Hanoi Scenes, 3

More just walking around...

"It's like what Lenin said, you look for the person who will
benefit, and, uh, uh..." "I am the walrus"..."You know what
I'm trying to say"..."That f***ing bitch!"...I am the walrus"
..."Shut the f*** up, Donny! V. I. Lenin. Vladimir Illanich
Uleninov!"

Uncle Ho wants you

Hanoi Citadel

Out in the government center, wide French boulevards, tree-lined; a bit of traffic

Really nice house; maybe embassies

Foggy Bottom/Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh mausoleum; we demurred

The parliament; or politburo?

Now in the Quan Than temple, near the West Lake

Taoist; very Chinese

Truc Bach Lake, in Central Hanoi, from which was rescued the late US Senator
John McCain, a Navy flier and a very great American hero; his story is inspiring:
when his father became CinC of the Pacific Fleet, the communists offered to free him,
hoping to show the elitist nature of the US; McCain refused unless all the prisoners
be released; he was thrown into solitary for the next two years, and not released until
the war's end

On down the road, a durian and only durian shop

We think this is Vietnamese for "Please wash me!"

On the wedding cake street; a very different concept of wedding cakes

The Chateau D'Eau Hang Dau, 1894; not Art Nouveau

Another war memorial, 1946

Inside a huge market, mostly textile and souvenirs