Vietnam: Starting in the North with Hanoi

After cutting the check in and customs lines and sprinting to the gate, Rachelle and I caught our flight to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. When we landed, it was a lot colder than we expected and it was pretty dreary. This was kind of the theme for the weather in most of northern and central Vietnam...

Rachelle and I checked into the Backpacker's Hostel which is run by an Australian guy. There is also another Backpacker's Hostel in Hue, which is where we stayed when went to central Vietnam. We put our stuff down in the dorm room (this was my first real hostel experience and it was great!) and went to explore the city. Everything in Vietnam was decorated for Tet, the Vietnamese word for the Chinese New Year. Hanoi is a very busy place and walking through the streets was one of the most exhausting things we did on the trip. People, motorbikes, cars, shops, people hassling you to come into their shops, it was a mess. Crossing the street in this country was an art. You literally just have to close your eyes and walk at a steady pace and the motorbikes and cars just swerve around you. It's terrifying. There are no traffic rules in Vietnam, literally none. And car horns are built in so that when you press the horn once it honks five times in a row.

Anyway we saw some markets, pagodas, a mall, a lake, the Hanoi Towers, and the Hanoi Hilton before we called it a night and went to bed.

Pagoda in the City

Bridge to Pagoda on the Lake

Legendary Turtle

Pagoda on the Lake

Turtle supposedly found in the Lake

On this lake there was a pagoda with a red bridge from the mainland to get to it. In the pagoda there was this huge turtle supposedly found in the lake. The legend behind it was that there was a king who found a golden sword. Then this huge turtle came and took the sword from him into the lake. Then the dragon retrieved the sword and gave it back to the King. Now the dragon is the symbol for the emperor, so the palaces would be decorated with dragons to signify that it was a place a residence for royalty.
So when there are ripples or bubbles in this lake all the locals would crowd around and take pictures hoping they would see a huge turtle. We witnessed this, it was pretty funny.

We also went to the Hanoi Hilton which was a prison used for Vietnamese villagers during the French occupation and was also used for American POWs during the Vietnam war. It was nicnamed the Hanoi Hilton because it was rumored that the prisoners there (during the Vietnam war) were treated really well. There are a bunch of pictures on the walls of American pilots having christmas dinner and playing volleyball. In actually the place was pretty rough and I was told from a guy that we stayed with later in the trip that the pilots who were treated well were the ones that had agreed to sign a waiver stating that they did not believe America should be in Vietnam. The Vietnamese would then use these waivers as leverage during negotiations with the US. So there were a select few who were treated well, the rest not so much. So the pictures were kinda just propoganda.
This is also were John McCain was held as prisoner during the war. He crashed his plane into a Lake which was northwest of our hostel and was kept here. There are pictures of him coming back to the prison. I don't think he was treated very nicely when he was there.

Outside Hanoi Hilton

POWs having Christmas dinner

John McCain being checked out at the prison after crashing his plane into a Lake in Hanoi

Some other fun facts we learned right away when we got to Hanoi:
1. The main religion is Confucianism, however there are a lot of Catholics due to the French occupation

2. Vietnamese love Tiger beer

3. All the dogs and cats have clothing

4. Pho is a popular native Vietnamese dish but it is actually pronounced faa. We ate a lot of this

5. Don't let the women with baskets on their shoulders put it on you and take your picture. They just want money. We unfortunately had this happen to us and had to pretty much run away from these two little old women. It was pretty scary actually.