While this is a bad picture, i thought it was important to place the picture of John McCain's flight uniform that was displayed at the Hanoi Hilton.

Looks like I forgot Day 7.

And, again, its really difficult to upload the pictures...

Day 7: Shopping Day and Hanoi Hilton.

First off, starting last night, I started having my first issues with the food, that plagued me throughout the day. I took some Cypro though in the morning and by the next day, I felt fine. But I spent the majority of the day just feeling bad.

We spent most of the day shopping, but started off the day with a sobering trip the Hanoi Hilton, where John McCain was jailed for five years. The prison was used by the French before the North took over Hanoi. The descriptions were mostly focused on the harsh treatment that the they faced while in the prison. Again, the propaganda was pretty thick. They had a large room dedicated to the American pilots that were there and tried to contrast the brutal treatment under the French with their claim of hospitable treatment of Americans. They had John McCain’s uniform, showed pictures of US Soldiers and had the propaganda information they used during the war to show how well the soldiers were treated. It was very interesting.

We headed over to the markets to do shopping. We spent some time on the cds and dvds but spent a good portion of the day buying silk, bamboo dishes, pictures and other goods. Our big purchase and something that we’re pretty excited about is the purchase of an all wood bar. Closed, it just looks like a cabinet, but you can open the doors, which have space for liquor bottles, and inside there is space for alcohol supplies, wine bottles and glasses. The top folds out to become a table. I think it will go great in our new place. We also think we got a good deal on it and if it turns out that we like it we have an email address of the shop and we can ask for other pieces of furniture. We purchased a couple of other things and as a gift, the owner gave Joanna a little lacquer box.

After a full day of shopping, we headed out to dinner at the Emperor. The Emperor was definitely more upscale and more expensive than Indochine, but it was amazing food and presentation. It was also the only place that we’ve been where we actually had to ask them to turn down the fans because we were cold. A few of us had the soft shell crab and it was fantastic.

We said goodbye to Thanda and her friend; as we are off to Halong Bay tomorrow.