Thursday, February 14. Cold and clear.
It is amazing how the passage of time changes so many things. Think about the names of places that grabbed the headlines years ago and nobody in their right mind would think of going to, at the time.
To name some that we know of, familiar here in Canada.
Paschendale, Vimy Ridge, The Somme, and Verdun in WWI.
Berlin, Stalingrad, Dieppe, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, even Paris in WWII.
Hanoi and Saigon in the Vietnam War days.
Now, Bagdad, Allepo and numerous other places today in the middle east.
All those places suffered unimaginable horrors in their days of conflict. Now, except for the middle East, those places are major tourist attractions.
I find it very hard to believe that we will soon be residing in The Sofitel Legend Metropole Hotel in beautiful downtown Hanoi, North Vietnam. A 5 Star Hotel. [We will see.] We are staying there to get over jet lag before seriously touring.
I suppose it depends upon the age of the observer, but I remember seeing pictures on the nightly news of US Air Force bombers dropping strings of bombs around there.
I also suppose that if I was 19 years old, born in 2000, there would not be any stigma attached to visiting there. I am rather interested to see how I handle the situation, mentally. Will I have a bias, or put a slant on what appears to be the situation? Who knows?
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