Day 14: Hanoi

Day 14: Well my last day in Hanoi and I wanted to pay Uncle Ho (Ho Chi Mingh) at the masoulem, but unfortuantely it was closed for a special occassion. Then I headed out to Hanoi Hilton to check out the US POW camp. This is where they put US prisoners of war during the Vietnam War. It was interesting the way the Vietnamese display the US treatment of POW's. They showed happy pictures of the prisoners writing letters home, and playing the guitar, etc... I guess that's why they call it the 'Hilton', makes me wonder how true that really was. Interesting to find out Senator John McCain was one of the POW housed there!

Well it's my last day in Vietnam. I have enjoyed my stay here. To sum up Vietnam a French Indo China country, it's a strong Chinese influence the most I have seen than any of the other SouthEast Asian countries with the pagodas, forbidden city, the hats that they wear, the food, the clothing, the religion, a bit of Indian influence with the Champa tribe that has orgins in India, all with a French twist with all the aritecture, the written language is French, the food (crossiants, cakes, and baguette sandwhiches and pastries), the churches. Can't forget the rice paddy fields you see everywhere, people fishing , the school girls all in white uniform with their bamboo hats and their perfect posture riding their bikes to school, and the peoples determination to succeed, I guess they have to be after kicking out the Chinese, French, Japanese, and American. Oh did I forget to mention it's communist. I guess I keeping forgetting about that as you see so much capitalism everywhere.