Day 2: Hanoi up and down

I forgot a little episode: At Hanoi airport we met four young backpackers who spoke Hebrew. In the city, it seems that only Tel Avivians travel. The honking is so intense that one wishes for a machine gun and the mopeds too. They swarm through every street in the thousands and are not impressed by a red traffic light or a zebra crossing. Just a few centimeters away, they rush past you, nothing for the faint-hearted.

It's strange to stand in the city that became a symbol of resistance against the Americans during my study years and I can still hear the chants: Ho Ho Ho Tch Minh, the President of North Vietnam, a dictatorial murderer of thousands of his subjects, idolized by leftist students just because he was apparently right against the Americans.

Back to our journey: Out of pity, our leader only picked us up at 11 o'clock and then we went to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, but only from the outside. Then we went to the Pillar Pagoda, but if you've been to Myanmar or Bhutan, it doesn't impress you.

Afterwards, we went to the Temple of Literature, in memory of Confucius, who was Chinese but still highly revered in Vietnam.

Then we visited some galleries and then it was time for a siesta.

At 4:30 PM, cultural program: Water Puppet Theater. Since our leader only gave us the tickets and disappeared, we entered from the front and exited from the back, mindful of Peter's warning that this is just a puppet show where the puppeteers stand in the water.

A word about our hotel room. At the entrance to our room is a sign stating that the President of Israel inaugurated it (and the connected but now closed passage to the neighboring room) as the temporary seat of the Israeli Embassy.