Hanoi is over 1000 years old, has 6 million people, and 5 million motorbikes. Crossing the streets is very scary but the trick is to never stop moving!!
We visited the Hoa Lo Prison first thing. This is known by Americans as the Hanoi Hilton where over 500 POWs were imprisioned during the Vietnam War from 1964-1973. Most of the tour was focused on the Inprisonment of Vietnamese dissidents by the French in the 15 some years up to 1954.
The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum is surrounded by a huge open square. We learned about his life as the father of communism in Vietnam.
The Confucian Temple is known as the Temple of Literature because it was used as a university from the time it was built in 1070 to 1802. The turtle is used a lot in he temple to represent long life. One exhibit shows the turtle carrying large stone tablets with graduated scholars names on them. Inside the temple is Confucious and his four disciples.
The most fun thing we did was to ride in a 'rickshaw' through the old town markets and in rush hour traffic with hundreds of scooters buzzing around us! This was followed by an interesting water puppet show. The puppeteers stood in thigh high water, hidden by bamboo screens and manipulated the figures that are attached on the end of long poles so that the people, dragons, turtles or boats 'swam' in the water.
This has not been a good day for me. I fell out of bed in the middle of the night and wrenched my back. So I took ibuprofen all day! Then I dropped my phone and shattered the glass front! With help from the concierge we found an Apple repair store and got it fixed in between tours. We also had to get a new data card for the camera since we have taken way too many pictures!
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