Day 1 in Hanoi, Vietnam was action packed so you’ll have to bear with me as this page is a long one. Some background information: Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam and is in the northern part of the country. With this information in mind, it made sense that our day tour of Hanoi would start at Hoa Lo Prison, also called the Hanoi Hilton by US pilots that were captured and sent here during the Vietnam War. Prior to the Vietnam War this facility was also used as a prison by the French colonists to hold Vietnamese political prisoners. Below is an aerial shot of the prison:

Additional pictures from the Hanoi Hilton:

After Hanoi Hilton, we went down the street to the Temple of Literature, a temple of Confucius. It was built in 1070, originally as a school but later became a temple, and was the first university in Vietnam. The area is large with many different courtyards, but when we arrived to the center we found out that school seemed to be in session for many young learners:

The Temple of Literature seemed like a very peaceful place and it was easy to see why students would come here to learn.

Additional pictures from the Temple of Literature:

After the Temple of Literature we went to the Thu Houng Lacquer Arts facility where we learned about Vietnam’s history with making lacquer materials. It was very cool learning about the process (it can take over 40 days to make these pictures!) and seeing the process as it was being completed by the workers.

Additional pictures from Thu Houng Lacquer Arts:

After lunch and later in the afternoon, we had our first plenary meeting in Vietnam. We ended up going to a bank’s office where the bank had actually dedicated an entire floor to startups in Vietnam and was essentially letting the groups work without interference from the bank. The main focus was on how Vietnam was trying to use technology to disrupt their country (and beyond). Below are some pictures from the event:

After the Fireside Chat with Kellogg event we headed to dinner where Dan Keeler, our professor from the Wall Street Journal, gave a rousing good speech reminiscing about our past in Cambodia and the future we still had in Vietnam.

A group dinner was a great way to end our first day in Vietnam. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and called it a night. Click here for our second and last day in Hanoi which was much more laid back.