Vietnam, First stop Hanoi...

We arrived into Hanoi around mid-day.  After getting into a van at the airport filled with locals and getting driven around the entire city dodging everything from bikes to buffalo, they finally dropped us off at the Vietnam Airlines building... this would be good if we knew the city but we had no idea where we were! Luckily I had my trusty Lonely Planet with a map and our hostel was just around the corner.

We stayed at the Backpackers Hostel which is run by a few Aussi's.  Perfect place to stay! Met lots of people and all the workers spoke English so it was at that hostel where we learnt of places to go off the beaten track.

After dropping off our bags we started to roam the streets. This was our first lesson in Vietnam: How to cross the street! Took us a bit of observing before we realised the cars were never going to stop and the best way to cross is to walk at a steady pace while never looking at the traffic.... really wish I was kidding! We lost a little respect for Mulan! (for those who don't remember she walked across the street blindfolded as training and it was supposed to be some big deal... ya not so much for me after 10 days of doing it!)

That day we visited the Hanoi Hilton, Ngoc Son Temple, Dong Xuan Market and really just roamed the busy streets getting very overwhelmed!

The Hanoi Hilton was an interesting first stop a good prep before War Remnants Museum in Saigon (that was was very intense, I will talk about it when I get to the south).  The Hanoi Hilton which is really called Hoa Lo Prison apparently received its nickname from the American prisoners during the Vietnam/American war (name of war depending on who you are talking to).  The prison was first opened when the French occupied/settled in Vietnam and was used through the war with the Americans.   It was interesting to see the displays as it was hard to know what was truth and what was propaganda.  The American area only had pictures of how well the Vietnamese treated their "American pilots" giving them all the luxuries one would ever need.  Later on we heard that if an American signed a paper saying he didn't agree with the American's fighting in Vietnam they were given special privileges but if they didn't sign it then they did not live such a nice life in prison. 

This ended up being the main theme of our trip: the Vietnam/American War, each side of the story. I have written so much here only because Amber and I became very fascinated with the war.  Amber is American so it was interesting to hear the Vietnam side of the war.  We realise we have to pick through bias and propaganda but we have learnt more about this war then I think we ever could in a class at school.

Pictures below will show the other side of what we did, lot's of pagodas, markets and busy streets.

We saw some beautiful pagodas, the crazy market and many street vendors.  We were overwhelmed but had a good day.