Hanoi Hilton

After a huge sleep, we rose on Day 2 for a trip to Hanoi Hilton - no, not the hotel, the prison.  The  place where John McCain famously ended up after being shot down over Hanoi during the Vietnam, or as the locals prefer, the 'American War').

Hao Lo Prison was built by the French in 1896 to lock up nuisance political prisoners, amongst others, during the long period of colonial rule.  Just in case people didn't get the message, the French installed the guillotine and carried out public displays of the resulting severed heads in specially crafted wicker baskets.  The French Revolution returns but this time without liberte or egalite!

What better place for Harper to practice his photography skills!  He did a fine job.

Then we got to the American war displays.  Everything from John MCain's flying suit to happy American POW's, even singing Ho Chi Minh's praise.  Ok - this stretches credibility to the max.  Still, the shots of cavernous craters and destroyed buildings in Hanoi were a sobre reminder of what a horrible war this was and what the stakes on both sides were.

Our guide then spirited us off to a lacquerware factory - not quite on our plan, but clearly on his.  Lisa started freaking out as we were led down some narrow back alleys.  But all was fine.  We got a step by step introduction to the complicated and slow process of making these 'handicrafts' and then some hard sell to buy.  Actually they were beautifully finished and were quite fabulous products. A village production line of 100 or so feeds this Hanoi 'showroom'.  So we made some purchases but not what you'd call a bargain.

For lunch we found our way to KOTO's, a restaurant founded by an Australian woman and built around training street kids in food and hospitality skills.  It was great food and a lovely ambience, we just needed some help in how to eat Vietnamese style.  Lisa wanted to wrap the food in the banana leaf.  I wanted to pour the soup broth onto my flat plate.  And Harper was content to eat the rice paper   by itself!  Slightly dysfunctional Westerners...

The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring the thousand year old Temple of Literature and shopping around the St Joseph's cathedral part of the Old Quarter.  Then back to our hotel for a swim and rest before dinner at an upmarket restaurant, the 'Wild Lotus'.  Harper was again very tired but managed to hang on for some ice cream, while we went for the Duck pancakes, steamed Bass and Beef with five spices.  A bit disappointing as it turned out.  The restaurant itself was beautifully decked out, but the food didn't impress.  Great presentation, but not that great to eat.

From the southern part of Hanoi, we made yet another dash back to the Westlakes area

through the crazy bike and car traffic - it goes up another notch at night - for our hotel and another early night.