Okay, this page has nothing to do with Sapa.

At the end of our Sapa trip, we spent a day in Hanoi.

We visited the tomb of Ho Chi Minh, but it's closed on Mondays.

Honor guard at the tomb.

More honor guard.  They carry pistols.

The Museum of Ho Chi Minh.

We arrived too early, had to wait.

Once we got inside, photos were verboten.

It was actually a fun museum, and had some cool artwork.

Besides a lot of propaganda, the biggest thing I learned was that at least half of the streets in our town are named after 20th century war heroes.

Hanoi is decidedly more communist than Saigon.

In some ways, the north and the south feel like two separate countries.

Sarah, with Vladmir Ilyitch Lenin.

Cua O Quan Chuong

This is the Eastern Gate of the original city walls.

Since living here, we have stopped caring about cars, at least in terms of which makes and models are cool, or new, or whatever.  Any more, cars are just inelegant, awkward fat blobs that clog up the roadways.

At the north end of Hoan Kiem lake, they set up a circus-act show.

Made for some interesting traffic patterns.

Looking west across Hoan Kiem lake.