Holy Humidity

Another rainy day in Hanoi, typical temperatures for the area during March, but we have been told that as we head south the temperatures will dramatically increase. Bring on the heat! After breakfast this morning, we took a cyclo ride down to the Temple of Literature, beautiful gardens with scriptures of graduates during the 11th century. Large stone templates were enscripted with the names of the scholars, their hometown and degrees. There was an elementary school having some sort of musical concert, traditional music being played by 3 women in another courtyard and large statutes of Buddha and Confucius. After leaving, we headed to Hoa Lo Prison, the prison where political prisoners were held captivate for many years during the colonial period and was also used to hold American pilots during the Vietnam War. John McCain was imprisoned and tortured here for 7 years, though the museum told a different side to the story, calling it "an enjoyable place to be." Interesting...
It was very emotional, the stories and the images left me speechless. We have some photos of the prison, I'll post soon. The current prison is about 1/4 of the original size because Hanoi decided to destroy 3/4 of the historical site to construct 2 of the largest (if not, the largest) buildings in Vietnam.
Again we wandered around the streets in search of pho, which is rather difficult, considering most of the pho restaurants are on the streets with a lady selling the ingredients off her head (trying to avoid food poisoning as long as possible). Finally, we found a cute little restaurant, sat under an umbrella, and had a delicious bowl of beef pho for $1! Headed back to the hostel, where I told the owner that we thought the room was too big for us and wanted to find a smaller room--she immediately lowered the price by $8! We booked our HaLong Bay and Cat Ba Island tour for March 5-7th through Ocean Tours, a highly recommend agency. We leave Thursday at 8am, the ride is about 3 hours to HaLong Bay, board a Junk Boat, then cruise through the bay to the private island and stay in beach bungalows for 2 nights. Sounds lovely, hopefully the weather will better.
We arrive back to Hanoi on Saturday, March 7th around 430pm, then at 530pm we are taking a 12 hour bus ride to Hue, another cultural city along the coast of Vietnam. We booked an open bus ticket, we are able get on and off the bus as we choose. We are traveling from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh for $37, and hope to arrive in Ho Chi Minh within the next 2 weeks.
It's intimidating not having an itinerary but equally as invigorating. So far, what I've packed is been good, the only thing missing is an alarm clock and earplugs--such is life.