The Intrepid Travels of Julie and Tony: The last three days

Monday we went walking again, this time we headed to the first university which is the Temple of Literature and then onto the jail - Hoa Lo Prison or the Hanoi Hilton built by the French in the late 1800's and the Vietnamese used it again for the Americans.

Photo taken inside the temple

Some of the grounds outside.

I was asked to buy 3 bananas for $2US and we said no any the lady put this on my shoulders and her hat on my head and I know I couldn't walk around like that all day selling - rather heavy.

Monday night was the welcome dinner at the hotel and as I decided to be vegetarian for the conference, my meal started out with salad and grilled vegetables followed by a very large French onion soup (Tony had to finish that for me) and then penne pasta with a Napoli sauce which was lively, far too much food for me. Most of the other food (it was buffet) had prawns in it.

Tuesday I went into the conference sessions in the morning and then did a bunker tour of the hotel. The tour was the history of the hotel which was built in 1901 by the French and they have a bunker underneath which was used during the war as Joan Baez was sheltered there.

Dinner last night was at Wild Rice, lovely restaurant, it was like a banquet meal sharing plates between three and again I had my own menu as most of the other stuff had prawns, I ended up with twice as much food as everyone else.

This morning we had a tour of the city. First stop Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. You are not allowed to talk as you walk through and no photos only outside. Then for a ride on a rickshaw which was about a 40 to 50 minute ride, we were then taken to the temple of literature, which Tony and I had already seen but it was different today as today is the 1st of July here so it is a day to give thanks.