March 26 Hanoi

Up very early for another adventure, 4:30am.  It's a three hour drive plus comfort stop ("happy room") from Halong Bay to Hanoi, and we had to go both ways today.   We had dined, checked out, tendered and were seated in the six-passenger van by 6:15am.

This is the last sight a fish would have before being trapped in this great net

 Rice farming is very labor intensive.  We saw lots of people in the fields tending their crops.

 It's also stoop labor.

 Temple of Literature

In the Confucian temple.  Note that among the offerings to Confucius is a box of ChocoPies.  There were several boxes on every alter in this temple.  For the record, based on the box art they are Moon Pies.  I didn't take one from Confucius to taste.

 In the large courtyard of the temple, some middle schoolers were taking surveys.  They were really there to practice their English with native speakers.

 Mother and child explore the mysteries of something

 There was a class celebrating their graduation at the temple.

 The infamous "Hanoi Hilton" was originally built as a French prison to house Vietnamese political dissidents.  According to the pictures and stories posted in the rooms, the French treated their prisoners horribly.  The American POWs held there, however, were treated like hotel guests.  Pictures showed them playing basketball and volleyball, eating a large Christmas meal, smiling and joking with their guards.  I think James Stockdale, John McCain and many others would differ with that depiction.

 Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

 Complete with all of the military pomp and formality

 A flowering tree, the "fighting cock's feet" according to our guide

 Pagoda on a pole

 The Old Quarter of Hanoi.  Three million people in one square kilometer.

 Our guide's college colleague grew up in this building.  Seventeen families (all related as the newlyweds move in with the others) and more than 7o people on three floors.

 In the market this young girl was skinning a hog leg.  I think.

We begin the long drive back to Halong Bay.  Crossing the Red River we can see the infamous Paul Doumer bridge, also known as the Long Biên Bridge.  It was constantly attacked by US pilots during the war, and was just as resolutely defended and repaired.  Many people died attacking and defending this bridge.

 Individual vegetable plots

 Only one and a quarter hours late, we tender back to the ship