Our first stop for the day was the `Hanoi Hilton` as it was colloquially known by the US POWs or Hoa La Prison Museum. It mainly deals with the French occupancy, but there is one section about the US pilots who were incarcerated there - detailing the easy time they had (?). Then onto the Vietnam Ethnology museum. This was a really interesting museum, detailing the lives, houses, costumes and customs of all the 54 ethnic groups that make up this nation. In the grounds of the museum they have many of the dwellings for different groups recreated and you can walk inside them and get a feel for how they really lived. Some groups have a patriarchal linage as we do, but many groups have a matriarchal one, with the youngest daughter inheriting all. After a wander round the `Old City` and saw all sorts of streets - glasses street, sewing street, paint street, underwear street, shoe street etc - very novel idea! The house frontage on some of the buildings is not much more than a metre wide, as just like the windows tax in England here they had frontage tax so many buildings are very narrow and high. Then we went to a traditional water puppet show which was very good and different to anything we have seen. Checked out a Bia Hoi stall after the show where beer is brewed and sold in the one day. Interesting taste, but dont think we will be chasing up to much of this.
