Happy Christmas 2010

So here it is then! We've all made it to another Christmas, though none of this brood have ever been this far away from home at this time of year. This evening on this Christmas eve, the staff of the Hong Ngoc hotel are laying on a party for all guests, food and drink aplenty promised, kicking off at 7pm. Be rude not to have a bit of that really, so we'll end up at that when we return from a water puppet show we've booked, being held somewhere near Sword lake. Then we can crawl off up to bed when we like.

Today started with hotel buffet breakfast, Oskar had two bowls of coco pops for mains and cake and chips "for desert".

We walked some of this off passing girls selling balloons, students trying to sell us toothpicks...one guy, a walking shoe repair kit, was knelt squeezing glue along the sole of my apparently damaged sandal before he'd even introduced himself! I made it more than clear I wasn't up for anything he had on offer but then he pulled a rag out,quickly daubing black polish onto it and proceeded to give my left one a good buffing. He finally got the message and left with his cloth between his legs.

Our second attempt at visiting the Revolution museum almost failed when we turned up twenty minutes before it closed it's doors for lunch. We were allowed free entry but had to run round and enjoy an abbreviated tour, taking in a guillotine put into place by the French in the late forties. This removed the head of many a Vietnamese revolutionary. Many of the photographs taken at various troubled times throughout The Franco-Viet Min war when the Vietnamese were led by Ho Chi Min, are nothing short of disturbing, more than illustrating some of the diabolical behaviour of the French soldiers. Happy days.

Ok, time up. You've had your twenty minutes, now be gone! Go visit that green, murky lake where them turtles are supposed to hang out. Go. Now!!
Walking back and Liz was in need of a huge, Christmas eve wee wee, so we stopped at some public conveniences where hanging, were seven or eight bird cages.
"Oh not again," I thought to myself, but these birds were fine. All very well looked after by the toilet lady who would shout "Oi" to anyone who attempted to wee for free, a strawberry in each and every cage.
We crossed a bridge and found the remains of the giant turtle found in the lake many years ago. Preserved in a glass box, it really was as big as they say.
Hanoi air is filled with Christmas songs, Wham's "last Christmas" and all the familiar stuff from the past, so it was nice to lunch in an English run bar that played The Smiths, Bowie and The Specials.
Right, The Man on reception let the kids borrow his iPhone which he downloaded the new Harry Potter movie onto for them, so now that they look done with it, cracking up to a Mister Bean Christmas special on tv, I'd best return it. It's Christmas! Here we go then! Over and out.

Location:Hanoi