Part 2 - Hanoi, Part 2

Humans think they are smarter than dolphins because we build cars and buildings and start wars, etc., and all that dolphins do is swim in the water, eat fish, and play around. Dolphins believe that they are smarter for exactly the same reasons. -Douglas Adams, writer, dramatist, and musician (1952-2001)

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Today's Vietnam is no longer "a war"; it is a country of nearly 90 million 
people, with a new generation eager to move on. 
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Hi again everyone: 

Last time I showed you many of the Hanoi sights that we first discovered on foot on our day of arrival and the next full day.  I will do likewise this time, revisiting, among other things, the busy streets.  But this time from a different perspective.

I should tell you that we met up with our Friends of Dave group of 12, with whom we traveled for the rest of our AMA Waterways Cruise/package.  That is, from this point on we were traveling with a guide or two, and a great fun group at each place we went.  Dave's friends are like that.

Above is the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, our first stop on a day full of fun (and some not-so-fun-but-interesting) surprises.  The mausoleum falls into the latter category.  It was inspired by Lenin's Mausoleum in Moscow, but incorporates some Vietnamese architectural elements, such as the sloping roof. The exterior is made of gray granite,  the interior is gray, black, and red polished stone.  

 Rules regarding dress and behavior are very strictly enforced by staff and the grumpy officious guards. Legs must be covered to below the knee, cameras are confiscated and returned after the visit.  Mine wasn't, confiscated that is...I guess the chunky little pack I wear on my belt confused them.  

 Visitors must be silent, and walk steadily in two lines. Hands must not be in pockets, arms must not be crossed. Smoking, drinking, eating, photography, and video taping are not permitted anywhere inside the mausoleum.  I did not risk sneaking a picture in there as spending the rest  of my vacation in a Hanoi jail just didn't appeal.  

 Okay, so we saw the body while diligently behaving all the rules (well I did, Steve had his eyes closed or something...dead bodies creep him out).

Next was the One Pillar Pagoda, a temple built of wood on a single stone pillar, and it's designed to resemble a lotus blossom, which is a Buddhist symbol of purity (since the beautiful lotus flower blossoms in a muddy pond). The temple was built by Emperor Lý Thái Tông, who ruled from 1028 to 1054. It was a little too crowded for us to climb up to, but you can get a glimpse of the shrine within in the slideshow at the end of this travelogue. 

Our next stop was the infamous "Hanoi Hilton".   The Hỏa Lò Prison was a prison used by the French colonists in Vietnam for political prisoners, and later by North Vietnam for prisoners of war during the Vietnam War.  That's when it was sarcastically called the "Hanoi Hilton".  The prison had been decommissioned,  and was mostly demolished during the 1990's, but the gatehouse was left as the museum we visited.

The prison was built in the 1860's by the French, when Vietnam was still part of French Indochina. The French called the prison Maison Centrale—literally, Central House, a traditional euphemism to denote prisons in France.  It was intended to hold Vietnamese prisoners, especially political prisoners agitating for independence, and who were often subjected to torture and execution.  It became a symbol of colonialist exploitation and of the bitterness of the Vietnamese towards the French.

The first American was sent there in 1964, during the Vietnam War, or as they called it, The American War.  It was but one site used by the North Vietnamese Army to house, torture and interrogate captured servicemen, mostly American pilots shot down during bombing raids.  But enough of the depressing stuff, let's have some beauty and fun!

Next we visited the Temple of Literature.  This beautiful (aren't they all) Confucian temple was built in 1070 and for nearly two centuries, despite the many wars and disasters, it has preserved many of the ancient architectural styles of many dynasties as well as the precious relics therefrom. 

 Major restorations to it took place in 1920, 1954 and lastly in 2000. 

Next came the aforementioned  wild and fun ride on the cyclos.  Almost everything happens in the streets in Hanoi. They resound with beeping horns and screeching brakes, and the traffic lights are still a relatively new phenomenon at most major intersections, and certainly not everyone obeys them. Women wind their way between the endless stream of motorbikes carrying baskets balanced on poles with freshly cut flowers, vegetables, fruits and chickens bound for market.  Steel girders are transported to building sites using either bicycles or a cyclo. 

The above pictures were sent by our wonderful Hanoi guide Quang Vu.

And yes, even live water buffalo are transported on motorbikes. 

 The city's sidewalks teem with entrepreneurs. Women set up portable food stands, and serve soups, rice, noodles, vegetables and fruit.  

We did eat the bananas, but the pineapple begs the question 'where and with what did she wash her hands?'.

Ah, there we were, in the thick of it all, first walking, then riding in our cozy cyclos, peddled  by our (hopefully) very experienced drivers.

This turned out to be a lot more fun than I had imagined, watching my driver taking me into seemingly impossible bottlenecks, and arriving safely on the other side unscathed and ready for another one.

In the slideshow you'll get to ride along and enjoy the excitement  and scenes along the way too, and observe that the coffeehouse craze is alive and well in Hanoi too.

Our last attraction of the day was a water puppet show.  I spent the whole day wondering what a water puppet even was, then later trying to figure out "how do they do that?".  Now I know, kinda, as will you, that water puppetry (Vietnamese: Múa rối nước, literally "puppets that dance on water") is a tradition that dates back as far as the 11th century when it originated as an amusement in the flooded rice paddies of northern Vietnam. Today's Vietnamese water puppetry is a high-tech variation on that ancient tradition.  All of the music was live, as provided by the orchestra above.

Internet photo

The puppets are made out of wood and then lacquered. The shows are performed in a waist-deep pool.  A long rod supports each puppet under the water and is used by the puppeteers, who are hidden behind a screen, to control them. Thus the puppets appear to be moving over the water. How they got them to dive over and under each other, and move so dang quickly, surely must have required some fast and muscular theatrics behind the curtain.  Can you move a 20 ft. long pole quickly through water?  I can't.  

Unfortunately the lighting in the theater was low, so my attempts to capture the fast-moving little devils were pretty hopeless, but I included a couple I took to give you an idea, and borrowed the one above one from the internet.  Simply an amazing show. 

  So to all that and more in the slideshow, go to full-screen (F11) mode and then click  

HERE

Next time we'll be in Ha Long Bay, where we overnighted on a junk.

Stay tuned... 

and please keep those comments and suggestions coming!  They are very much appreciated. 

Carl (& Steve)

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"Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please."

Mark Twain

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“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” 
Mark Twain

Part 1 - Hanoi

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Vietnam and the 60's-70s war remain deeply ingrained in the American memory even now, well after the last American fled Saigon in 1975. For Americans, the enduring image of Vietnam is a sight of helicopters lifting off from the roof of the American Embassy. America's collective memory shut down at that moment. 

But for the Vietnamese that was just the beginning -- the first chapter of a long, painful journey that is carrying them toward something they have not experienced in 2000 years: a combination of peace and potential prosperity. 

This communist country--one of the world's last--is moving toward a free-market economy to meet the demands of the Post-War-Generation. Although 80% of Vietnam's population lives in the relatively unchanged countryside, the cities are moving to a new beat. Motor bikes are pushing bicycles off the road, and in the last ten years, neon lights and skyscrapers have turned Hanoi's once austere streets into a modern city. 

Over half of Vietnam's population is under 25 and has no memory of what they call "The American War."  And with its rich history and culture, Vietnam is becoming a popular tourist destination. 

 Sourced from --Pete Peterson, PBS correspondent

Hi again everyone:

Welcome to the first part of our Vietnam and Cambodia vacation adventures.  This February we were there for about two-and-a-half weeks.  There are so many things we saw, did and learned  while there, and I hope to bring you the best of what we experienced in words and pictures, when we were allowed to take them anyway.  This was another Friends-of-Dave/AMA Waterways package, and like the others we've done with them, it was amazing.

The first stop for us was part of a pre-cruise extension, starting our visit in Hanoi. We arrived two days ahead of meeting up with our fellow pre-cruise packagers, and were glad for the extra time.

As you can see, things were pretty dressed up there, and that's because we were lucky enough to arrive during the ending of the celebration of Tết, or the Vietnamese Lunar New Year.  

We met up with our wonderful long-time friends David and Donine, who had just arrived from a week in Laos.  In fact we were just going from the airport to our hotel room when we met David in the hotel courtyard.  After tossing our stuff into our room and brushing our teeth, we headed out with them to discover what was around us.  

We immediately headed toward Hoan Kiem Lake in the city's Old Quarter. Much of Hanoi's past and present is tied up in this scenic body of water.  And walking through the special Tết decorations was a real plus.

Hoan Kiem Lake's name points to the 15th century legend that is said to lie beneath its depths. Hồ Hoàn Kiếm means "Lake of the Returned Sword", alluding to the legend that the to-be Vietnamese emperor Le Loi received a sword from a magic turtle at the lake's edge. Le Loi drove the Chinese out of Vietnam with the sword, which was then reclaimed by the turtle after the invaders had left.

The ghostly shrine above is the Turtle Pagoda, standing on an islet at the lake's center.  It pays homage to the aforementioned golden turtle.

After strolling among more beautiful flower displays that had been set up for the holiday, we next crossed the Huc (Morning Sunlight) Bridge, a graceful,  wooden bridge, going over to Ngoc Son Temple.  The temple is both a museum, and an active place of worship, where monks and devotees perform their religious duties.

We spent more time here two days later when the rest of our group caught up to us, but that's a travelogue tale for next time.

Another nice thing about being there for Tết was that we were there on a Saturday and Sunday, and everyone was decked out in all their finery, especially the mothers and their children.

 The children were so adorable we kept thinking how nice it would be to adopt one or two.  Really, who can resist this tiny little face?

 Even when they grow up, they're still small and cute...for a few years anyway...better we stick with cats though.

After the temple we continued around the lake and into Hanoi's Old Quarter.  

 The Old Quarter is shaped like a triangle, with streets named after the goods sold in them. We immediately encountered the narrow sidewalks, which force you to walk in the busy streets, as they have become parking places for Hanoi's main form of transportation as seen above, the motor bike.

Of course there were the persistent shopkeepers imploring you to check out their stuff, covering a wide range from delicious tropical fruit to Chinese knockoffs of name brand clothes, to fine silk shirts and bright lacquer ware.

 And of course, more Tết decorations.

As can be noted in these scenes, buildings are tall and narrow, and have a definite French influence.  In the 17th-19th centuries, in an effort to Catholicize the nation, French missionaries lobbied for a military and political presence there.  

The country was then colonized in the 18th century, the land was exploited over the next century, with the local residents forced into indentured servitude.

 The French influence is still very present in the form of architecture and exquisite culinary delights.  

We were warned not to eat any street fruit we didn't peel ourselves, which limited us to their wonderful and tiny bananas, although we were later told we could also have eaten any of the hot food served from their sizzling frying pans and steaming pots.  

Common sense however said that no matter how good that food might look or taste, why risk getting sick over it, so we held off for the very good restaurant fare.

I, being of an electrical bent, was fascinated by the jumbles of wires that were strung everywhere in town, like those above.  We were later told they were for internet and phone service, and that Vietnam has really done well with its high-speed internet service.  

And if you have a problem with it, the repairmen can magically figure out the problem in the maze and jumble, and restore service within the hour.

 Traffic in Hanoi is a real free-for-all, with the motor bikes ignoring the stoplights and skillfully passing right on through intersections and pedestrians with great dance-like precision...as long as they're not drinking, which they mostly reserve for Tết.  

We learned on our own the secret of crossing Hanoi streets was to wait for an small opening and start walking slowly across, making eye contact and keeping a steady pace so they know where you'll be, and can drive by accordingly.  It got to be quite a fun game for us...eventually.

One delightful scene for us to watch was a group of about a dozen older ladies dressed in their Sunday best, locking arms in a long line, and then slowly walking side-by-side into a very fast-moving and busy street, one we wouldn't have even tried to cross ourselves.  They moved slowly and cautiously across, successfully and safely arriving intact on the other side.  A sight to remember.

 The food the Vietnamese eat is always very fresh, with vegetables, fish and meat delivered to the street merchants daily at least.  For the city folk, much is cooked and eaten right out on the sidewalk, where the pots, pans and dishes are also washed.
 
It's a bit disturbing at first, but when you realize that each small, deep apartment houses five, six, or more families, the sidewalk is the only place for the kitchen.  And many make their living selling their street food to the locals.  It does look very delicious in most cases.  We however safely opted for a nice restaurant for our afternoon repast.

 

 Afterward, we continued our trek around the lake, enjoying the many scenes and Tết decorations along the way.

 

Above is the Ngoc Son Temple from the other side of the lake.

The next day we went the opposite direction and toward the old French Quarter, seeing the sights and visiting a couple of interesting temples.  

In the slideshow at the end of this travelogue, I have included some of the informational signs about some of the temples, etc.  If you want to learn more, just pause the show and read them.  

Some are quite interesting, as Vietnam has been through many wars, rulers and regimes over the centuries, and the temples have had many various and sundry uses depending on who was in charge, or which war was underway.

Below is the National Library of Vietnam, the outside of it anyway. 

Being Sunday, it was closed, but who needed books anyway with so much else to see and do there.  Donine had been a librarian for the State of California, so it was appropriate for her to pose there.

We had a great lunch in the quarter, and saw many more historic buildings in the French style, like the Hanoi Opera House.

In the slideshow are many of the other gorgeous and fascinating sights we saw before returning to our fabulous Sofitel Hotel Metropole. 

A lot of the buildings we saw (and photographed) had only Vietnamese lettering on them, so I don't know what they are, but they were attractive enough to photograph.

 The third day we meet up with our other extended-tour friends-of-Dave and set off for some new adventures, like a wild cyclo (rickshaw) ride through the crazy traffic in the old quarter.  Also, a visit to the infamous "Hanoi Hilton".  So I hope to have the next chapter ready very soon.

We'll also see some of the truly amazing things that can be carried on the back of a motor bike.

I have put the best of my pictures into a slideshow that I hope you'll take the time to watch.  I recommend, depending on where you are at the moment, that you'll grab a beer, a glass of wine, a cup of coffee, tea, the boss's secretary, whatever, then sit back and enjoy the slideshow by going to full screen mode (F11) if you haven't yet, and then clicking 

HERE.  

It will comfortably glide you through our first two days and hopefully give you a good feel for this wonderful place.

Next time, more adventures in Hanoi.

Until then be well, be safe, and be happy!

 Carl (& Steve)

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Before you marry a person,

you should first make them use a computer with slow internet 

to see who they really are.

 --Will Ferrell

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