Thursday Night - Feb 18 - Train from Hanoi to Hue (12 hours)

The trip was definitely an adventure. The trains of Viet Nam can't compare to Thailand's trains. Since it was TET, each sleeper compartment had 6 bunks...Intrepid arranged it so we had only had 4 people per compartment....our apartment had Simon/Elizabeth/Jun and myself...see Jun climbing up to his bunk...I had the bottom bunk because of my frequent trips to the head... Our train car had a squat toilet with separate wash facilities...it was as clean as going on a boyscout camp out...but fun. See picture of a guy sleeping in an area between cars and people sitting in an area outside our sleeper compartments...there was limited room in the numerous coach since it was TET and millions of people were traveling...it was fun because we talked to some of them and shared some of our travel goodies.

The train rocked and rolled throughout the night...I believe I got about 5 hours of sleep. I would like to thank my loving daughter, Laura, for giving me as a Christmas present a sheet sleeping bag...kept something between my tender body and the bed covers...wheeew.

Departed Hanoi at 11 PM and arrived in Hue at 11:30 AM the next day...talk to you later. Pictures of the landscape as we traveled...notice the green rice fields....Viet Nam has extensive irrigation systems for their farmers...much different than Lao...also see a cemetery...

Thursday Late Afternoon - Feb 18 - Bach Ma Temple - Strange

For lunch, I go to KOTO which is a restaurant that teaches older teenagers how to be waiters/waitresses and cooks. Many of the major cities have restaurants and work facilities to assist the poor, handicap and disenfranchise...Intrepid Travel supports many of these facilities by steering their tour groups to their businesses.

I met Frances at the restaurant...she is the top member of our group who spends 90% of her time shopping. We head to the Bach Ma Temple across town. It is also known as the "The White Horse Temple" because a white horse showed one of the emperors where to build this particular Temple...no Buddha statues, a statute of Confucius is present plus beer, cookies, etc..no monks.

We leave the Bach Ma and find this other temple located in a small house..see pictures. Religious sites are identified by a multi-colored flag...see picture.

Back to hotel for shower, dinner, pack and get ready for our overnight train ride from Hanoi to Hue...the trip was an adventure. Other Hanoi photos included...a restaurant washing their plates and silverware, narrow houses similar to Baltimore row houses (narrow because people taxed on front footage)

Thursday Before Lunch - Feb 19 - Temple of Literature , etc...

Before lunch, I visit the "Temple of Literature" which is located near our hotel. The Buddhist faith in northern Viet Nam is Mayahana branch...the Buddha images are different, the monks practice different rituals, the altar arrangements display every day offerings like cookies, beer and other food stuffs. See the pictures...there are 1000s of people visiting the Temple and making incense offerings plus phony money which they buy from a vendor...it is different from Thailand and Lao.

Thursday- Feb 18 - Visit Hanoi Hilton Prison (Hoa Lo)

The noise is incessant in Hanoi...the 100s of thousands of motor scooters continuously beep their horn..same with every other vehicle. People are pouring into Hanoi to celebrate TET and the area around our hotel is noisy. I'm up at 5 AM and attend Catholic mass at St. Joseph's Cathedral..I didn't understand a word that was said except AMEN...

After breakfast I went to see the infamous prison, the Hanoi Hilton also known as the Hoa Lo prison where the French housed, tortured and put to death 1,00s of Vietnamese and also known by the French name "Maison Centrale". The French really did some atrocious practices to the Vietnamese.I got lost but finally found my way after an hour. The attached pictures show the prison with VN prisoners and pictures of US pilots including John McCain....based on my memory, the claims made in the pictures distort the facts.

Head back to the hotel for a quick break...see some street photos..

Wednesday - Feb 17 - The afternoon - Army Museum

I had lunch at the Fine Arts museum cafe and went to visit the "Army Museum". Again, I wanted to understand the VN better and gain an insight of who they are and why they are. Someone told me "we were able to dispatch the French and Americans in 80 years..we have been fighting the Chinese for over a 1000 years"...interesting. The Army Museum discusses and illustrates the evolution of wars in VN from a major victory against the Chinese in the 1200's to Dien Ben Phu (sic) to the American VN war.

The 1st picture depicts a famous VN general who lured the Chinese fleet into an area in which his troops had placed long pointed poles that were invisible at high tide. When the tide receded, the ships became immobile and the VN army was able to pound them with artillery and destroy them.

The next series of pictures depict the battle of Diem Bien Phu where the French Foreign Legion and Army were totally defeated...the Viet Min encircled the French defenses...tunneled underneath various critical positions...exploded a large amount of explosives and attacked the weaken position. As you watch the electric map,Viet Min in red and French in green, you see actual battle footage...very impressive.

Visited the Museum souvenir shop and found my jacket pins of VN, a red flag with a 5 pointed yellow star. I paid for them with $2 bills..see picture of happy recipients...they are considered lucky in VN

The American VN war displays mostly show war captured trophies and don't discuss tactical battles such as Tet, Danag, etc. Picture shows are boostful but not offensive. VN moved weapons on a bike.

Wednesday AM - Feb 17 - Hanoi - Ho Chi Minh

Our hotel is in a very noisy area being near the railroad station and with the Tet celebrators making plenty of noise. I get up at 6 AM and go for a walk by the lake and find St. Joseph's Cathedral. Find out that mass is at 5:30 AM and everyone is leaving church. Go back to the lake for some exercises....breakfast and off we go for a busy day.

The morning includes a visit to Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, his home during the VN war, a museum built in to reflect his life, the one-pillar pagoda and a lake which contained the remains of a B-52.

The mausoleum contains his preserved body and we pass in silence and with respect. The picture shows me standing in front of the mausoleum built from materials that came from all over VN. He lived a simple life and refused to live in any luxurious accommodations...his house is simple and located near his final resting place. The most interesting building that we visited was his museum...it reflects the development of his life from a revoluntionary to the leader of his people. You truly do get a sense of what he was and why he was...this is an exhibit that one should visit when coming to Hanoi.

The one-pillar pagoda was built by one of the VN emperor thanking the "God of Mercy" for assisting him and one of his wives in having a son. The pagoda is built to represent a lotus blossom.

Our last morning activity was finding the site that displays the remains of a downed American B-52 bomber. I went to these sites and others to again a sense of what happened during the VN war and gain a better understanding for myself...more later on this subject.

Tuesday - Feb 16 - Off to Hanoi

Well we are half-way through our trip...we sure have traveled through many adventures and we have many more to go.

Before leaving Halong Bay, we visit the largest cave in the Bay,Hang Sung Sot. See the picture from the entrance to the cave ...just awesome.The cave has 3 large chambers and I show you one of them...the caves had strategic value during the Viet Nam war.

As we depart Halong Bay,we prepare ourselves for a four adventurous trip of 4 hours of driving to Hanoi.I am not exaggerating but I have never, never seen such white knuckle driving in my life...I swear our van driver was going to hit at least 6 different scooters/motor cycles...and none of the incidents were caused by him...scary!!

We arrive at Hanoi's Victory Hotel near the railroad station...a central location to the majority of sights we will see.After unpacking,we head for the water puppet theater...Tet is in full swing and the streets are full of party goers, families...,everyone is having a Happy New Year (Chuc Mung Nam Moi).

The show lasts a hour and the puppetry is amazing.How they move the puppets...people,fish,dragons,ships,fish,etc so gracefully is beautiful...hope the pictures provide you an appreciation of what we saw.

Dinner at the "69Restaurant "named for the year the Ho Chi Min died was not that god...first poor meal we had.I walked around for an hour and mingled with the people ...took some photos and went back to the hotel....good night.