Two days of craziness - Day one

We have packed us much as possible into the last 2 days so that we could spend today doing nothing! We'll split it into 2 posts, so that it's not too long.

On Monday we checked out Hoa Lo Prison (AKA 'Hanoi Hilton'), which was built by the French in 1896 to house anti-Colonial Vietnamese revolutionaries. It was then used during the Vietnam War for US soldiers. During all our visits to any museums to do with the Vietnam War (which they call the American War), it's interesting to read the propoganda and information that they display.

From a sign inside the prison:
"From August 5, 1964 to January 24, 1973, US Govenment carried out two destruction wars... against North Vietnam. The Northern Army and people brought down thousands of aircrafts, captured hundreds of American pilots... Though having commited untold crimes on our people, the American pilots suffered no revenge... Instead they were well treated."

I'm not sure that the US soldiers would necessarily agree...

Near the prison we were mobbed by school kids on an exursion, who were very excited to be able to practice their limited English on us. We walked past lines and lines of them, all yelling out "Hello! What's your name?".



That afternoon, we stumbled across an out-of-the-way market. We've found lots of amazing surprises in Vietnamese markets - incredible fruits, clothing and jewellery. But the first thing we found when we stepped into this one was a table covered in dead dogs! We'd heard they eat dog in northern Vietnam, but really had to see it to believe it. This was the most disgusting thing we've seen in Vietnam so far. Needless to say, we didn't explore this market any further!

We also had the most hilarious cab ride on this day. The traffic here moves very slowly, as it's so congested, so accidents are usually not very bad. Our cab driver hit one motorbike and a pedestrian in the few blocks we travelled. He later revealed that it was only his 3rd day of driving! When you have accidents here, no one swaps details... I'm not sure if they have car insurance.

The only thing we really dislike about Vietnamese food is the amount of MSG they use. It's been giving us both really crazy dreams, and headaches! The only problem is... we don't know how to say MSG in Vietnamese, so we can't request they don't use it! This was one attempt...

Gwil: "Do you have MSG?"
Waiter: "What??"
Gwil: "M....S....G" (drawing the letters on his hand)
Waiter: "Um..." (looks at a sign above our heads, which is advertising free Wireless internet) "No. We only have Wireless."
Gwil and I both looked at each other and laughed!