Vietnam

The next day we visited the Hanoi animal park/zoo. The Lonely Planet guide describes the zoo as no San Diego Zoo, but better than most in Southeast Asia. It wasn't too bad. They had birds and monkeys and tigers etc. in small cages. The highlight for the boys, though, was the amusement park rides. They had a great time. I am sure the rides wouldn't pass inspection in the states, but we kept it simple, stuck to the low to the ground ones and the kids enjoyed it.

One evening we went to the water puppet show which is well known there. It was really neat. People control the puppets from behind a curtain of sorts. The whole thing is done in water and we read that the puppeteers all suffer from skin diseases from being in the water so much.

We saw many children during our time in the city, but we only saw 1 stroller the whole time! Everyone carries their children. They have a 2 child policy there. We saw families of 5 sometimes, though. Often on motorcycles! 5 people all on one bike! You can see pictures of this a the link below. There are thousands of motorcycles in the streets and many fewer cars. Driving is treachorous. Sometimes we found ourselves in a taxi, driving against traffic with hundreds of motorcycles coming at us!