Hanoi - Day 1

 Our internal clocks are a little out of whack, but we were both up early this morning.  We had a nice breakfast in the hotel restaurant,  They had a really cool buffet with an assortment of both western and Vietnamese foods.  I decided to go native and tried three different fruits I had never had before:  Rambutan, Dragon's Eye (Longan) and bonbon fruit (Langsat).  All were round, with a tough outer shell and a flesh that reminded me of kiwi, but not as tart.  My breakfast also featured a fresh spring roll, some stir-fried noodles and some Vietnamese ham. I washed it all down with passion fruit juice and hot tea.

After breakfast, our guide and driver picked us up we drove to a small lake in the middle of down with remnants of a downed B-52 bomber.  We met Mr. Zhung at the lake and he spent the rest of the morning as our window into the war through the eyes of a North Vietnamese solder.  Mr. Zhung joined the infantry in 1972, stopping out after his second year in University.  He was soon transferred from the Infantry to a "technical battalion" where he helped man an anti-aircraft battery.  

The wreckage we observed at the time had fallen into a lake in the middle of fields of flowers. Since then, the area has been absorbed by the City and is now surrounded on all sides by businesses and apartments.  This little lake seems weirdly out of sorts in the middle of town.  It has been left as a war memorial.

Mr. Zhung's unit did not shoot this particular bomber down, although he said they did shoot three B-52s during his tenure.  The wreckage was saw was downed by a battery from Haiphong, to the east.  They had covered Hanoi that night because Mr. Zhung's unit was down to only two missiles.  Missiles were manufactured at three different locations around Hanoi, but US air superiority made it nearly impossible to move the weapons to the batteries.  They could only move them at night.

Mr. Zhung stayed with us for two additional stops on our tour.  After leaving the lake, we drove to the military headquarters for the Vietnamese Army.  This was located in an 11th century citadel that the French took over when they occupied Indochina in 1890's.  The French used it as their military headquarters until 1954 when they left the region.

During the war with the US, a secret facility was built on the site.  It had a normal budling on top that was used for senior command staff, but 9 meters below as a large bunker that was used in the event of bombings by the US.  The bunker had offices, conference rooms and sleeping quarters for the general staff and Ho Chi Minh, but "Uncle Ho" never actually used the facility because of his failing health.

Our last stop of the tour was a visit to "Maison Centrale" the prison complex built by the French to hold Indochinese Political prisoners. It was used for this purpose from 1899 to 1954. Built to house 500 prisoners, it often held upwards of 2,000.  

Dioramas of pollical prisoners in Maison Centrale

Mr. Zhung.  Behind him are photos of his Anti-aircraft unit.

Starting in 1964, the facility began being used to lodge the crews of downed US planes and gained the nickname "Hanoi Hilton."  It was chosen as the POW site because of its central location in Hanoi and the hopes that the US wouldn't bomb an area where their own captured airmen were being kept.

John McCain's flight suit

I really enjoyed my time talking with Mr. Zhung.  Although he lived through the war and fought against the US for five years as a soldier, he holds no animosity towards the US or American citizens.  After the war, he returned to University and finished a degree in international relations.  He then want to Budapest and received a doctorate in foreign policy.  He speaks five languages:  Vietnamese, French, English, Russian and Hungarian.

We spoke of the hope that someday humans would stop waging war against each other.  As we looked at photos of bombed out Hanoi in the 1970's we both remarked at how similar they looked to current photos of Gaza.   

 After saying goodbye to Mr. Zhung, we stopped at a newly open fusion restaurant for lunch.  The place was actually closed because they were doing a photo shoot for their menu, but Phil talked them in to feeding us.  Phil asked if he could order for us and I'm so glad he did.  Our menu:  Mango smoothy (Shirley), Pho beer (Greg), green mango salad with prawns, fresh spring rolls, catfish steamed in banana leaves and fried spring rolls with pork.

Pho beer - not too unlike a winter ale.

 

Green Mango Salad with Prawns

Steamed Catfish in banana leaves