A full day tour of Hanoi will take in Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, the National Army Museum and the smaller Women's Museum with its fascinating documentation and depiction of the role of the 'long haired army-the female combatants and sympathizers during the wars.
After a fleeting visit to Hoa Lo Prison (the famous 'Hanoi Hilton', now a small museum), we'll drop in to one of Hanoi's large indoor market, cruise around Hoan Kiem lake and the leafy boulevards of the colonial Quarters with its eclectic architectural mixture of French colonial style, social realism (mostly public building-designed or influencted by the USSR) and the recent Vietnamese styles.
In the evening, a cyclo ride through Hanoi's vibrant Old Quarter, a bewildering jumble of pagodas and communal houses with many Chinese features, merchants' residences, 'tube' dwellings, modern buildings and vernacular houses. We spend the night in Hanoi.
14 Jan 2009 12:49am Hanoi
Back in Hanoi. Showered. Washed underpants and socks in the sink. Ate pizza. Uploaded over 1000 photos. Have not had the brain power to review them. Had Babeo Skype cuddles for an hour, so happy to see Ben! So happy. Going to try again tomorrow before we have to leave the computers and internet for another 3-4 days. Blogged. Emailed the 'rents. Had a few one on one chats with James about a few things. Amiee is still sick....We're all tired and burnt out. Museums tomorrow, nice light day. Okay, bed. G.night.
9:24pm
Honestly, P can barely handle running this trip and it will be a miracle if nothing goes wrong.
Today we toured around Hanoi: Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, which was kinda of strange. An over-priced lunch. And then we rushed our way through two museums. We were done by five. I finally got to go through my images, which was good. I'm still not really done organizing but that's okay.
I honestly think P's completely cracked out. We started today over an hour late. She held up the group by trying to bring her camera into the mausoleum, which was strictly prohibited. Our guide had to talk her out of trouble with the freaking government officials. Then she wanted to fit in 3 muesums in 3 hours, and seemed to be under the impression that we were being held up because of us, not her poor planning. I really need towork on forgetting that she is even here so I can just enjoy to culture and focus on shooting.
Tomorrow she wanted to do about 5 different things, plus have class, plus we have to pack and be on a train at 8pm. I would put mad dong on us missing this train. From the last I heard, we are probably doing way less than she originally wanted to, so I hope that holds true.
We are also going to the Internation Friendship Village to visit Agent Orange victims. Basically people that our people are responible for seriously fucking up. And now we are going to walk in there with huge cameras. I don't feel comfortable with this at all and I really hope that my fears for that (and for all of this) are proven wrong.
I did get to skype with Ben tonight, which put me in a better mood. He's so wonderful, I don't know where I'd be without him. I am really starting to miss him more and more every day.
Looking back...
yeah, not the best day. The Friendship Village was not as bad as I thought it would be but you can here all about that in the next entry, I'm sure.
random photo:
good photo:
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