VIETNAM: One day in the city

We spent the morning shopping in the Old Quarter. So many shops! Lots of tourist ones mingled with interesting others. It was a maze of back streets. You walk with the traffic in the street because the sidewalks are crowded with parked scooters and men crouched on plastic stools slurping their noodles.

From shopping we walked to Hoan Kiem Lake. There's an 15th century building right in the middle called the Tortoise Tower. The Vietnemese story tells about a giant tortoise that rose out of the lake at that spot to give Emperor Le Thai To a sword to defeat the Chinese.

18th century Ngoc Son temple is also in the lake. You take the red Rising Sun bridge to get there. We went back at night and stood on the bridge crowded with local lovers enjoying the view.

Everywhere we went in the city I felt like we were among the local people doing their business. Exercising near the lake, playing badminton in the center of the traffic circle, praying in the temples.

The Temple of Literature was built in 1070 and dedicated to Confucius. It was the first University in Vietnam and the names of the scholars who received doctorates and passed examinations were engraved on these tablets.

The Tran Quoc Pagoda is the oldest in Vietnam. The buddhas in the pagoda were so pretty and there was an ancestor worship hall in the back. We took off our shoes, snuck back there and watched a hall full of little old ladies chanting the recitations.

After the pagoda we walked to a little cafe for ice cream and passed little boys playing soccer and crouched grandfathers tugging at their whiskers over a game of cards.

We also walked past the Presidential Palace

and the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. Which was closed so we didn't get a peek at 'Uncle Ho.' Ho Chi Minh is Vietnam's revered leader who led the Vietnam to independence from the French and was president of North Vietnam during the war. When he died he wanted to be cremated and have his ashes spread throughout North and South Vietnam - but instead he was embalmed and is on display in this very soviet Mausoleum.

We spied the frenchie Opera House and the Cathedral from the taxi. But we missed the Hanoi Hilton Prison- which held some famous prisoners during the war, like John McCain.

But we did of course make it to the Water Puppet Theatre, which was darling. The puppets are carved from wood, painted with lacquer and attached to long poles. There's a live Vietnamese orchestra and the puppets perform in waist deep water. The books say the tradition is at least 1,000 years old and unique to Vietnam.

The puppets were for sale throughout the city. The dusty fisherman in the lower left stole my heart.