ASCEND & WANDER

  Steps outside from the hotel after getting in Immediately found evening pho You will see lots of tourists walking around the Old Quarter. It has most of the government buildings that were built in traditional ways and also tons of cafes around and places to eat.  Socialist Propaganda Street Art Scooters galore American Heavy Bomber that was shot down during the Vietnam War Right in the middle of the city B-52 Military Museum. It is phrased as the celebration of shooting down B-52 bombers and defending the city of Hanoi Senator John McCain Temple of literature Stone stelae and Ancient Confucian relics  Green street of Hanoi at night Intersection from our hotel room  Suburbs upon leaving the city center Many construction crews sitting down for a quick and simple yet delicious and complete meals. Beats the American sandwich anyday  Hoa Lo Prison The lakes were gross and even had sewage odors. Many of the larger fish were dead and floating also. Yet people are sti...

  MacLehose Trail  Sections 3-4 on the trail. Some people camp overnight. A decent amount of others were going sections with running vests. There seemed to be a lack of just normal day hikers like me. The trail is a great way to do a through hike with a day pack and still find a way into a city with good transit options and the ability to end your day at a hotel.  I walked south from the hotel to Pok Cheun Street and tried to the reach the trail from the end of a bus turn around and water reservoir but the trails on the my map were too overgrown and it could have possible to descend down a water channel into this gulley where the official trail was but I called it and backtracked along a Powerline access trail to rejoin the official route lower down. One of my biggest surprises about the trails around here is how you can never know about the condition just from looking at the maps. There are tons drawn onto Gaia but multiple times I have found myself unable to follow it w...