What the hell was I thinking???

Fotojournal of Hanoi.....

Start with a few pics of The Hanoi Hilton (today, there actually IS a Hilton hotel in Hanoi, oddly enuff).......

Outside of prison

John McCain's flight suit (SOOOORRRY about that - can't quite figure out how to force the pic to go vertical on LINUX......so you'll hafta turn them around yourself).

Pic of the North Vietnamese pulling John McCain outta the lake he crashed in after geting shot down

Pic of prison doctor checking McCain out shortly after being shot down

U.S. Pilot possessions

I loved this!!!!!!!! If you click on the pic, and try to zoom in onto the upper right-hand corner of the text, you can read the "I-KNOW-that-I-just-bombed-the-fuck-outta-your-country-but-I-just-crashed-please-help-me" sheet that the pilot gives to the first person that he comes across after crashing and PRAYS that they aren't V.C.

As this used to be a French prison, here we have the guillotine, where the French Colonialists used to behead Vietnamese men and women who were considered "dangerous elements" (today, we have Guantanimo).

OK....'nuff of the prison pics.....

......still, though....just as an aside: I was always told and led to believe that John McCain was put into a tiger cage and tortured an' shit. Not the way the (North) Vietnamese fotograff things. There are photos in the Hanoi Hilton of pilots attending Christmas Mass, playing basketball, escaping.....well.....OK....not escaping.....but still, it's kinda interesting what people on BOTH sides of the war say about certain things.....

A few American veterans of Vietnam were there whilst I was visiting. Neat....

Other pics......

Now, when you are walking down the sidewalk in Hanoi, and you see the pic above, do NOT assume that the shopkeeper has kids or that they left out a toy dining room set right on the sidewalk for the neighbourhood children to play with. This is actually what full-sized adults sit on whilst eating in front of a Pho place. So, I decided to give it a go.....

A fellow diner.....

Really good stuff, though.....

Always found eating Pho (or anything else for that matter) here quite fascinating. Fascinating in the respect that if you go to ANY Pho restaurant in Portlandia (and there are a LOT of 'em there), and you get a bowl of Pho, well, shit......you'll get something that will fill up ten Vietnamese people (or three Americans) for the entire day. Christ, it's literally served in a Goddamm MIXING BOWL (I have NEVER been able to actually FINISH an entire bowl of Pho at any Vietnamese restaurant in Portlandia)!!!

Walked around after lunch and snapped a few pics....

Hanoi actually has MORE skooters than Guangzhou. Thought THAT was impossible until I got here. Jesus.....every day here is like Sturgis, only with skooters instead of motorcycles (because you need special permission from the Government here if you wish to own a skooter or motorcycle over 125 cc's).

Gotta chuckle outta some things I saw on the street......