Doll street

Today was a busy day of sightseeing. After a mediocre breakfast at a traveler's cafe (I'm having trouble finding anything else), I walked around the Old Quarter for a few hours, getting lost in the maze of narrow streets and alleys. In a way it's similar to the French Quarter in New Orleans, only more chaotic. Luckily it was less crazy than last night. I think because yesterday was Saturday, the whole city was out cruising around on their motorbikes.

I like the way each street has a specialty, and the proprietors sit outside their shops, with their wares on display on their walls. There's the plastic toy street, the baby supply street, the welding street, the Happy Buddha street, the Chinese lamp street, and on and on.

Then I checked out a couple temples. It was nice to get a break from Buddhas, and look at statues of Confucius instead. I was amazed to watch people offering money by burning it, until I saw the pile of fake white $100 bills.

Then I went to the Hoa Lo Prison, a.k.a. the "Hanoi Hilton." There wasn't much to see. The few exhibits focused on French colonialist mistreatment of Vietnamese patriots, and there were a few implements of torture on display, as well as murals of khaki clad Frenchmen beating Vietnamese, while crowds of prisoners looked on, shouting and raising their hands in defiance.

Two small rooms were filled with pictures of smiling American P.O.W.s. An inscription reads:

From August 5, 1964 to January 24, 1973, US government carried out two destruction wars by air and navy against Northern Vietnam. The Northern Army and people brought down thousands of aircrafts and captured hundreds of American pilots. Part of these pilots were detained in Hoa Lo Prison by our Ministry of Interior. Though having committed untold crimes on our people, but American pilots suffered no revenge once they were captured and detained. Instead they were well treated with adequate food, clothing and shelter. According to the provisions of Paris Agreement, our government had in March 1973 returned all captured pilots to the US government.