On our last full day in Hanoi we wandered and eventually arrived at the temple of literature. Originally a Confucian temple, even as the area moved away from such practices, the reverence for higher learning remained.

For lunch we followed another suggestion from the restaurateur in Hoi An and visited Sadhu’s vegan buffet. Completely overwhelmed by the 80+ page menu to select from, they recommended a sampler meal, which had the added benefit of being a surprise with each plate. Which eventually turned to dread as plate after plate arrived long after we were full. 

A post meal crash and repack left us with our final night in Hanoi. We tried to see the famous water puppet show, but didn’t realize it was don’t-bother-trying-to-get-tickets-day-of famous (or maybe we just got unlucky). We again walked the lake, enjoyed views of the lit temple on the land jutting into it, and wandered our neighborhood, putting together a meal from various bites at places along the way: drinks and sandwich bites, a banh mi, circle K snacks. 

While Kaia repacked us I spent the last of the evening on the phone attempting to resolve an issue with our flight booked from New Zealand to Tokyo. No resolve would come that night, but it would turn out to be just a communication problem. Booking a Southern Chinese Airline ticket for a flight operated by Air New Zealand through Chase's travel portal was nice to use points, but annoying for delays in updates. 

Bac Ho looking down from a government building on our walk to buy stamps before we leave.

On our last morning in Vietnam we saw two of Hanoi’s biggest tourist draws: the preserved corpse of Ho Chi Minh and a street that a train goes down. 

We started at the mausoleum, which began with lines. So many lines. More lines and order than we have seen in the rest of vietnam, with guards carefully maintaining them to make sure people don’t slip into lines they see moving faster (and people tried). Winding through the grounds, the first stop in the mausoleum, the exit of which opens up into a park with many buildings significant in his life. Some built there and used while he was president, some, like his childhood home, reconstructed there now that it is a memorial to his greatness. 

There are no pictures allowed in the innermost chamber that contains the body, but I tried to write this as soon as we left: 

Entering the mausoleum, you are greeted by a marble with red carpet/rubber mat on which we are confined. His signature is written large on the wall in gold. Up one flight of stairs, and around the corner pops you into the room with the body. 

It is a dark room. After entering from corner closest to his right ear you walk along his right side, past his feet, and back towards his head on his left. The walkway is separated from his clear tomb by 5-10 feet and four guards. Lying at the center of the room, with head only slightly inclined above feet and hands daintily above the shroud covering his body and legs, is Ho Chi Minh. There may not have been a shroud at all, but the lighting focused on his face and hands left the rest of him, the box around him, the guard at each corner of his tomb, and even the 60+ viewers themselves, in a sub-real state. As if that was all viewed through thick, non quite clear glass, and his face and hands shone through with piercing clarity.

After winding our way through the grounds after the mausoleum, we eventually made our way to train street. If the mausoleum is a solemn and plodding visit to a piece of historical significance, train street is a disney-ification of what must have been the worst street to have a window on. 

Train street’s most prominent aspect, as the name suggests, is the set of tracks and accompanying locomotive that runs down its center. Leaving a gap of a mere foot, if not inches, to the second story windows, the first floors are mostly inset from that to allow room for tables of tourists paying too much for coffee. 

In the evening we headed to the airport for one of our longer travel days… Hanoi to Sydney via Xiamen.

And here is the last line picture, I think it took less than an hour, largely because you are not allowed to pause in the room with his body at all.

Train street! (sans train, I think we only took videos, maybe I'll try and get a still from that on here at some point)

Street food in the sidewalk with these blue (or red) stools were common. Dogs sitting on them was not.