Hanoi, Vietnam

We are back in Vietnam, land of the lovely conical leaf hats and where every successful  trip crossing the street feels like a victory.  We have only visited Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta before and had somehow imagined Hanoi would be a quieter city.  Couldn't have been more wrong.  There are 90 million people in the country and 45 million motor bikes.  We thought they were all in Ho Chi Minh, but more than a generous portion of them are here.  And it turns out that Hanoi is where the traveler  action is. The streets are packed with tourists from all over.  The vendors are aggressive--Rob had his shoe removed, stitching begun and a flight down the street trying to avoid collection of a fee for service that he didn't request.

The "Hanoi Hilton"

A big part of visiting here is remembering or acknowledging the wars that have been going on for about a hundred years. We visited the Hoa Lo Prison, built by the French to contain radicals and later to hold American pilots who had been shot down.  Looks like the Vietnamese were much more lenient than the French had been.

This area is famous for its lakes.

This is also the land of tall, skinny buildings.