Hanoi, Vietnam's capital city, is busy and polluted like Saigon, but there are a few differences. It's not as hot here, but more humid, so we've probably sweat even more. Vietnam is a very sweaty country overall. The people are pretty different here too, in that, even though they want to make money off of you, they do not pester you constantly about buying things, as they did in the south.
In the middle of the old part of Hanoi is the Hoam Kiem Lake. This tower, which is only reachable by boat, is often used as the symbol of Hanoi.
This temple is on an island on the lake.
Apparently, for hundreds of years the lake has been home to large turtles like this one, which was enbalmed in 1954.
After getting lost in the city, we finally arrived at the famous "Hanoi Hilton", which was used for American POW's during the Vietnam war. The prison was first built by the French colonialists, and was used to house resistant Vietnamese people.
The descriptions and pictures on boards in the prison/museum were heavily biased. The information stressed how much hardship was endured by the Vietnamese people during the French rule. For the information regarding the American prisoners, it only showed pictures of the soldiers with smiles on their faces as they played sports in the courtyard, or played cards. They did not mention any of the hard times that the soldiers had here, and stated that the soldiers were given the best treatment possible by the Vietnamese government.
Prisoners here were shackled by the feet, lying next to each other.
Here is a prison block. Notice the guillotine at the end, which was used to behead several inmates.
To further demonstrate the crazy traffic in Vietnam, here is a typical intersection in Hanoi...
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