Hanoi Highlights: Part 1

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum 'make-over'. I would like to point out, that 'Uncle Ho's' wish was to be cremated and his ashes be scattered across the north and south of Vietnam, he was a communist of the 'nice' kind, instead he has been embalmed and placed in a HUGE building in Hanoi and those who 'organise' the tourists are dictators in waiting...

Post visit, wearing my unsuitable outfit, the floral playsuit form Ewha Women's university a few weeks ago.

Ho Chi Minh's presiential palace, not very communist

Ho Chi Minh's house on stilts, far more fitting

Really good seafood curry, with shedloads of lemongrass

The Temple of Literature

Confucious in the Temple of Literature

History Museum, wearing dress bought in Hanoi.

Entrance to Nola's cafe at 89 Ma May, Hanoi.

Hanoi rolls in Nola's, possibly the best meal of the trip.

Section of a huge mural, somewhere near the French Quarter...

I loved these 'mongolian style' scarves, but they were rather dusty

Vietnam

I've been awol. I'm sorry, I hope I'm making up for it with the recent mass upload, it doesn't help that in the past few hours i have somehow lost around 50% of the posts i've written! The reason for my tardiness, is that it is currently 'summer vacation time' in Korea, so instead of being able to laze around like most teachers across the globe, I have been doing the same amount of teaching in half the time, as well as cramming my weekends. I am totally exhausted. I also dissapeared last week on the much anticipated and long day 6 day holiday to Hanoi & Ha Long Bay. I shall now present you with the 'Highlights in 3 parts'.

Going Native Part 3: Buddhism

A few months back I took part in a weekend based Buddhist Templestay at Geumsansa temple. It was amazing.

Morning mist, we woke up at 330 to meditate

The communal room where we slept

We took an early morning walk to another temple.

We made Buddhist prayer beads, everytime you add a bead, you bow, there are 108 beads.

We made lanterns, surely by now I should be a lantern professional?

Geumsansa, Gold Mountain Buddhist Monastery.

Noryangjin Fish Market

I love fish, so I went to a fishmarket with fellow fish lover Jen, it was like a little piece of heaven in Seoul, we took photos of tentacles and ate raw fish. It was brilliant.