Day 1- The Touring Adventure

Our first day!!! We're all very excited to be here, the hotel is great and the city is beautiful.
Anyway, a very exciting adventure. We went down to the Lake of the Restored Sword near our hotel and were approached by a man who called himself Tony. His real name was Don or something like that, but we were happy that he let us "American-ize" it. Much easier for us Westerners. We bargained with him for a 5-hour ride on the back of a Vespa Moped-2 to be exact, 2 people on one and 1 on the other.
I doubt that there is any better way to get used to the city and culture than a tour like that. Apparently, the only traffic rule is "BEEP BEEP!!!! Get out of the way." The trick is to swallow your fears and just keep walking- they go around you.
After the initial fear for our lives, we got used to the wild style of riding and got comfortable. Tony filled us in on the history and pointed out many historical buildings. He added his own unique touch and told us the stories about his people and culture.
Our 1st stop was Nha Hat Lon, the Opera House. We didn't stay long as a wedding was taking place on the streets. We were told that this, April 7th, was a lucky day on the Vietnamese calendar and we saw many weddings such as this.
After the Opera House we toured the narrow streets of the old quarter- that is where our hotel is, and then went to the

Temple of Literature. The Temple is dedicated to Confucius, the Chinese Emperor who conquered Vietnam.

Then, on the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. We spent a lot of time here, and got to see his embalmed body, and a their side of the Vietnam War- Where the US Imperialists viciously attacked North Vietnam , which was trying to restore peace by uniting the North and South and liberating the South.

We toured the house that Ho Chi Minh lived and worked in, the Garage with his old cars, and his House on Stilts. We took lots of pictures here. Then we went to the One Pillar Pagoda, and made an offering to try and help the process along ( We want Maeve!!!).

The Pagoda rises out of a lotus pond with a single concrete pillar supporting it. It was built in 1049 and "blown up" in 1954 by the French. it was recently reconstructed.

We stopped to see the oldest Buddhist temple in Vietnam in West Lake, but it was closed and we went to have tea at a great local place instead.

After that, we took a very long, " butt-aching" ride to the Silk Village, which is a nice place with lower prices on silk than Hanoi. Tony took us to one shop in particular, where we met a very nice old family that showed us how to work the loom and gave us great prices on the finest handmade silk.

After this trip was over, our adventure was at an end. Tony and his friend took us to our hotel, where we ate a late lunch and went to our room for a quick nap, planning to go see a water puppet shown a few hours later. We were out like lights and woke up at 4:00 AM the next morning.