On The Road To Ha Long

Vicki had booked us into a three-day cruise on Bai Tu Long Bay, followed by a couple days' light trekking in Sapa, up in the mountains. Travel to and from both places was to be by a "luxury" van, seating 9 in a pinch, but normally 6 or fewer. So on February 20th, we stowed some of our gear at the O'Gallery and then rode, in luxury, to Ha Long, the port from which the Halong Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay cruises depart. The road to Ha Long was memorable, for the luxury, the scenery (rice paddies), the company (especially a nice couple from Durham (England)), and the stops...one at an interesting bus-stop/shopping mega-center, the other for lunch and the long-awaited water puppet show. The latter will require its own separate post. Of course.

Interior of one of the four luxury vans we used; the ceiling
lights of course changed colors, from yellow, to green, to
pink, to blue, etc. We turned the TV off before any other
passengers loaded

After the hour it took us to get out of Hanoi, the scenery turned to rice paddies,
some with towns

Some with cemeteries

Towns

Interesting monuments and architecture

Traffic

And more rice paddies

At length, we turned into this unpromising-looking place, evidently a plant for
the fabrication of sculpture and lawn ornaments and such; our first rest-stop

Carrara?

Not the old-fashioned way

All kinds of cool Asian lawn and shrine ornaments

If too big for your suitcase, easily shipped back home

Satisfied customers

But wait! There's more! Under one football field sized roof, practically every
kind of product you can buy in Vietnam: clothing, hats, shoes, jewelry, food,
souvenirs, booze (including a cafe and full bar), art, candy, you name it

You can even buy pickled cobra  (tastes like pickled chicken
I was told)

An amazing, not to be missed place; after 30 minutes' restful shopping, we were
back on our way

Fortunately, luxury vans don't stop at places like this

Hanoi Out-Takes

We get our news over the internet and rarely turn on the TV, even when there
are CNN or BBC options; Vicki was running through the local channels one
night and happened upon this cooking show and seeming vegematic demo

Typical t-shirts

I prefer chicken or pork but concede there is no disputing
matters of taste

Vicki has become adept at spotting
influencers...

Today's wedding pix

She's looking at her phone, of course

You can't win if you don't play

If only it were blue

City park rules

Never saw a squirrel in Hanoi

They don't wear black pajamas anymore

Swirling ad holders; should have made a video of all four going at once

Police truck

Trees always win

Outside a government building: I interpreted this to mean "don't use old-fashioned
cameras"; Vicki said good luck explaining that to the police

In the two+ weeks we've been here, Vietnam has had 16
confirmed cases, all now recovered; they were the first to
close off flights and borders from China

The greening of Hanoi: first building

Hoa Lo Prison, AKA Hanoi Hilton

Not all the sights we visit are of the uplifting sort: Auschwitz, the Dokumentation Center, etc. Hoa Lo Prison, aka as the "Hanoi Hilton," is another such place, with unpleasant and disturbing memories for two nations. Humanity at its worst, but also perhaps its best.

It began in the late 19th century as a French prison, said to
be the largest in Indochina

Having destroyed a culturally significant village and its
monuments (click to enlarge)

As it was

Much of Hoa Lo was razed after the war, to make way for
the Hanoi Tower and other new structures

What remains is now a museum; note the broken glass still surmounting the
walls

 

Essentially there are two sections of the museum: political prisoners during the
French colonial regime, exceptionally brutal and repressive, from all we have seen,
here and in Laos; and the American POW section

A life-sized sculpture/diorama of the political prisoner section, late 1940s perhaps

Solitary

The almond tree

In the women's section

Women and their children, of course

The guillotine, in use until the French withdrew in 1954

Now in the American POW section, first, a bit of "history"

World condemnation of the Vietnam War (or, the American War, as they call it)

American condemnation too

Peace monument

The US' first ambassador to Vietnam was Douglas Peterson, an alumnus of Hoa Lo

Effects of US POWs

Photos of the happy times US POWs had at Hoa Lo--all very much disputed
by accounts of privation, torture, abuse, and disregard of Geneva Conventions

John McCain; being rescued; being treated by Vietnamese
medical personnel

A place of great pain and dispute...still