Virginia's Break (or not)!
Being of the Vietnam War generation (it's called the American War, here), I've been interested in some of the things we remember from the 60's. The people here are really friendly, and the country fascinating, but I must admit that when I hear or read some of the locations from that time--Gulf of Tonkin, Hue, even Hanoi--my blood runs cold. I had gone to the Hoa Lo prison (Hanoi Hilton, of POW fame) on our first full day in Hanoi and wanted to see the museum of the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Clare wanted a quiet day at the hotel with Faith and I needed a break, so I decided to head off on an adventure.
The museum is 13 km SOUTHWEST of the city and is in the same direction as the "silk village," which is a big tourist destination, so I asked the hotel desk to speak to the cab driver, and I showed him a map from my guide book, and we headed off! After navigating the city streets for a while, we got on a major roadway.
The sun was to my right. It was 9:00 in the morning. We were headed north!
After about 10 minutes, I spoke up. Of course the driver couldn't understand a word I said! Shortly, we turned left--at least now we were headed west. Another half an hour or so on a dirt road full of potholes (a woman was repairing the road by sweeping gravel into the holes), the driver stopped for directions. We turned south--good sign. After 20 minutes or so, we turned east--not a good sign.
All this time I was soaking in the scenery. This route took me through some wonderful rural villages that were very different from Hanoi--not the zany madhouse of people and vehicles. They looked very livable.
We were crossing a bridge on a ONE-LANE road behind a truck, with a truck and dozens of motor bikes coming at us. Impass! I was looking at my watch because the museum closes for lunch at 11:30 and it was already 10:30. We inched through with half-inches to spare. A while later, we came to a major intersection with a main street . The sign said Hanoi, 11 km to the left, and another town (in the direction I wanted to go) to the right.
At last, we're on the right road!
Within minutes (after stopping for directions once again), we turned into the driveway of what looked like a military installation. We were stopped by the guard. Trouble? No, he indicated we needed to travel down a dirt track to the right.
We finally got to the museum at 10:45, after more than an hour and 45 minutes of driving. It was closed for renovations!
We headed back to Hanoi on the main road. It took about 25 minutes!
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