Hanoi

The second day in Ha Long, Vietnam allowed us to do a private van tour to the capital, Hanoi. It as a very long day as it is a 3.5 hours each way from Ha Long to Hanoi. Who said vacations were relaxing.

This crowded and busy city of 4 million people sports the prison called the "Hanoi Hilton" by downed American pilots such as Senator John McCain

Hanoi is also the home of the Vietnamese hero Ho Chi Minh whose Tet Offensive led to the "liberation" of Vietnam from the Americans. He has become an object of veneration.

While most North Vietnamese endorse "free thinking" in religious matters, they also pray to their ancestors and heroes. These include nominal Catholics and Buddhists who hedge their bets in this way!!

The temple of Literature, built for Confucius was a nice change from Buddha. We are getting Buddhaed-out (new word). Confucius is treated as a dirty as well. He may deserve it more than the others as he at least had some wise observations!

We are currently heading towards Canton so technically we are in China - the northern end of the South China Sea in the Hainan Strait. We have a full day tomorrow in Canton (now called Huangpu).

Most of the ports have accepted US$$ but when we first arrive at a new country our ship arranges for money-changers to board. It is really wonderful to be on a smaller ship as we are able to get into smaller ports, consequently we don't see a lot of other cruise ships. When we arrived at Ha Long City we were able to go under the bridge into the main port but there was only about 10 meters to spare. There is a port pilot that come on board in almost all the ports.