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tnamese sitting on the stools.



Pho is the dish Vietnam is best known for — a steamy broth of beef or chicken with noodles, greens, star anise and spices. It's served up everywhere, and everyone has their own spice secret. Order a bowl from a sidewalk vendor, squat on a plastic stool a foot or so from the traffic, savor the broth and watch the crush of people go by. You can also sop up good soup in quieter, though less interesting settings in the indoor comforts of the chain restaurant Pho 24.



Vietnam is one of the world's top coffee exporters, and it's known for bitter, super-strong coffee, lightened with condensed milk. You may also see ads for ca phe chon, the coffee famously brewed from beans that have been digested — in one end, then out the other — by weasel-like animals known as civets. Real civet coffee is extremely expensive — $100 a cup — so beware of imitations, which are extremely common, particularly in areas frequented by tourists. Hanoi's noise doesn't yet rival that of its larger southern counterpart, Ho Chi Minh City, but it still can take some getting used to. If the incessant beeping of motorbikes and cars pushing through the streets aren't enough, there are the exhortations blaring from the pole-mounted loudspeakers, courtesy of the Communist Party, which remind listeners to keep the streets free of trash, not to mention the eternal supremacy of the Party.



The blare of slogans like the "Vietnamese Communist Party Will Live Forever!" may inspire you to learn more about Ho Chi Minh, the revered revolutionary leader who died in 1969 but who lives on through ubiquitous admonitions like "Live, Fight, Work, Study." A massive museum west of the Old Quarter features Ho's biography in a series of displays that are Cold War-archaic and mildly informative. Despite sometimes bizarre exhibits (one display compares the cave where Ho hid during World War II to a human brain), the respect and admiration the Vietnamese people express toward Ho is genuine. Just a block away is another structure you could easily find in Moscow's Red Square: Uncle Ho's mausoleum, where his body is embalmed for public veneration. Like his comrade Lenin, Ho had no interest in being turned into museum display, but party leaders spurned his request. For older Vietnamese, the mausoleum is a site for honoring Ho, and visitors are expected to behave respectfully, as if visiting a funeral parlor.



If the Old Quarter din gets overwhelming, stroll down to the edge of the quarter until you see Hoan Kiem, the Lake of the Restored or Returned Sword, and marvel at the smallish 19th-century pagoda called Thap Rua (Turtle Tower), which appears to float on the water when illuminated at dusk. Mind you, the crowds will be thicker at the lake's north end, walking over the Sunbeam Bridge (The Huc), a red pedestrian bridge that leads to an island where the ornate Jade Mountain Temple (Den Ngoc Son) stands. Just across the street from The Huc is the epicenter for another of Vietnam's most authentic art forms: water puppetry. Accompanied by live music performed on traditional instruments, the puppeteers at the Thang Long Water Puppet Theater stand in the water, behind a bamboo curtain, using poles to move wooden dragons, farmers, long boats, kings and other figures through the water. During some festivals, the dragons will breathe smoke and fireworks, as well.



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