Hoa Lo Prison, Ho Chi Minh Museum & Mausoleum and enjoying the Lunar New Year Festivities!

Breakfast @ Metropole Sofitel Hotel. It was built in 1901 by the French and it is beautiful!

Mike's friends have been quizzing him on the food here in Vietnam. We've actually

have eaten more French food than Vietnamese food. That may change once we get

started with our Backroads trip. That tour starts tomorrow.

The hotel has beautiful woodwork and is uniquely designed. This week it is especially

decked out with large colorful flower arrangements for the new year celebrations.

This prison was nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton" after American pilots were kept here during

the American/Vietnam war between 1964-1973. John McCain was held here. 

 It was originally built by the French colonialists in 1896 

to hold thousands of Vietnamese patriotic & revolutionary fighters. 

They were liberated in 1954.

Sculpture to honor the brave Vietnamese revolutionaries. 

Mike standing in the entrance.

Ho Chi Minh Museum. We were not able to enter because it was closed for the New Year, but

we were able to walk around the gardens after going through a security check.

There were many decorated pagodas with people praying and tucking money in

between fruits and flowers.

Lots of head bows, hands clasped and prayers quietly repeated.

We thought of Tim with this display. It is the "Illustrations for the Laws of Karma."

Tim often mentions KARMA! 

Many locals suggested we go to see Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum. They said that

there is always a long line. One of our drivers said you can actually only see his face 

and his hands. It was closed by the time we got there.

Large container of burning incense to honor their leader.

Mike was stressed about finding a cab to get us back to the hotel. Somehow, coming out of the gardens, this guy & Mike connected! He ran over and used both hands to grab Mike's belly and shake it and laugh. We barely communicated, but I  had a card from the hotel to show him where we needed to go. Then the two negotiated how much to pay by holding up different amounts of dong bills. It was weird and I often giggled out loud in the back seat. In the end, we were glad to get back to our hotel!!!

One of our drivers told us there are 9 million people that live in Hanoi and 3 million motor bikes!

Traditional dresses are called: áo dài

They are long split tunics with pants underneath. There were many beautiful,

colorful dresses for not only women and girls but for ALL, men & boys too! Pictures were taken at every angle!

Towards the end of our walk today, There was nearly just one lane of traffic on the sidewalk as motorbikes were parked on both sides of the sidewalk, leaving one single lane of traffic.

Dinner at Angelino's tonight. On our walk back to the room. This is part of the hotel complex.