few buildings, but this was from a long, long time ago.
We returned towards the Old City area and stopped at a cafe. I got a water and a delicious carrot cake muffin. It felt good to finally sit since we had been on the go and walking all day. We got a bit turned around looking for our hotel, but finally found it and had about an hour to relax before our group meeting.
At the meeting we met everyone else to be on our tour. In total we are 16; 10 of them are from Australia, 3 from Canada, 1 from Ukraine but living in Maldives, another Korean American and myself. We met our guide, Bac and were given the rundown on our trip. The hardest part to deal with is the Lunar New Year which was starting during the middle of our trip. In Vietnamese, Tet, is the biggest holiday for them. It caused us to not get sleeper trains for 2 nights that we were supposed to meaning a few days would be spent on buses instead of in cities. After the meeting, we had a group dinner, and it was nice to chat with some of the others.
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