I saw a woman kill a chicken this morning. On the street. On purpose. She took it out of a cage, broke it's neck, and started plucking feathers. Just like that. Like it was just a regular, everyday occurrence (which maybe to her it was). I suspect it was meant to be part of breakfast, but I didn't stick around long enough to find out. I suppose that's what you get when you get up uber-early to go exploring....good to know...

I discovered that the best way to explore Hanoi's Old Quarter was to get up as early as humanly possible. Why? Because if you can get up at the crack of dawn, while you may unfortunately see a woman slaughtering her own chickens, you also beat the majority of the motorbike mayhem....well some of it anyway. So off I went on a walking tour recommended by my trusty Lonely Planet guidebook. Now, the guide book says to study the map, and then put it away and refer to it discreetly, as to not appear too much like a tourist. That worked for me for about thirty seconds. At which point I realized that A) I was definitely going to get lost using this technique, and B) I was the only white person walking the streets at 7am. Pretty sure they pegged me for a tourist the minute I stepped onto the street. So out came the map. I consulted it literally every ten feet or so and didn't get lost once. A true feat when street names change every few blocks and some of the side streets don't even have names. If you have forgotten from yesterday, let me remind you that streets in the Old Quarter tend to sell only one thing, which I think is great in theory....but who really need as entire street selling paint primer? Purses, kids toys, scarves, these things make sense. Try shovel street and mannequin street (you heard right, I said mannequins....who need that many mannequins...it was kind of creepy).

The second order of the day (walking tour was the first obviously) was buying toothpaste. I accidentally left mine on the plane and the nice girl working at the desk let me borrow hers, but now it was time to scout out some of my own. I can do this, I thought, I can buy toothpaste in Vietnam. And I did. I found a pharmacy, walked in, acted out teeth brushing to two girls behind the counter (I'm sure they had a good laugh after I left), and purchased myself some Aquafresh.

Which brings me to the shower story (I'm going to get to Hanoi stuff at some point, I promise). So my bathroom is what I like to call the toilet/shower combo. This means that there is no separate shower stall, just a shower head hanging above the toilet. Although I had expected this in theory, as they are fairly common in guesthouses in SE Asia, I was still a bit apprehensive about the whole situation. Essentially, you just have to accept the fact that everything in the bathroom is going to get soaked.

Moving on. I walked out to the Temple of Literature in the late morning and it turned out to be the perfect time to go. The sun had just come out and started to burn off some of the morning haze and the light coming through the trees had a really cool misty quality to it. After walking around, I just sat for a bit and watched the tour groups come through. It made me happy that I wasn't with a big group. I could just sit there for hours if I wanted to. Anyway, the Temple of Literature is also known as the Temple of Confucius and was the site of the first university in Vietnam.

From the temple, I moved onto the Hoa Lo Prison, aka the Hanoi Hilton. The prison was built by the French when Vietnam was part of French Indochina and was used to house and execute Vietnamese political prisoners. It was later used during the Vietnam War (here, interestingly enough called the American War) to hold American POWs including John McCain. It was the Americans who dubbed the prison the Hanoi Hilton. US history books will tell you of the torture and cruel interrogation techniques that the American prisoners were subjected to. The exhibit inside the prison tells a much different story. There are photos on the walls of the American POWs decorating for Christmas, going to mass, playing basketball, and receiving gifts from the guards upon their eventual release. None the less, it was interesting to visit.

I'm signing off for now. I met two Brits today at lunch and we are going down the street for a few Tiger Beers (Mshell, why aren't you here with me?!?!). Perfect way to relax and wind down, provided I don't get hit by a motorbike.....

NB: For those who are interested in more history of the places that I mention, I recommend Wikipedia. :)