I woke up early again and I went out and got some more rice vermicelli, had a shower and got dressed. Then I sat downstairs in the semi darkness filling in the visa form again so it had no mistakes. I went through the list of things I needed and I was missing proof that I had money to pay for the trip so I logged on to my bank and got a screenshot and then went to print it where I overpaid thios time as they had been a lifeline. I had planned to get to the embassy before they opened at 8.30 but by the time I got there it was 9. Still there was no queue and I submitted everything in less than 30 minutes so I still had most of the day. I went back to the hostel and booked another night there and decided to go to the national museum. It was drizzling again and I went around the main tourist lake with the tower in the middle. I got to the national museum at 10.30 and got a ticket which included both museums for 40k. I thought I had an hour until they closed so I rushed around and they had some older history as well as a special exhibition where some treasures of the Country were here for a change. I finished and then found that they closed at 12 and not 11.30. Still I had seen everything inside so I looked around the grounds a bit then walked along the east side of the lake and went to the temple there for 30k. It was very small and a waste of money, I should have done some tripadvisor checking or at least looked at my list of things to do in Hanoi. It was still too early for the other museum so I walked across town to the temple of Literature which was also 30k but a lot bigger. I bought an information guide for 8k and then found all the information in it was on the boards around the place. This was the first learning institution in Vietnam established around 1,000 years ago in the Confucian way. I left and walked to the fine arts museum which was 40k and the military museum also 40k but didn't go in either. I walked to the one Pillar Pagoda and got a few photos there, the Ho Chi Minh museum nearby was enormous so I'm not sure what they put in there but not his house which was nearby but when I tried to get there they wouldn't let me go that way as it was one way only. I tried to see the mausoleum which is supposed to be free but it was shut. I had a list of places nearby to see and made a route starting with the B52 musrum but it was inaccessible from the road I walked on so I skipped it and I tried to walk to a temple but there were lots of dead ends so I ended up walking all the way round before I got there and it had trees in the middle and kids learning. Next I went to the lake which had the remains of a shot down B52 plane. Then I walked around getting stuck in another dead end before I got to a temple which was surrounded by a moat. All of these dead ends and lack of signage was annoying, Hanoi really should do more for tourism. The gate to the botanical gardens was shut although I saw someone climb over the fence I walked round and it was only 2k fee at the entrance. They had a couple of lakes and some statues but not much else it was more like a park and I thought I might get through to Ho Chi Minhs house but although there was no route, I did at least find an eastern exit so I didn't have to go back out the same way. I walked down a path that also didn't get to where I wanted and then there was a gate with security that wouldn't let me through. I'd been told to enter from the north side but there ws no entrance point and I found it at the east side not far from where I had started. It was 40k entry but it was 3pm and I wanted to see the other museum I'd already paid for so I walked back across town to the national revolution museum (more recent history). I got there a bit late at 3.45 but it was open until 5pm anyway. It had a strange route and I think its probably fairly easy to just walk in without paying. This museum was not as good as the other and had lots of exhibits and photos but no story linking them. It was like trying to solve a puzzle to find out what the history was. There was a special exhibition however about Doi Moi, the reform policies they had implemented from 1986 to make the Country more capitalist and productive that had led to them trading with the rest of the world. I left and walked across town and got a sim card for 85k, it was with Vinaphone and was 1.5gb which is ok. I went to the citadel which was closed as it was after 5.30 and I got to a Cathedral I'd forgotten was in the city, it was also closed as was a temple nearby. I wandered around a lake there and there was a nice looking temple on a small island which was also closed. I went all around the lake and there were a lot of people in the streets trying to get people into their restaurant or something I wasn't sure but I headed back towards the hostel and stopped in a Vinmart where I got a 200g packet of ham to get some protein, it was 40k, so similar price to back home. At the hostel I chatted to Dave and Kell and we played a game of chess and then Ludo whcih I ended up winning. I didn't feel like drinking and I rented a motorbike from the hostel for the next day so I could go south to Trang An and the perfume pagoda, I'd left it a bit late and it was more expensive than I expected at 150k. I read a bit and went to sleep.
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