Parents of the year

We have many things that we would still like to do in Hanoi.  Last Saturday, we got to take care of a lot of them.  It started with an invitation from Ellie's Vietnamese friend Trung, who wanted to take us around Hanoi "to some of her favorite places".  It turns out she had rented a car, driver and tour guide to take all of us around to some of Hanoi's biggest landmarks. Even though we lost Finn along the way, it turned out to be a great day.

Our first stop was the Temple of Literature, which was Hanoi's first university started around 1050.

Next, a quick snack of Banh My.  We couldn't twll if they tasted so good because we were hungry or if they were really that good (and frankly, we didn't care):

Next we went to the Presidential Palace area and Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum:

This is the One Pillar Pagoda, which was destroyed by the French in 1954 and rebuilt by the Vietnamese.  You'll notice Finn looks very happy in this picture....

...but somehow, when we left the One Pillar Pagoda area, walked for about 10 minutes, and started to get back in our car, we realize we had left Finn there.  We rushed back and found him by a souvenir stand talking to people.  He was a little freaked out, but he did exactly what he should have done which was stay where he was.

Here we are at the Citadel, one of the first military outposts in Hanoi and the home of the first royalty here.  At one point it looked like the Forbidden City in China, but most of it is gone now.

Next we moved on to Hoa Lo Prison, which started as a French prison when they ruled Vietnam, but when they were defeated the Vietnamese took it over.  John McCain stayed here when he was captured.

The boys learning we might leave them in the prison:

A guillotine the French used when they ran the prison:

We were told by our tour guide that the American prisoners who stayed here were treated very well.  We saw pictures of them playing basketball and receiving gifts from relatives.  I imagine the truth is somewhere else, at least that's what we've been taught back home.

An ice cream break:

Water Puppet shows are famous in Hanoi, so our next stop was a Water Puppet Theater in the Old Quarter.  Touristy to be sure, but still pretty cool:

Our last stop was some banh cuon and fried eel soup in the Old Quarter:

We were really overwhelmed wit hthe generosity of Trung and her mother, who insisted on arranging and paying for everything.  We weren't sure what to expect at the beginning of the day and certainly did not expect to get home at 9:30 pm, but we really enjoyed ourselves.