Hanoi Hilton

In my last blog, I talked about Brian's little rooftop playground at out hotel. While watching Brian play I would look down at the old building directly next to his playground and wondered what it was. As it turns out, it is the famed Hanoi Hilton where John McCain was incarcerated during the Vietnam war. I also found out that 2/3 of the prison had been torn down in 1993 to build our high-rise hotel. So we are right on top of where all this took place!

Naturally I had to go down and tour the place. The prison was originally built by the French to contain, torture and execute Vietnamese people who were trying to overthrow French rule. It was quite brutal...the guillatines are still in place; even the pictures of all the heads that were cut off there.

In this museum there did seem to be a definite propagandist bent. Although the Vietnamese were subject to horrible torture and execution there, they only dedicated one paragraph to the fact that it was used from 1964-1973 as a POW camp for American pilots shot down in North Vietnam. They weren't exactly treated like royalty there. I toured a couple of cells and then went to the well-stocked gift shop (any chance to make a buck!). There they had pictures of Ho Chi Minh with children and it said "All children love Uncle Ho". I thought that was hilarious.

I had the last appointment with Kevin this afternoon and went to the U.S. Embassy for his Immigrant Visa interview. We will have the visa by 5:30 this afternoon and have an 11:50 flight to Seoul, Korea. We have had a wonderful visit that we will never forget but we are anxious to head home.