'No more Good Morning, Vietnam's'

Vietnam Museum of Ethnology
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30th Nov

Drop off my stuff and straight back into the hectic rush of Hanoi, on the back of a bike for 30min of lung cancer to the Vietnam museum of Ethnology.  This is after a lady selling me stamps tried to shortchange me, and the driver had no idea where we were going, and had to stop half way to ask another taxi driver for directions... Having not known how far he needed to go, he had agreed at first to a low price, but i held firm on arrival amidst some angry mumbling.  Man, im just a walking dollar sign here.

'my tour of SE asia coming to a regrettable end...'

where does the cyclists go?
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The museum was really well designed and imaginatively put together with both interior and open air displays.  The written, visual and video displays took us through the composite populations of Vietnam, their ethnology, with full size reconstructions of typical family homes, wedding/funeral scenes and fabric machines.  Shame it took so long to get here and thus couldn't finish reading the displays as i was chucked out dead on half 5 at which time it was too dark to enjoy the full scale villages in the open air sections!

Steaming bowl of Pho...yum
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Another hair raising bike ride in which we had 3 minor clashes with other moto-drivers, i had to get some money changed as i was running out and departure tax itself was $14!! Whilst strolling, i bump into Eelco and his lady and we agreed on a expensive looking vegetarian restaurant for an appropriately expensive but delicious meal.  Being only recently acquainted, i was taken aback by the generosity of this couple as they refused to let me pay my way!; it is perhaps ironic that the most generous people to me in Vietnam weren't Vietnamese.