Hanoi II - Back in the Capital

After our day at Halong Bay, we had a few more days in Hanoi to hang around the city and get to know the locals. We also toured the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh, where we saw his preserved body on display. That was also interesting, but a bit creepy. It must go with being a big communist leader, because apparently Lenin and Stalin are also preserved and on display in the same fashion in Moscow. We also visited the Army Museum, which had a host of exhibits, most of which had to do with fighting in WWII and the wars against the French. There was some American military equipment on display though. Besides dropping into some random places around town, we lastly popped in to see a Vietnamese water puppet show. Accompanied by traditional music, the water puppets were cool to see. They are controlled by sticks, hidden under water, rather than by strings like traditional marionettes, so they appear to be moving a bit on their own. It was really neat to see.

After a wonderful and relaxing few days, we head on to Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City. Enjoy the pictures!!

Laura in line to see "Uncle Ho"
Eric in front of Uncle Ho's Masoleum

Laura and Eric in front of the "One Pillar Pagoda"

Go ahead! Take foreigner's luggage!

Eric and a Mig at the Army Museum.

Laura and a bust of Uncle Ho

Eric and some medieval swords

Laura and a large painting of a sea battle

Eric and a watchtower

Laura and some guns

A steel french helmet. The caption said "Evidence of the failure of the French."

We must save Hanoi!!!

Eric and some Cannon

Eric and the watchtower

Laura and a Huey Helicopter

Eric and a crashed US F-111 albatross fighter/bomber

Eric and a US navy plane

Eric and a US Airforce plane

Eric and Tank 843, which was the tank to break down the gates of the presidential palace of South Vietnam.
Carrying a bazooka on a bike cant be safe.

Go Air Force!

Go Army!

A woman carrying baskets of goodies.

A tank we saw on the way to the airport.

Part of the water puppets show. The YouTube video is below...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chicago~Two Years in The Windy City

Image
We moved to Chicago in 2009, after completing our four month honeymoon around the world. Eric attended Kellogg School of Management, earning his MBA and MEM while Laura spent time dabbling in taking writing classes, leading social clubs and running her own online business. The two years that we spent in Chicago have proven memorable and we throughly enjoyed our time in the mid-west. We did not travel too much while in Chicago due to Eric's demanding school schedule, but there were a few domestic trips here and there. Below is a photo montage documenting our past two years. Around Evanston and Chicago with Kellogg friends: With the JV's visiting the aquarium! Kickin it with some Kellogg folks In Wrigleyville with JDB and Mas Us at Kellogg enjoying a TG Laura and Silvia doing Christmas shopping TGIF at Kellogg.  Free beer for everyone! Judging the contests with the JV's! With Davy and Audrey, out and about! Shopping at the farmers market with Sylvia 90's party...
Read more

Milano, where all of Laura's dreams came true!

Image
The day after Fussen, we were in for a LONG long train ride to Milan, Italy (2 hours from Fussen to Munich, 8 hours from Munich to Milan). So we got a few good books, and charged up our camera batteries. The good part about this day is that we would be riding through the Austrian Alps almost the entire way. We would get a huge sightseeing trip for the low low price of 2 train tickets, which we wanted anyway. We took some pictures from the train windows of both all the small towns, mountains, and hilltop castles in Germany and Austria. Surprisingly, once we got into Italy, there were vineyards everywhere, as well as small hilltop towns, with old city walls surrounding them. Laura at the BK Lounge (Burger King), getting ready for the long train trip. Can anyone say, "Free Wifi?" Eric relaxing on the train trip with a good book and final bottle of german beer. Picture of a mountain from the train. Picture of a mountain and barn from the train. Picture of a mountain and la...
Read more

Cairo

Image
We spent the next three days hanging out in Cairo, relaxing after our big tour and preparing for India. We had a few nice meals, caught up on some business, and recouped some of our strength. The culture here in Egypt is very different. Nowhere is this more pronounced than in Islamic Cairo, where we walked around one day. Islamic Cairo is filled with Mosques from the 900’s, and lot of buildings from the Mameluke period (1500’s) which is beautiful in its own right. We went into a mausoleum and the Al-Azhar mosque, but mostly just toured around the neighborhood a bit, looking at the different shops and traditional crafts being made. Just about every woman in Cairo is covered head to toe, with only their face showing. Some are dressed all in black, and even have their faces covered with only eye holes, or a thin black cloth covering their entire face, so that even their eyes cannot be seen. On first glance, it is quite shocking, and it took some getting used to, especially for Laura who i...
Read more