McGan Monument at Truc Bach Lake in Hanoi Vietnam is a prized monument commemorating bringing down a U.S. fighter pilot during the Vietnamese War. I debated about whether or not to share this but it was important to my guide who was giving me the local flavor. My “tour guide” in Hanoi drove me around on the back of his motorcycle fortwo days and showed me his favorite stops. After we went to his favorite coffee shops and restaurants he wanted to show me what he was proud of and we made several stops at monuments celebrating Vietnamese victory over the US. While I’m not a reportage photographer or historian, I do think things like this are important to visit and share. So much of what I see when traveling has to do with national pride and how a people and country have claimed the ground and literally the soil where they live.
