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FEB 13, 2015       Morning Point of Franklin (Senior  Living Community)

 

 

 

FEB14, 2015          Bistro 226  (Fine Dining Restaurant/Bar  in Bargersville IN)  7pm-9pm

 

 

 

FEB 17, 2015         Christina Place (Senior Living Community, Franklin, IN )

 

 

 

FEB 21, 2015         Teddy's Burger Joint (Indianapolis, IN)  6pm till 9 pm

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Hanoi, Vietnam

Things took a turn for the interesting in the city of Hanoi. We started the excursion with usual stops including the old French Governor’s mansion, the living quarters of the communist leader Ho Chi Mihn, and his mausoleum structured much as the one built for Lenin in Moscow. Apparently, after defeating the French forces in 1955, Ho Chi Mihn opted to live a spartan life right next to the governor’s mansion until his own death in 1969.

We visited the prison built by the French in 1898 for incarcerating and/or executing Vietnamese patriots. There still stood the giant guillotine and a half dozen of the cells.(the heads were nowhere to be found however) After 1955, the prison housed POW’s of the vietnam war including many American soldiers and airmen. In fact, unbeknownst to me, John McCain resided here while enduring all forms of torture at the hands of the North Vietnamese. The information about John McCain became known to me by way of the unfortunate incident that occurred. There were several American veterans in my tour group who presumably wanted to go back and see the status of these places where they once served and possibly had been contained. Unfortunately, I don’t think they or anyone with them knew the impact of this place on them emotionally.

Their emotions heightened not through an expression of sadness, but rather, an expression of anger and resentment. Before the tour started, I knew of one veteran airman in our group. His hat said “Airforce,” but his words I won’t forget. We had just gotten off the cruise ship and were waiting for our bus to take us to Hanoi. He looked at me and said, “You see that bridge over there?” I looked to the horizon and saw a huge bridge enjoining two land masses with the sea in between them. The bridge probably spanned a mile in length. He said, “That bridge is new. My squad took that bridge out during the War.” He seemed very amicable and almost jestingly recalled the ordeal.

As we walked through the prison in Hanoi, there were televisions with antiquated coverage of the war through the perspective of the north Vietnamese. I started hearing the voices of veterans saying, “It sure is easy for the winners to say what they want.” I didn’t know how to respond. To me, it was just a boring news broadcast, but these guys were fuming. Keep in mind also, there were Vietnamese guards here at the prison. Maybe they were there to ensure that people paid the admission, but their presence may have added to the unrest. As the group started to walk out, one of the veterans said to his wife, “Turn that thing off” (her camera). Then he raised his voice to our guide saying, “Where were they tortured? I want to see where John McCain and all the other Pow’s were tortured.” The guide’s English was a bit broken and he stammered trying to explain that the prison only remains partially preserved. There wasn’t any way of knowing where John McCain’s cell had been. This answer did not satisfy the Veterans. “Everyone knows that this is where they were tortured, and we came here to see the exact place.” Everyone grew quiet. You could have heard a pin drop. The silence went on for about 40 seconds or so. Then I decided to say something because nobody else seemed to know what to say. I began, “Excuse me sir. Are you by chance a Veteran?” He replied, “A lot of us are, but we don’t talk about it.” Then I looked right at him and said the one thing I thought he needed to hear. “Thank you.” He just nodded his head and looked down. His wife hugged him and other wives hugged their husbands who also were probably veterans too. It was very emotional. It brought tears to people’s eyes to experience these emotions even second-hand as we saw these veterans struggle to come to terms with their past and the meaning of all their suffering.

Then we went to lunch. I sat with my Veteran buddies, but we didn’t talk at all about what happened or about their wartime experiences. We just chatted about the food and my life working on the ship. People always like to ask me what it’s like to live on a boat although I can assure you that shore leave is much more interesting than boat life.

After lunch, our entire tour took a taxi ride around the downtown area. The taxi basically resembled a oversized golf cart, open on all sides, with only one passenger seat and two back seats. I couldn’t believe the number of people crossing the streets, motorcycles swerving back and forth, no traffic lights, no lanes of any sort, and no accidents.

As we walked through the streets of the old French quarter, I could not fathom everything I saw. People were roasting ducks on the sides of the street. They were slicing up raw meat and selling it while flies were already landing on it. Shops and trinkets, clothing, electronics, everything lined the streets with people and motorcycles everywhere.

I ended up going into a little trinket store to buy a couple confucius figurines, and while standing there, the lady said, “Here, try this food.” She put a spoon in my mouth and I tasted what seemed to be an egg. I asked, “what is it?” Then I looked down and saw large egg broken open with the embryo of a duck in it. I said, “Is that a duck!?” She replied, “Here, try the head.” Then she proceeded to decapitate the embryo duck with the spoon. By the time she looked up, I was out the door like a flash of lightening.

I figured I’d be sick by the end of the day, so I went ahead and threw caution to the wind and tried some of the other street food within moderation. I didn’t eat any meat, but I bought some ....well, I still don’t know what they were...but they looked like fried donuts. After biting into them, I realized that the inside had any egg texture to it. The outside had sugar on it like a donut. Weird, but pretty good tasting. Needless to say, I did not get sick, although I think two words sum up this culinary Vietnamese experience.....”Parasite Cleanse.”

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