You Ain't Much If You Ain't Dutch

We're back in Hanoi. Quick note here: Hanoi is cool. After arriving late in the afternoon from Halong, there was little else to do but go out for a feed and a few beers. We had an ever-so-average feed at a place with a great view, then wandered back into the Old Quarter to pay a visit to Hanoi's finest jazz establishment.
Jazz wasn't really cranking everyone's tractor, so after a wander through the "drinking" streets of the Old Quarter (and spying Toronto at one of them and cheesing it out of there quick smart) we basically turned in early in anticipation of an adventurous day of sight seeing on the morrow. That said, we did walk into another one of these backpacker graffiti type bars (refer to the Angkor What? bar of a previous post) where the best line in the world was scrawled: You ain't much if you ain't Dutch. Amen.

The morning started with a rainy wander around Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. This place was neat because his body is actually there. Like, totally embalmed, put on ice and available for the viewing pleasure of Joe Sixpack. Kind of weird, but interesting nonetheless.
Following a wander around the surrounding grounds, including visiting Ho Chi Minh's houses and the presidential palace, our tour guide Minh (they really like Uncle Ho in Vietnam) took us to the museum of Ethnology (I think). All sorts of info about the sub-cultures and ethnic people of vietnam, and this fish-trap sellers bike, loaded with over 800 fishing traps. The dude totally rolled like this on a daily basis, too.
The outside area of the museum had a bunch of traditional houses - actually bought and transported from their native villages. Check out thise crazy shack:
They also had these cheeky little devils. Hahaha, hilarious. By the way, this is a funeral tomb.
We checked out this temple dedicated to Confucius. It actually used to be a university, and these days scholars come here to pray for good luck. They have these stone tablets inscribed with the names of honor students (from the university days - like, 1000 years ago) which are perched on the backs of turtles. Apparently during the war they buried all these suckers in the sand to avoid the Americans bombing the bejesus out of them.
The afternoon brought us a leisurely cyclo ride around Hanoi which was pretty rad. The dudes pedal slower than you could walk, but considering my chauffeur weighed about as much as my shoes (and would've been about 70), I don't really blame him.
Finally, the afternoon ended at a pagoda on the lake where the monster turtles live. Remember us talking about that in a previous post? Yeah, check this sucker out. He's like 250kgs.
Anyway, it's goodbye Hanoi and goodbye Vietnam. After a night at the airport, it's off to Hong Kong. Stay tuned, race fans.

t+e