After chilling all day yesterday (and eating ethnic food from Northern Vietnam), we set off this morning for a war memorial near the West Lake that commemmorates the shooting down of John McCain. I had tried to get up early for a jog, and I did head out about 7:30, but it was not fun at all! Thinking I would beat the sun and join the other joggers around Hoan Kiem Lake, I set off optimistically only to realize 30 seconds after leaving the hotel that I was lost. We're staying in Hanoi's Old Quarter, an area also known as the 36 streets, because each street is a warren of twists and turns that grew up around various trades that were practiced on separate streets. The area has a lot of potential charm, but as it is the center of the backpacking industry in the city one is constantly accosted by moto drivers, cyclo drivers, people selling Vietnamese hats, Vietnamese fruit sellers wishing to be paid for allowing a picture, and on and on. It's a bit annoying, in other words. But, provided with sunglasses and my Shuffle, I thought I would be fine for a half-hour jog. Of course, I didn't bring a map nor did I remember the street address of our hotel. Nor had I beat the sun's heat, by any stretch of the imagination. Ten minutes before I was done, I did finally find the lake, and amused myself by passing a bunch of Vietnamese guys out jogging (just to show off) two minutes before I stopped. Through mostly sheer luck I ended up right back at the hotel, sweaty and dripping. Breakfast at this hotel is quite nice, though--there's fresh limeade (which is ubiquitous here) and Vietnamese coffee (made with that oh-so-unhealthy sweetened condensed milk).

Fortified, we set out for the above-mentioned McCain memorial after booking a trip to Halong Bay for tomorrow. We'll be swimming and kayaking amidst limestone formations on the coast--maybe it won't be as hot, at least we'll be able to cool off swimming, and we'll spend one night on a boat--should be nice, especially as we found a tour for half the price we originally thought it would cost. We also got two of the silk sleeping bags I have long coveted. They're up to $65 each in the US, so I couldn't bring myself to bargain vociferously when we were quoted a price of $6 each--we just got a dollar knocked off each of them. They're just raw silk sewn into a sleeping bag shape, but they're great for heat or as a sleeping bag liner to extend the temperature range downward.

Of course, by the time we hit the West Lake, I was exhausted, hungry, dehydrated, and hungry. Did I mention hungry? (B less so--he's been having some "digestive issues".) We tried to find an Indian restaurant described as excellent value in the book, but after a good half hour or more (why does this ALWAYS happen when we pick a restaurant that seems close, convenient, and cheap?!), we just gave up, looked in the other book, and found that a lovely restaurant described as one of the most pleasant dining experiences in Hanoi was only five minutes walk away. Determined not to worry about prices and just enjoy ourselves, we ordered spring rolls (vegetarian and seafood), steamed fish served with apricots, chilis, pineapple, and absolutely amazing, delicious eggplant in caramel sauce, various fresh juices, sparkling water, Vietnamese coffee, rice dessert, creme caramel, and more. The total (in a SERIOUSLY nice restaurant) came to all of $27 including the 10% service charge. I don't know if we could have eaten more, but we're going back on Thursday when our friend arrives from Thailand!

Afterwards we wandered past the Presidential Palace (a stunning colonial mansion), the Ho Chi Minh memorial--modelled on Lenin's, it is very stylish, but against Ho's own wishes (again, as with Lenin). Ho wished to have his ashes scattered on anonymous mountains in the north, middle, and south of the country. In contrast, you just know that Mao would have LOVED to know that he would be embalmed and admired! The area around the mausoleum is very pleasant (or at least it would be in less humid/hot weather)--wide avenues, leafy trees, sidewalks that are pretty easy to walk on, etc.

What's that about sidewalks? Well, as B has described, the traffic here is pretty abysmal. So it might seem like a natural solution to walk on the sidewalk. But just as in Beijing, the sidewalks are not primarily for walking. They are for parking motos, occasionally riding motos, playing checkers, operating informal (and perhaps illegal, but delicious!) restaurants, threading paper flowers onto funeral wreaths, roasting live squid over an open fire, selling coconuts with straws and sugar cane juice, repairing bicycles, and any one of the million other quasi-businesses that keep a growing, but underdeveloped, economy humming. Delightful though all this sidewalk activity is, it does make it nearly impossible to walk on the sidewalks, but since the streets are already filled with motos, cyclos, bicycles, cars, army trucks, SUVs, carts, and who knows what, there's little room left for people. No wonder 12,400 people were killed in traffic here last year.

In other disturbing news, we're flying Mahan Air from Bangkok to Teheran to Dusseldorf in August when we finish this trip. Except we just learned (off our wonderful satellite television) that the UK has suspended Mahan's license in part because some aircraft ... lack collision avoidance systems?!?! Is that why the tickets were so cheap?