Arrive back at The Amazing Hotel at 4.30 am and they kindly allow us to use another room to have a shower while waitng for our own room to be vacated.
Suitably rested, we walk to Ho Chi Minh' s Mausoleum, only to find that it is cloed in the afternoon ( thank you Footprints Guide for the inaccurate information ). Visit instead HCM's house and Museum and keep a promise to Craig to take some photos of a B52 Bomber shot down in the Ngoc Ha Village suburb.
Walk back to hotel via alleys and laneways teeming with the incredible industrious Vietnamese going about their business. ( No weekends or penalty labour rates here! )
As a special treat we have booked dinner at reputedly Hanoi's finest hotel, the neoclassical Sofitel Metropole. Their Le Beaulieu restaurant offers fine dining at its very best and is a far cry from the $3 and $4 meals which have been our main fare during the trip.
The meal, wine and the experience are all that we could have asked for and we round off the evening with a visit to the famous Water Puppet Theatre near to the Hoan Kiem Lake.
Back to the hotel in good time to pack our bags for the departure the next day.
Leaving Hanoi with very fond memories of this attractive city. Whilst lacking the frenetic activity of Ho Chi Minh City it is in our view a more stylish city which has kept much of its character and elegance from the French colonial era.
The Obese Ferret.
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