Hanoi -- the long ride north

Hanoi, Vietnam's capital, is a long 16-hour bus ride north from Hue. I could have taken a train but didn't want to arrive in Hanoi at 5 am. By train going north from Saigon to Hanoi is about 1,000 miles, and because it's located up in the northern part of the country, Hanoi can be quite rainy and cool, with winter temps occasionally dipping down into the 40s.

You'll see lots of fascinating statues at temples and museums throughout Vietnam

I made the mistake of visiting the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum on a Saturday morning. Despite the steady rain, the line was very long as there were hundreds of Vietnamese elementary students waiting to get inside. Perhaps best described as Soviet "brutalist style" architecture, the building is particularly unattractive and foreboding on a wet, dreary day. As I wrote for the 4 April Saigon blog post, Ho Chi Minh, or "Uncle Ho," is considered to be Vietnam's great liberator, and every major town in Vietnam has a Ho Chi Minh Museum. His body, which is on view here at the mausoleum in Hanoi, is sent to Russia once a year for maintenance.

I had a 1 am flight from Hanoi back home to Manila, so to pass the time before heading to the airport at 9 pm, I decided to attend a Vietnamese opera, which, conveniently enough, was located right next door to the hotel where I was staying. My 1-month tourist visa was just about expired, and this was was an excellent way to end my travels in Vietnam.