Halong Bay

November 19, 2009.

For those of you following the photographic journey, I was not travelling with Jon McCain and Bill Clinton! Though I did get a laugh out of the fact that a couple people thought for a moment I was touring the Hanoi Hilton with Senator McCain. There wasn't much to photograph on museum day other than alot of museum photographs and horseshit propoganda. This one was a hoot.

The Hanoi Hilton display primarily depicts all the horrible things the French, who built the prison during their colonial years, did to the locals there. Undoubtedly the French did this.

One section of the Prison has an area dedicated to the "American War" as they call it. I would have thought after ten years they would have toned down the horseshit in that place. But if anything they made it worse. Numerous photos, some of which I posted, show American prisoners living the good life at the Hanoi Hilton. They make the place look like Camp Hess Kramer for pilots. (Jews will get this). They played basketball and volleyball, had drinks with the guards, had arts and crafts. I'm surpised they didn't refer to the guards as Counselors.

Here's the funny part. During the a/v display at the Hanoi Hilton musesum, the narrator describes the Tonkin Gulf Incident, in which North Vietnamese boats may or may not have taken some shots at U.S warships, as a fabrication which the United States used to justify the war. Many people assert the Tonkin Gulf incident never happened.

The government has another museum right down the street from the Hanoi Hilton called the Army Museum. It's the country's military history museum and has a vast collection of weaponry from the war including, by their own admission on the display, the exact torpedo tubes from which NVA boats shot at American destoryers in 1964. Amazing. They deny it on one street and then proudly admit it around the block.

On to happier subjects. Halong Bay. The last day and a half ranks amongst the best travel experiences i've had. While Halong Bay is not on anyone's "7 wonders" list that I know of, it well should be. Anyone with a travel bucket list should put this near the top. If you are into man made wonders, by all means see them. If you like god made wonders this is some of the creator's best shit to be sure.

TBC. Off to edit, then off to Laos very early in the morning.