wet motos and Hanoi

Today we arrived in Hanoi at some incredibly early hour. Although - it wasn't as early as it was supposed to be. The 12-hour train from Hue to Hanoi was supposed to depart at 4:30 and actually left around 7:30. But we managed to kill the time in the train station just fine (see the photo below). Our guide (the Vietnamese guy in the photo) even taught us the Vietnamese version of Gin Rummi. To pass the time on the train - we proceeded to drink many small bottles of vodka and our group managed to consume all of the Coke available for sale on the train :) All that liquor made sleeping on the train rather easy! After eating, resting and showering once we were in town, I walked around Hanoi a little and saw the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum complex. Below is a photo of me in front of the One Pillar Pagoda.

Yesterday, we took moto rides through the countryside around Hue - certinally a highlight of the trip, despite the rain and flooded roads. I have many amusing stories from this journey. We stopped to see a woman who makes the connical hats, how incense is made (I'm giving it a go in the photo below) and one of the tomb complex's of a former King of Vietnam (last photo). On this journey I learned that when plowing through flooded roads deeper than the tailpipe, one must go fast enough to keep the water out of the moto. My driver was kind enough to push our bike to higher land with me perched on top so my boots didn't have to get submerged (most of us wore the wrong shoes for the adventure). I also learned that it's not all that uncomfortable to be middle of the three on a moto after one of the other girls bike's wouldn't start up again after cutting out in the flooded road. It was really awesome seeing the coutryside, towns, and alleyways from the back of a bike.