D11 Part 1: Good morning Vietnam! We've finally arrived here. Many months ago Jason and I were sitting around the dinner table talking about how we were going to travel to Australia after I finished residency and my mom asked if we were going to go anywhere else. I mentioned we were considering New Zealand or Fiji or Thailand or Vietnam. Dad perked up. "Vietnam? I've always wanted to go there." That settled it right then and there. Vietnam was added to our trip and our parents were to accompany us (although it took many more months to convince my mom to get on board with it). By the way mom says she's having a great time.

Today was such a huge day that I'm going to divide it into two parts. Several people have asked me how I find the time to write in between traveling and taking care of a newborn. Well, it takes a village and mom, dad, Jason, and random Asian tourists are quick to take her from my arms to allow me some extra time. Also I've only read one book for pleasure so far. It's called "When Breath Becomes Air" and if you read it without crying, you're not human. It's about a neurosurgeon who gets cancer at the age of 38. Read it, you won't regret it.

We started the morning at the Hoa Lo Prison, colloquially called the Hanoi Hilton. It is one of Hanoi's most famous tourist destination and most famous for housing the late and great John McCain for some time while he was a POW. The Hanoi Hilton was a highlight of this trip for sure. What a place.

Hoa Lo literally translates into fiery furnace and was so named because the area where the prison was built happened to be in a geographical location which sold stoves. The prison was built by the French in the late 1800s when Vietnam was still part of French Indochina, and mainly housed political prisoners. When Vietnam achieved independence from France on October 10th, 1954 the prison went under the authority of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and served as an education center until the Vietnam War when it inhabited American POWs. Coined the Hanoi Hilton by American POWs, the North Vietnam Army used the prison to house, torture and interrogate captured American servicemen. Calling it the Hanoi Hilton was very sarcastic as this place was anything but nice. It was overcrowded and disgusting. Torturing occurred using such methods as waterboarding, placing prisoners in metal barrels and then banging on them causing deafening sounds, placing their head between two rungs of a makeshift ladder and making them walk around with them, and several other methods. They had a guillotine they used regularly and put the heads on display in town. In the solitary chambers they chained feet to one end of the wall that was at an upslope and have no toilet so that not only did they have a constant headache from the blood flowing to their brain, anytime they did toilet, it would slope towards their head. What the prisoners endured is remarkable. Many died of infection, starvation, malnutrition, and suicide. Women had their own ward and many children lived there, not as prisoners, but were born out of rape between guards and prisoners. I got lost down a rabbit hole for over an hour reading about what some of the U.S. POWs went through, especially John McCain. The resilience one must have to survive over five years of continuous torture is extraordinary.

After all escaping the prison we headed to the Temple of Literature, also a Temple of Confucious, also the first University of Vietnam. Giang explained a lot during the hour and a half we were there about the history of the university, the temple, Confucianism, and so much more. But my brain was getting pretty saturated so I took a few points home.

1. There are catfish and dragons on the rooftops. Catfish symbolize students and represents when they start. As they finish university they become dragons. Dragons have superpowers.

2. The buildings are all red and face south. This is a feng shui thing. In feng shi, fire represents the south. South symbolizes virtue. Fire is red. Therefore the buildings are red.

3. The story of the turtle and crane representing a healthy and long life of happiness and the balance of yin and yang. The turtle needs water to live and during a long period of draught the crane flew by and helped the turtle to a place with water. Sometime later there was a period of flooding and the crane was exhausted and looking for a place to land but there was none. So the turtle offered it's shell for the crane to rest. Many temples, including this one, had images of them the turtle and crane together.

4. Students come to the Temple of Literature before exams to pray for good luck. Personally studying got me much further than prayer ever did.

5. Banyan trees (a type of fig) are a symbol of mystical and spiritual importance, also representing the independence of Vietnam, and, are bad luck to cut down. People often erect buildings around these trees.

Guys, I'm famous. Well, by association (Twila). I have spoken many times about how the culture here is with babies but today was on a whole new level. So, we are walking into the Temple of Literature when a group of about 10-15 tourists (Giang said they were Chinese) came up excitedly touching Twila, taking pictures of her, and selfies with her. I mean it was insane, like she was famous. No asking or anything. Then more people came up and there were 20 people around us snapping pictures and touching her (she was in the baby carrier on my chest). Then, later in the day it happened AGAIN two different times-at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and at the ice cream place! To us it seems rude to approach this way but Giang says it's totally normal. In the Asian culture babies symbolize luck and prosperity, which is why they take the photos. It is not rude in their culture to do this without asking permission. He said also that a lot of the tourists here may come from rural areas where they don't see white babies often and with TB's porcelain skin and light blue eyes, she is quite the star. I just wish I had done my hair or put some makeup on. I was so not camera ready.

After the temple we went to lunch. I'll continue the day in part 2.