Military History Museum

As seems to be the trend with Vietnamese museums the Military History Museum in Hanoi provides you with a melee of artifacts from numerous Vietnamese wars in no particular order and in no clear context. There wa certainly a fair bit of propaganda there - with vast quantities of money having been spent on a video and three-dimensional map presentation showing how the NVA had illustriously dug tunnels to attack and conquer a supposedly impregnable and extensive French base in the mountains. We also saw a photo of a poster in a parade bearing and inappropriate slogan and many plaques stating just how many US planes had been shot down by women using varous weapons!

 

Cot Co Flag Tower at the centre of the museum gave some great views of the city. Worryingly at the top there were two ways to get down, though at the bottom we'd seen that one of the entrances had been sealed up. After re-thinking what we saw when we first reached the top of the steps we chose the correct staircase avoiding certain death in the pit of doom!

 

Picked up from the Hotel at 8.30 after a quick trip to the bakery (proving to Sarah that they do exist in Hanoi!) one of the guys from Freedom Tour instantly started trying to get us to pay another $10 each for "express visa service", after they'd already told us it couldn't be done in time for Saturday when we'd asked the day before. I wasn't happy about that so I told him we'd pay the $10 in Sapa if we actually got them by Saturday. After the mess and tricks so far I was convinced we'd get them a week later!

 

The soft sleeper train was a step-up from the Thai sleeper trains with actual cabins shared between four and even a bedside lamp - very homely! It was still lights-out rediculously early though - all of 9pm!