Hanoi: A City of Organised Chaos

Hanoi is a wonderful capital full of interesting sights, sounds and smells. It's a place for relaxing and watching the chaotic life of the city pass you by, it's a place for wandering museums for hours on end, it's a place to get lost in exploring surprising back streets. The roads in Hanoi are a crazy mess of thousands of scooters, cars, cyclo's and bikes, beep beep, while the pavements are full of allsorts, including scooters and lots of locals enjoying a tea and snacking on some seeds while perched on child-sized plastic stools. Hawkers carry heavily loaded trays of various foodstuffs and spend their days roaming the streets selling their chosen produce. Hoan Kim Lake is in the heart of the city and is a hive of activity day and night, where locals exercise, tourists take photos and young lovers fall under the city's spell. I'm entranced by it's foggy mystery in the day and by it's illuminated islands at night.
Ngoc Son temple sits on a small island in the lake and houses a rather odd looking preserved giant turtle. The pagoda brings to mind the vast Chinese history of Vietnam. I pay a visit to the temple of literature; the first university in Vietnam where the students had to sit final exams with the emperor posing questions as their examiner. To soak up a bit more Vietnamese traditional culture I attend a famed water puppetry show in the evening. Water puppetry was invented by farmers who used their rice paddies as their stage. I watch a fun and humorous show of puppets fighting, dancing and performing on a stage of water accompanied by some traditional music. One of the should really see's in Hanoi is Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum and so I go one morning and find a large imposing concrete tomb. There are a lot of slightly ridiculous security checks and my empty water bottle and bananas are confiscated. What am I going to do with a banana for god's sake!? A lot of people have come to pay their respects and after a bit of queuing and a lot of hoo haa; remove your sunglasses, hands out of your pockets, sssshhhhhh!! We are permitted to walk past Ho Chi Minhs mummified body which lies, looking peaceful, in a glass casket. Honestly, after the hassle I'm not sure it was worth the effort. Mister Minh actually wanted to be cremated but his adoring fans disregarded his last wishes to preserve and display him for all to see (if you don't have any deadly bananas in your handbag). After this surreal experience I check out Ho Chi Minh's museum to learn a bit more about the man himself. Hanoi provides several days worth of museums and I fill many hours visiting Hoa Lo Prison museum, the history museum and the wonderful women's museum. In short Hanoi is a fantastic city full of culture, traffic and amazing people.