Hanoi

    In Hanoi, I had to work with a tour group, no personal tours here, they were just too expensive.  So I decided that I would walk the streets of Hanoi and see all the major city highlights such as Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum and House on Stilts.  I also toured the Old Quarter which is essentially the merchants' district of town.  It still has most of the old buildings from the French Colonial time standing.  I even got to see what is left of the famed "Hanoi Hilton" where US pilots shot down over North Vietnam were taken when they were captured. 

    Then I took two group tours.  The first tour was to Halong Bay, which is on the Gulf of Tonkin.  What makes Halong Bay unique are the craggy rock formations jutting hundreds of feet into the air throughout the bay.  There are also a series of caves you can explore.  The second tour was to the Perfumed Pagoda.  This was essentially a boat trip, followed by a walk up and down some mountains to an ancient pagoda built into the rocks themselves.  That area is also littered with other pagodas, with about seven or eight of them within a 10 mile radius.  Each one has its own history and reason for founding.

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