Ahoy Hanoi

It The old quarter of Hanoi provides our pre-dinner entertainment via a water puppet theatre, "what the..." we hear you say. It is basically just puppets that are controlled by mechanisms that are under the water. The puppeteers hide behind a bamboo curtain but are hip deep (our knees, many Vietnamese are very short) in a water pool. It is all in Vietnamese but the most hilarious scene was (we believe) a duck farmer and his wife. They were herding their ducks in a rice paddy. What is funny about this...well, the farmer was wearing a g-string and brandishing a whip and his wife had on a top that had circles cut out for her protruding breasts. It was very bondage like. We're sure it must have been lost in translation. Hilarious viewing.

We jump in a taxi and head off for a decadent dinner across the lake, see other post.

Other things on the Hanoi itinerary was Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum and palace and yet another Pagoda, this time worshipping Confucius. Andrew's favourite bit of the latter was the fact they sold beer, these Vietnamese are very reasonable.

Ho Chi Minh claimed to want equality and even wouldn't stay in the palace itself but instead lived in a modest building on the grounds. It is difficult to believe he wanted to live as one of the common people when her also had 3 luxury cars, most people in Vietnam can't afford even one.

It felt anachronistic, watching the soldiers almost goose step around the mausoleum for the changing of the guard. However, this regime is still going strong with no evidence of a change to come. Those who are interested in the details are advised to check out one of the regimes biggest challenges: how to provide electricity to meet demand. In short, they're ideologically committed to providing low cost power, they're broke, and the low price means that no external investors want to get involved because there's no money in it. Do some research on the inter webs to learn more - it seems like an insurmountable challenge, will be fascinating to see how it pans out.