Hanoi--Day 2

Jackson had a nice day. He met a lady from Thailand during our self imposed intermission from the water puppet show. She had him smiling like one happy boy. I don't think that I had ever been photographed by foreignors like we were today...they weren't taking the picture of me, but I was carrying Jackson, so there I was right in the middle of his picture.

We went on the 1 day Hanoi tour and stayed busy all day. We had a great tour guide named Hai (pronounced Hi, no Hi as in hello, but as in the ocean). He did a fantastic job. A little about him: he is married and has 2 kids. His wife's family is Catholic and he is Buddhist. He lives with 4 generations of family in his home...this is commonplace as based on Confucious' principles for living. Once a person quits working, the parents will live with their son. It is very lengthy and complicated with girls, 2nd sons and inlaws. As with my friends in Nicaragua, he was excited about the election of President Obama. They would have been happy with John McCain, as well.

The day started at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. We did not get to see his body, but we saw the palace, his home place and more. One interesting note, is that HCM gave a Martin Luthur King, Jr. type speech in 1945 in trying to gain freedom from the French. In his speech, he gave quotes from George Washington. Then, we went to the Museum of Ethnology--for the first hour, I thought we were going to the museum of technology...I did not see any technology. The building was much like one of the Smithsonians.

At lunch, I ate a snail today...silkworm larvae one day, snail in the shell next. We went to the Hoa Lo Prison, aka Hanoi Hilton--not the Hilton of Hanoi, the Temple of Literature, and a water puppet show. There were so many love birds out on Valentines Day! We saw many brides to be, beautiful women. Tonight on the way home, we stopped at the Deli Manjoo for some cream puffs.

See you in Halong Bay