Hanoi

So the end of January Eric and I and 4 of our good friends all went to Vietnam and Cambodia for 10 days. I have to admit I would have never thought of visiting Vietnam--it wasn't too high on my bucket list, but when we started talking to people to see where their favorite place to visit was, Vietnam started popping up. My dad was the first one to tell us how much he enjoyed Vietnam (and he has traveled ALL over the world. So anyways, that is where we decided to go and it was amazing. We started up in Hanoi and slowly worked our way down south and then went to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat and spent 2 1/2 days there. We took TONS of pictures, so enjoy. It was really the most amazing trip and we had so much fun. Here is part 1 of our AMAZING Vietnam trip. This first post is about Hanoi, where we started out. We started our tour seeing Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. Ho Chi Minh is revered in their country and when he died, against his wishes, they embalmed his body and now he is on display for everyone to see. It was kind of weird to see him laying there. Also, every year they send his body to Russia for upkeep--crazy!! Don't worry, I already started building Eric's mausoleum so I can look at him everyday--j/k!!

We also went and saw a couple of different temples and pagodas. They were interesting, but I think less interesting than I thought--we see temples and shrines ALL the time here in Japan--so it was anything new. Their temples are a lot more colorful.

It was really interesting being in Vietnam when we were--their Tet holiday started 2 days after we left, so they were getting ready for it. Tet is their lunar New year celebration--biggest holiday of the year. We saw kumquat trees everywhere--during Tet it is customary to get a kumquat tree for your home (sort of like a christmas tree). Vietnam is interesting in that most people ride motorbikes--we saw all sorts of crazy things on the backs of motorbikes and 4 person families. The craziest things we saw were a live water buffalo, pigs and chickens (not all at the same time) on the back of a motorbike. Crossing the street was also interesting--it takes a lot of faith--cars don't stop--you just walk and they drive all around you--you can' t hesitate at all--it was crazy. We just had the most amazing time--I loved seeing Vietnam and would go back in a heartbeat!!