April 8, 2015

We have now left China and are currently in Hanoi, Vietnam. Getting here was uneventful which is always good! The flight from Hong Kong was very nice. The airlines are much different than in the US…on a 2 hour flight, we got a full lunch service! Once we landed, got through customs, and made it to our hostel, we pretty much just stayed in for the evening…we were pretty tired.

After a good night’s sleep, we started the day running over to the Egyptian embassy to apply for our Visas to travel there in June. Since we left last month, the Egyptian Visa regulations have changed and now we need to have them prior to entering the country instead of just getting them in the airport. Luckily, we are able to get them directly from the embassy here in Hanoi.

From the embassy, we took a short taxi ride to the Ho Chi Min mausoleum and Palace grounds where he lived while in and out of office. The mausoleum was a very cool place; you walked through and there was an actual (wax, I think) likeness of Ho Chi Min in a coffin. It was very quiet and somber. There were quite a few school groups there and I think it was the biggest line that we3 have encountered in Vietnam! After going through the mausoleum, we went through his living area, which was really neat. He had a few different houses that you could look into. We also saw his cars and walked through the gardens; it was a beautiful area.

One Pillar Pagoda

From there, we went to the Temple of Literature. It was a quick walk through the park, but interesting to read the history. Students used to be tested after completing their testing, if they were successful, they had their names etched into a stone with all of the successful testers for the year. (Kind of like the first yearbook!)

Temple of Literature

That afternoon, we went to the Hoa Lo Prison (Hanoi Hilton). It was certainly eye opening!! It was certainly not a place that I would even want to be kept involuntarily. We saw the remaining cells, the women’s prison, solitary confinement and death row.

Hoa Lo Prison

Hoa Lo Prison

Hoa Lo Prison

Hoa Lo Prison Main Cell

Hoa Lo Prison Women’s Cell

Hoa Lo Prison Solitary Confinement

Hoa Lo Prison Death Row

Hoa Lo Prison Death Row

There was also a section on the American pilots kept during the Vietnam conflict. Wow…talk about seeing information from a different side!! They had a bunch of pictures showing the prisoners playing basketball, eating Christmas dinner, having a BBQ, and made it look like it was a resort. There was even a section in the short video that told how the Americans enjoyed their stay and that they were glad to be captured in Vietnam instead of another country and how they now saw how Vietnam was in the right and that the US was totally wrong to invade. Regardless of everyone’s personal political views, it was certainly set up to make it seem like we were pretty terrible. It’s strange to read the placards referring to the US as the “American Aggressors”, etc.

Hoa Lo Prison…American’s Clothing

Hoa Lo Prison…John McCain’s Flight Suit

Hoa Lo Prison… Pictures of American Pilots

The last section of the prison contained some pieces of sewage pipes where some of the Vietnamese prisoners escaped early in the century when Vietnam was controlled by the French. It was crazy how tiny the pipes were and how they managed to fit…goes to show how insanely skinny the prisoners were to have been able to get out that way.

Hoa Lo Prison Tunnel Escape

Hoa Lo Prison Tunnel Escape

After a very serious afternoon of history, we went to the Water Puppet Theater for a show in the evening. It consisted of wooden puppets that are used to act out a play on a pool of water and are controlled from behind the stage by the puppeteers. Musicians play along with the show…it was very cool. Hayden enjoyed it very much. After the show, we had a great dinner on the roof level of a restaurant near our hostel with a great view of the lake in the center of town.

Water Puppet Theater

Dinner View

For the next two days, we will be going out on a cruise in Ha Long Bay. We have heard great things about it, and are looking forward to seeing the Bay for ourselves!