Vietnam Trip Yr 2008 --9 days

We got off the bus almost at night and rented a oceanview motel for 210000 dong (about $15u sd). This room is fairly new but the plumbing is bad. The faucets are so easily breakable that it overflows the sink. The room smells a bit also. In the morning we booked a tour to the islands off Nha Trang and visited different theme parks...the Aquarium and the Mermaid Island. During the cruise we stopped in the middle and was stopped to allow for those who wanted to swim the emerald waters.
After this a music fest was initiated and many of those on board are either forced to sing a song or volunteered to do so. The captain ankored his ship and brings out the guitar like instrument to provide the music.
Towards the end of the tour we were given tropical fruits to consume---bananas, papaya, watermelon,etc.

Hanoi is my least favorite city. The people don't give bargains and they are not as nice. We live in the old quarters. At this point the motels becomes the most expensive at 250,000 dong per night. We stayed for two nights. The free breakfast the hotel provided consist of a small baguette and one banana. During the day we got a tour that took us to the Ho Chi Minh tomb, the HCM museum, the One Pillar Temple, Another Temple with many stone turtles. At night we got ourselves some cheap Hanoi Beer at 4000 dong and 2 smoked dried squids (around 60,000 dong).

We basically walked around this lake. It is quite small but the walk is fairly peaceful. The doughnuts sold by street vendors are expensive by Vietnamese standards and came at 6000 dong a piece. They are one third the size of California doughnuts but they are on skewer type bamboo sticks. Each stick consit of 4 small doughnuts.

It's a a fairly old temple and inside are many stoned turtles. This is part of our tour.

We saw the Ho Chi Minh , but also heard rumors that it is not really him. The real him is somewhere safe from the public. Everyone in line to see him is forced to constantly move. There are 5 or six guards with bayonets constantly watching. The room was extra cold and scary.