Hanoi Monday 2nd April

After a leisurely breakfast we organised our plans for the day. Bob was going to find a bank and look for shorts while the girls and I set off for the Women's Museaum. As you can imagine this was not high on Bob's "to do" list. It was within walking distance and around the central Lake so with only a short detour for some shopping we had a very pleasant stroll.  The Museum was spead over five floors and covered Marriage rituals, Fashions, Earning income, Family Llfe, and Religion. We skipped the floor that covered participation in the War especially because I had seen quite a bit of this in Saigon. Due to the number of distinct ethnic groups within Vietnam each display showed a variety of differing cultural practices. I was struck by the information that groups in the North and South of Vienam are partilineal whereas in the Central region the tradition is matrilineal thereby reversing all the betrothal and marriage rituals.
We met Bob for lunch and all had our usual after lunch recovery time. It is still warm and humid this far north and we are having to be careful to drink plenty of water. Each evening cools down with a breeze though and it is very pleasant when we go out at about 4-00pm. It looks as if the weather will be cooler when we arrive in SaPa tomorrow morning.
 Our afternoon excursion was to the Botanic Gardens and Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum. The latter really only rated becasue it was just down the road from the gardens. These were not particularly spectacular but a pleasant stroll and we did see some eels in the water, which were intriguing till we worked out what they were. We arrived at the Mausoleum in time to see the Changing of the Guard which was remarkably low key.  From there it was a taxi ride back for dinner. I had researched the restaurant options carefully because the previous evening we had discovered that many of the restaurants around here have low tables and small stools which the girls long legs and our creaky joints just can't manage. It was a worthwhile venture and we had a very delicious meal. We had taken pot luck at lunchtime at a nearby  cafe which flaunted a "Recommended by Trip Trip Adviser" banner and had an interesting soup cooked at our table which Ingrid had picked. We cheated by cooking the chicken longer than the recommended two minutes.  All in all a nice relaxed day.