Day 6, Tuesday 3/18/25, Hanoi, Vietnam

Today Hanoi will be 64 F with almost no humidity. A welcome relief from Bangkok heat. Overcast skies in the morning. One note, we hope that beds in Vietnam get more comfortable than this one. The bed is like a rock and it slopes toward the center! We arise at 6:30 and have a delicious buffet breakfast in the hotel. I could get used to all the different food in this part of the world! A few shots out of our hotel window and we grab our hats and and start the tour by 8:15.

Our guide today is Duon. The streets bustle with activity and we get our first views of life in Hanoi.

We visit the oldest pagoda in Vietnam, Tran Quoc Pagoda. It is located on Golden Fish Island in West Lake. It was built in the 6th century and is the oldest Pagoda in Vietnam. Symbolism and stunning architecture is everywhere and lucky yellow colors abound.

We pass a Statue of John McCain, who was a resident of the “Hanoi Hilton” from 1967-1973. We will visit this later today. Next we drive by the Parliament and see how large it is. Our core group of travelers today are 12 people. We will grow to 14 some days with others that join us for random day tours and will shrink near the end. At one point, we come across some vendors that, for a nominal fee of 25,000 Dong ($1 USD), you can buy a bird and free it, symbolizing the freeing of the Vietnamese people. (if you can consider people in a Communist country as free)

Across from Parliament is the Ho Chi Minh Complex where we go inside the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. The Mausoleum has very strict rules. 1.) No photos. This was so strictly enforced. There were guards every 3-4 meters throughout the building and there was simply no chance to sneak off a photo. Ho Chi Minh’s embalmed body was on display in a glass case and you could clearly see him. It was amazing. Probably the best (if not the only) embalmed person on display in the world. His body is maintained twice every week! 2.) No hats. 3.) Hands must be at your side and not in pockets. 4.) No talking and no noise. Anyone breaking these rules would be ordered to correct their action and removed if necessary! So I have seen him but can’t prove it! I was chastised twice before we ever got inside, once for speaking and the other for having my hands in my pockets while waiting in the very long line. And of course I was chastised in Vietnamese so it took help to understand what rules I was breaking!

We then take a leisurely walk around the garden to see the two houses where he lived and worked from 1954 to 1969. Gardens are meticulous and there are guards everywhere you look. Even the cars he rode in are on display! So please remember Uncle Ho in Spring!

The red background of the Vietnamese flag symbolizes revolution and bloodshed. The golden star symbolizes the soul of the nation and the five points of the star represents the five main classes in Vietnamese society—intellectuals, farmers, workers, entrepreneurs, and soldiers.

Other things we see include the Gate of the Crystallization of Letters.

And the Temple of Confucius!

Lunch is had at Hoang’s Restaurant. Good Vietnamese food but I was having so much fun getting to know my new travel mates that I didn’t write down what we ate. There were many dishes sent around family style and I remember the beer was cold! Our group of 12 hammed it up outside the Restaurant!

After boarding the bus again, we see parking lots of motorcycles, scooters & buses. We then visit Hoa Lo Prison, nicknamed “Hanoi Hilton” in the Xuong District. This visit was very moving even from the North Vietnamese perspective. The torture described in several of the images that follow describe in some detail the horrors of the war! Even inside thick concrete walls with steel gates and locks, prisoners were shackled to the floor. The floors sloped away from the foot shackles so even lying down was virtually impossible!

Then we venture out and back on the bus to the Ethnicities Museum, which is a much lighter and pleasant experience. We learn a bit about the 54 different ethnic groups that live in Vietnam. They even depict in wood statues the sexuality of the people.

The tour today was long and tiring. But it is over for the day. We get back to the hotel by 5:30 PM, tired and hungry. We are told that Hanoi has an attraction similar to the train street we visited in Bangkok. So on tired feet we seek out this street which we are told is only a few blocks from our hotel. We get our first experience crossing a street in Vietnam. There are few to no controlled intersections, so you wait for a lull in traffic (I use that term loosely), put your hand up in a halting gesture and start walking. Do. Not. Stop. Traffic will go around you! We make it to the train restaurant street and have a glass of wine with our new travel friend, Hannah at Cafe Da Dong Duong (The Train Cafe). Fun conversations ensued. Glasses of wine here costs 180,000 Dong ($7.20 USD), which is not cheap compared to other things here. This street is a known tourist spot! Hannah takes her leave to go see a couple places she wants to see. We walk around train street and decide to have dinner here. We both have Pho with chicken and it is good!

We see a lot of amateur photographers photographing attractive young ladies modeling for them. One can only believe they are trying to get their big break! A train came through, but unlike Bangkok’s train at 2 mph, this one came through around 25-30 mph! Fun stuff! We limp on back to the hotel for bed.

See you tomorrow!