Our first stop to day was the Mausoleum of
"Uncle Ho" is the godfather of Vietnam and they hold him in the highest regard. Consequently viewing his dead body and paying your respects is very serious business.
First all your belongings get checked. You have to leave your bags but cameras are OK (even though photography is forbidden). Then you move further up the line and you are checked again. You have to leave your cameras and camcorders!! When you come out of the Mausoleum your cameras are waiting for you. Nice touch. Your bags however are still 2km back at the entrance where you first started. Communism at work.
There were hundreds of kindergarten children lined up with us waiting with anticipation to see the dead body of a 79 year old man that died 52 years ago. Nightmares anyone!!
Actually it wasn't really scary at all. It could have been a wax dummy for all we know.
During the war one of the American pilots parked his B52 in Huu Tep Lake. We took a stroll through the back streets to see it. Very strange. They have left the wreckage just sitting in the water rusting away as a reminder of the struggle against the American invaders. However there are no signs or plaques and it was bloody hard to find.
Actually it was bloody hard to leave as well. We got lost in all the little back alley ways where you could touch both walls with outstretched hands. We finally got out of there after half an hour merely by following where all the motorbikes were going.
In the end we just followed these two old girls. They looked like they were heading to the nearest tourist trap.
In Hanoi there is a famous prison which the Americans coined the "Hilton Hanoi". Actually the French built it and called it "Maison Centrale". The Viet Cong locked all of the downed pilots there. Presidential candidate John McLean was shot down over Hanoi and ended up being imprisoned there until the end of the war.
Unfortunately most of the prison has been carelessly knocked down to make way for a big development for "foreigners and overseas investors". Oh by the way - our apartment building is part of the big development. All you need to do is look up and you can see it. Nice to know hundreds of people have been tortured and killed on the site as we try to sleep tonight.
The guillotine that the French used to keep the Vietnamese in line is still there. There are some great photographs of heads in baskets. The "Vietglish" (bad english) sign out the front says "no frolicking in the prison". Bummer! But Tia did make some new friends in one of the cells.
We called it a day after that. Jordan is still suffering from a sore ear but it is getting better.
Off to a good start. Found an absolute winner of a restaurant tonight courtesy of Trip Advisor, The Quan An Ngon Restaurant and it is only a stone's throw away from the apartment.
