Hanoi, Vietnam - February 25 - March 5, 2025

February 25, 2025 - February 26, 2025

Flew from Raleigh/Durham to Newark to Tokyo Haneda to Hanoi, Vietnam! - About a 27 hour trip!  Thank goodness for United Polaris Seating!!  Arriving at the beautiful Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi made the start of this trip amazing!

 

 February 27, 2025 - 

Arriving 2 days early for the Uniworld trip I was able to relax and get in the time zone.   I totally enjoyed the day by getting a  "Jet Lag Recovery Massage" and "Soin Excellence Secrets de Sothys Facial".  

The Sofietel Legend Metropole Hanoi was opened in 1901 by French investors.  There is so much history in this hotel.  In the 1960's and 1970's during the war, the hotel served as a secure refuge for 11 embassies and three UN agencies, becoming known as Embassy House.  There is a bunker under the hotel that was used as a bomb shelter.  Joan Baez and Jane Fonda spent time there during the war (Vietnamese call it "the American War" but also realize it was a Vietnam civil war.)

 

The bunker was quite narrow and not a lot of space.  It would not have been comfortable to spend time in there!

 

REMEMBER

FORGIVE

FOREVER

                                                      

April 2013 Joan Baez revisited the bunker after she heard it had been excavated.  She came forty years after her time in the bunker December 1972 during an air raid bombing.  She said she wanted to return with a simple desire to see it again as a place of peace instead of a place of war!

 The rest of the crew traveling with our AMAZING travel agent, Carolyn Langon, Travel-Lyn LLC (Carolyn.Langon@avoyanetwork.com) arrived late on February 27th so I did not see them until breakfast on the 28th.  

Our Group:  Sister and Bro-in-law Priscilla & Phil Olmes; Carolyn & Jim Langon; Pat Clarke (a friend from Sydney that I met on my Galapagos trip); Sheri Scott & Andre Leblanc; Betty & Joe Hooker; Ann & Rebecca Bauer; Linda & Greg Eskensen!  And what a fun group it was!!!!

 February 28, 2025 we all walked around Hanoi.  What a scary place to cross the street!!  We were told just to walk out into the street in traffic and hold up your hand and walk forward slowly and steady - "Don't Run and Don't walk back".  Cars and scooters just keep going in front and behind people crossing the streets.  Luckily none of us got killed!

 

 

We walked through a lovely park to Hoan Kiem Lake.

 

Turtle Tower (Thap Rua) is a small ancient tower located on a tiny islet in the center of the lake.

 The Huc Bridge is a foot bridge over the lake.  It was built in 1865 during the reign of Tu Duc.  It connects Sword Lake and Jade Mountain Temple.

 

 

Me, Phil and Priscilla

March 1, 2025 - Bus ride to Lan Ha Bay with a stop at Legend Pearl, Halong Bay.  We got to see how they harvest pearls and the sizes and colors and the different shells and pearls.  And of course, shopping!!

March 1 - March 3, 2025 Paridise Grand Cruise Lan Ha Bay, Ba Trai Doa Islet; Tai Keo Carevs, Cat Ba archipelogo and Dark and Bright Caves on separate blog "March 1 - March 3 Ha Long Bay"

 March 3, 2025 we returned to The Sofitiel Legend Metropole in Hanoi.

March 4, 2025 - March 5, 2025 touring Hanoi:

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum:  We went inside for  a view of Ho Chi Minh's body - which "supposedly" was sent to Russia after his death to be "preserved" like Stalin.  You walked around the glass enclosed coffin with Ho Chi Minh's body visible.  I feel it was a waxed figure.  It was perfectly preserved and no explanation as to how it was "preserved" so completely.  The body is on display in the morning and then lowered into a chamber below the rest of the time.  The body is "supposedly" sent back to Russian 2 months every year to keep preserved!  Ho Chi Minh wanted his body cremated and ashes spread in the North, Central and Southern parts of Vietnam.  I have to hope that someone listened to this request.

No Pictures were allowed inside or walking up to the Mausoleum.  Below to the right side of the mausoleum reads:  "Long Live the Socialist Republic of Vietnam"

School Children were all around on field trips to the Mausoleum.  Our guide, Anh was very open about the "propaganda" being fed in the schools of Vietnam.  He said his children come home and he gives them his version and figures his children will make their decisions about what is really truth.....Even though Anh said it was illegal in Communist Vietnam to talk like this. 

The Presidential Palace below.  They say Ho Chi Minh, being a "simple man", did not live in this Palace.
 

The Bamboo garden that Ho Chi Minh had brought from his birth place, Kim Lien in central Vietnam to be transplanted by the Presidential Palace.

 

This is "House 54" - The Gardener's house - in the presidential gardens, where Ho Chi Minh lived and worked from 1954 until 1958 when the construction of the Stilt House was completed.  He lived and worked in the Stilt House  from 1958 until his death in 1969.

 

  The Study in the Stilt House.

Bedroom in Stilt House
 

 The Parliament Building (National Assembly of the Socialists Republic of Vietnam) is across the street from the Mausoleum and Presidents House.   There are 500 delegates elected to 5 year terms.  According to Anh, these delegates and all the heads of the Communist party are very wealthy and send their money out of the country to bank.  Most leave the country when they retire to where they put their money.  The Socialist party realized that government control over every industry did not work well.  In 1986 there was a reform and Vietnam transitioned from centrally planned, highly agrarian economy towards a more industrial and market based one.  While the economy is market-oriented, the government maintains a high level of intervention, especially in key sectors and strategic industries.

Ho Chi Minh Museum which our guide said  was not worth seeing since it is all Propaganda!

Temple of Literature was built in 1070 dedicated to Confucius and Confucian Scholars.  It was Vietnam's 1st university. The temple layout is similar to that of the temple at Qufu, Shandong, Confucius' birthplace.

"Turtle Street" in the Temple of Literature has the names of those scholars successful at the royal exams.  The tablets are known as "Doctor's Stone Tablets".  The four sacred animals in Vietnam are the Dragon (representing power), Unicorn (peace and good fortune), Turtle (longevity and wisdom), and Phoenix (richness and purification).

The Phoenix statue with a turtle at it's feet is in the 4th courtyard in The Temple of Literature.  Supposedly it is good luck to rub the Phoenix's heart and the Turtle.  So of course, we all did!!

In the 4th courtyard is a statue of Confucius with an altar to honor him.  On either side in this area are statues of his 4 closest disciples:  Yanhui, Zengshen, Zisi and Mencius. 
 

In 1077 Emperor Ly Nhan Tong ordered construction of an imperial academy as the 5th courtyard. Below is an altar to Chu Van An, rector of the imperial academy.

Next we went to Hoa Lo, known as "Hanoi Hilton" where John McCain and other U.S. soldiers where held as prisoners of war.  It was a sobering place.  It was first used by French colonists for political prisoners.  Below shows how the prisoners of the First Indochina War were shackled by their ankles.  

Hoa Lo is translated as "fiery furnace" or Hell's hole.   During the Vietnam war the first U.S. prisoner of war to be sent here was Lieutenant Junior Grade Everett Alvarez Jr., who was shot down on August 5, 1964.  John McCain was a prisoner for 5 1/2 years. 

Cachot (Dungeon) used to confine prisoners who broke the regulations in prison.  Cachot in Hoa Lo was "Hell of the Hell" .  

                                Picture of cell prisoners were kept and shackled by the ankles.

 Below are pictures of woman who were political prisoners who were revolutionary patriotic fighters struggling for independence from the French Colonists.   There was a time that 300 female prisoners were kept here by the French Colonists.

 The French guillotine was used during the French colonial period and is now a museum piece to showcase prison's brutal history.

Below is Truc Bach Lake in Hanoi where John McCain was shot down on October 26, 1967.  He fractured both arms and a leg when he ejected from the aircraft (A-4E Skyhawk).  North Vietnamese pulled him ashore, some crushing his shoulder with rifle butt and bayoneted him.   Taken to Hoa Lo Prison seriously wounded and injured, his captors refused to treat him.   They beat and interrogated him and he was given medical care only when the N. Vietnamese discovered his father was an admiral.  

This Monument marks where McCain was capture during the Vietnam War.  Although the monument was not built to honor McCain, some visitors to Hanoi have chosen to pay respect to him there.  In 2015 the monument was cleaned at McCain's request and the inscription was revised to correct his name, remove the derogatory epithet "ten" and identify his service branch as Navy rather than Air Force.

Priscilla, Phil and I went to The Water Puppet Show even though we heard it was not worth in!  My advice:  Skip it unless you have a child with you that speaks Vietnamese!

Next Up:  Jeep tour around Hanoi!  What a blast this was.  The jeeps were old Russian jeeps.  In my jeep was Priscilla, Phil, Rebecca, Annie and me.  

 

 

Some of the sights we saw cruising around Hanoi.  Note the traffic and volume of people!!

The Opera House

 

 

 

Train tracks on Long Bien Bridge that we stopped to see and the traffic that flows beside the tracks.

 

Note Phil in the rear view mirror!

 

 Next we went to "train street" in old Hanoi.  It is a narrow street that the train comes through twice daily.  The alley is so narrow that local residents must remove all belongings, including bicycles and children!  We got to sit and watch the train wiz by quite fast.....feet, hands and all body parts tucked in!!

 

 

 

                        This small lake was made from a crater left over from a bombing during the war.

                               Note the crazy wiring around the city.  Seems pretty hap hazard!!

 

Then to a yummy lunch where we got to taste "traditional" local food.   The woman below was making fresh spring rolls on the lower level where we entered.  The restaurant was up 2 stories and food was sent up on a dumb waiter.

 

The restaurant had many recycled things for decoration and a fish tank made from a tire!

The afternoon of March 5, 2025 we left the hotel for the airport to take us to Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Cambodia adventure on next blog!