Bach Tung Diep Hotel Hanoi

... the now-defunct Hao Lo prison (aka Hanoi Hilton) – a prison that was established by the French in 1896. It was used to detain Vietnamese 'criminals’ – ie anti-colonial revolutionaries (or rather Vietnamese heroes and martyrs). Years later, it was used to detain American pilots that were shot down during the Vietnam War (including John McCain). It was a pretty nasty place in its time – with many inmates tortured ...

... residence, Ho Chi Minh’s house, and the One Pillar Pagoda. We also drove my the Temple of Literature, Vietnam’s first university. Our next stop was the Hanoi Hilton, which was built by French colonists to house political prisoners and later used by North Vietnam for prisoners during the Vietnam War. Most of the prison has actually been destroyed and there are two high rise buildings standing in its place. The remainder houses a museum, mostly detailing the ...

... Hue Ancient Capital



The Forbidden Purple City was modeled after the Imperial City in Beijing and served as the capital of Vietnam from 1802 to 1945 under the Nguyen dynasty. The impressive citadel was nearly completely destroyed during the 25 days of Tet Offensive in 1968, but has been partially restored and is once again open to visitors.

Unlike Hochiminh City and Hanoi ...

... one shop just sells athletic shoes while
the other shop sells women's dress shoes. All of them pretty much
sell the same thing. Somehow it works it though. So far we have
discovered the shoe street, the toy street, the jewelery street, and
the cafe street (we love that one the best). Vietnamese coffee is
delicious – the secret ingredient: condensed milk in the coffee.
I'm absolutely addicted!

For the most part
all the seafood in the market ...

... was marked with flower petals.
Once again this week I followed the wrong group (like sometimes I do when I run with HTS) and got off trail but fortunately like last week I was with 2 VN hashers that knew where we were in relation to the start. And despite the 10 ft walls throughout the town and several unexplainable lefts and rights we were out of the village and back at the start...and cold beer awaited us finally. I bought a bag of coconut ...

... and joggers for their warm up sessions. The open stretches of grass areas are good for practicing matches. Children can also enjoy playing badminton.
- The Botanical Gardens (Vuon Bach Thao) in Hanoi is a bird lover's paradise. The tall trees are home to a wide species of birds. Those which can be spotted include Red Whiskered Bulbul, White Throated ...

... traffic on the way home to the hotel, but it was ok, as we made it back in one piece thanks to the little, badly drawn, map on the back of the restaurant leaflet & not the map in the guidebook!

Early tomorrow morning we are going on a 2 day, cruise to Ha Long Bay on an old Vietnamese junk boat, which should be cool. We are really, really looking forward to some peaceful relaxing! & we cant wait to see the bay.

Talk to you all again soon!

... sort of sad though because I know I will never have a Pho that good again, but at least now I know how an awesome one tastes. We also hit up Quan An Ngon (there is also one of these in Ho Chi Minh ) for excellent local food. Justin and Alice were a lot of fun and we ended up having a night cap on some balcony watching the nightlife below us in the Old City area.

... a random boat ride to some outlying villages - H got to drive the boat - so he was chuffed - Nic and I weren't offered - wrong sex obviously!! It's a mans world! Back on to bus and on to lunch at some drive in - proprietor was most upset we didn't have the special of the day - goat - sorry :-( A further 2 hours drive to Hanoi - nightmare ! Nic missed it all as she slept - again! We did a quick freshen up at the ...