Day 177 Jan 28 2015 Hanoi Vietnam

Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi

A statue of an Emperor in Hanoi

why not turn the sidewalk into a parking lot?  There is lots of space to walk on the street!

Hoa Lo Prison in Hanoi

Day 177  Jan 28 2015  Hanoi Vietnam

I have never seen so many scooters and motorcycles, the volume of them is minded boggling.  It is hard to walk down the sidewalk on the majority of streets in the old quarter of Hanoi as sidewalks are apparently a very good place to park your bike.  We even saw a parking lot for bikes set up on the sidewalk with an attendant taking money.   It seems that sidewalks are also a good way to go around all the other bikes and cars waiting at an intersection.  Red lights, walk signals, cross walks also seem to have no meaning.  When you need to cross the street you just step into traffic and walk across the street with cars and bikes weaving around you but never stopping, it is insane.  We had read about a scam where somebody will set up a business with the same name as a successful business and provide shoddy and corrupt service.  We stopped at a travel agents shop and got some prices.  The prices seemed very good with a new boat being promised for a Halong Bay tour.  Within 100 meters of leaving the shop we found another agency with the same name.  By the time we got back to our hotel we passed 5 different agencies with the same or very similar name.  A google search revealed that the original company had changed their name because they had so many copy cats giving the name a bad reputation.  We started our day with a walk to the lake in the center of the Old Quarter of Hanoi.  On the way we walked past the Lotus Water Theater and decided to purchase tickets for the 5 pm show.  As we were walking around the lake a woman walked up to me, grabbed me and kissed my cheek.  I pulled back as she was trying to kiss my other cheek and she let go.  I also grabbed my wallet through my pants as she grabbed me.  I don’t know if she wanted to kiss me because I am so good looking or she was going for my wallet.  I am pretty sure it was the second reason but I can always hope.  To top off the situation, Evy was upset that I “let a stranger kiss me”, women are not rational beings.   After completing our walk around the lake we went to the Hoa Lo Prison which was called Maison Centrale by the French and also referred  to by the American prisoners of war as Hanoi Hilton.  The prison was used by French colonists for political prisoners and the by the North Vietnamese for prisoners of war during the Vietnam War.  As we were walking through it Isabel said “I am going to have nightmares tonight”.   We finished touring the prison with just enough time to walk to the puppet theater.  I was hoping for a puppet show of the caliber that I saw a few times in Merida but it was not near as good.  The puppet show was entertaining but I would not go back to see it again, it might have been better if I understood the language.  We got turned around on the walk back to the hotel and walked a few blocks in the wrong direction.  I finally stopped at a shoe store to ask where we were.  While I was getting directions and trying to get us out of the stressful situation of being lost, Evy found the courage to shop for a pair of sandals for David.  When we got back to the hotel I had to go to the bathroom desperately.  I got into the elevator and started to go up to the 6^th floor while David walked the stairs.  When the elevator stopped on the 1^st floor and nobody got on I thought nothing of it.  When it stopped on the 2^nd floor I started to get a little suspicious.  By the 3^rd floor I had very little doubt and by the 4^th floor I heard a boy hiding around the corner from the elevator laughing.  The little brat had run up the stairs and pushed the call button on every floor to delay my trip the bathroom.