Tim was "off" today, which usually means he's working. We had a nice breakfast together, then I hung out while he logged on to his computer in the hotel room and got some work done. It was late morning when we went out for Tim's first look at the city on foot. We were already dripping from the heat when we reached Hoan Kiem Lake.
views of the Hanoi Opera House
Covered lady hides from the sun in front of the
Hanoi Stock Exchange
It is common to carry your shade with you
bride and groom posing for pics
We intended to just walk around the lake, but an enthusiastic bicycle taxi driver talked us into an hour ride. The cyclo is a three-wheeled bicycle taxi, with the driver in the back, and a seat with an awning in the front. We broke a cardinal rule and didn't negotiate a price ahead of time, but he had such a nice smile. We said we were too heavy for him to take both of us, and he immediately produced a second taxi. So with me in one, and Tim in the other, we embarked on a slow tour of the streets of old Hanoi. Tim saw my driver take a hit of something from a pipe at the onset of our tour; probably needed it to survive this "taxing" fare. I questioned whether we were doing these guys a favor by giving them our business - did I mention how hot it was?
the canopy over the cyclo
We expected them to stay along the side of the road, but they headed right out into the middle of the busy street. Drivers here must be used to sharing the road with all manner of vehicles, and everyone calmly went around us. We kind of expected a ride around the lake, but they headed into the narrow streets of the Old Quarter instead, which turned out to be full of interesting sights and smells. Several times my driver said, "Photo, Madame," and he would point out something I imagined his many riders before me took pictures of.
bamboo ladders for sale
Hanoi old city gate
When our hour was up, they pulled over quite a way from where they picked us up, but the lake was in site. Vendors descended on us as we pulled out our money to pay the bicycle taxi drivers. We didn't have much bargaining power regarding our fares at this point, but felt that they certainly earned their money on this hot day.
We played a little Frogger as we crossed the busy street, and walked across the Huc Bridge (Huc means "morning sunlight") to Jade Island where the Temple of the Jade Mountain sits. We didn't pay the entry fee to go in, but enjoyed the view from the bridge. We strolled along the edge of the lake, and enjoyed the view of Thap Rua (Turtle Tower) out in the middle.
Common to see these long tops with open sides
Thap Rua
We stopped back at the hotel, then walked a short distance in the opposite direction to the National Museum of Vietnamese History. This beautiful old building is an combination of French and Chinese architecture, known as Indochina architecture. It was originally part of the French School of the Far East, which was opened in 1910. The museum is actually comprised of two buildings, this original building housing artifacts from 400,000 years ago up until the August 1945 revolution.
The second building houses the Vietnam Museum of Revolution. From Wikipedia:
Topics covered...are the National liberation movements of the Vietnamese against French troops before the Vietnamese Communist Party was established in the period 1858–1930, the National independence struggle of the Vietnamese under the leadership of the Communist Party from 1930–1975 and then the social construction of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam from 1976–1994.
It was most interesting to learn about the tremendous struggles of this country over the last 150 years, and to see the issues from their perspective. While the ancient artifacts seem much the same in every culture, this second building makes clear what has uniquely shaped the character of the Vietnamese people.
We walked back to the hotel to get cleaned up for the evening. We met Tim's boss and his wife for drinks, then walked a short distance from the hotel to El Gaucho Argentinian Steakhouse. Anita and I spotted this place earlier, and thought it looked like someplace the guys would like. We were not mistaken. This place was pricey, but we had the best steaks we've had in a very long time. And we enjoyed complimentary shots of icy-cold caramel vodka to finish off a wonderful meal.
multi-million-dollar steaks!
Our dinner companions headed back, while Tim and I checked out a music venue nearby, the Swing Lounge. This upstairs lounge was crowded with Vietnamese twenty-somethings. A woman riding the elevator up with us asked, sincerely, what we were doing there! We said we just wanted to hear some music. We were squeezed onto two little stools at the bar, with no room to move. We ordered a B-52 and a Blue Love, and listened a while to a good pop singer and a great fiddle player. It struck me as odd that no one was moving to the music; everyone sat quietly in their seats, or looked at their cell phones. We wondered if perhaps these were warm-up acts, but we soon decided to give up our little stools and walked back to the hotel. We lingered in the lobby for a bit, then hit the pillows.
busy bartenders
It was so loud, we had to use sign language
The opera house at night - lovely
We watched coverage of the attempted coup in Turkey as we ate breakfast the next morning. I'd arranged for an escort from Hanoi Free Tour Guides, a non-profit organization that allows students an opportunity to practice their English (or other languages), and be ambassadors for their city. The only expense is to pay for their transportation, entrance fees and any food or drink. Our guide, Tien, was an awesome twenty-one-year-old engineering student who was also studying German, so he practiced both languages with us. He called for a taxi that took the three of us to the Museum of Ethnology.
The Museum of Ethnology documents and celebrates the fifty-four different ethnic minorities of Vietnam, the Viets being the major ethnic group. It was fascinating to see the huge variety in dress and customs, many influenced by Chinese culture. The area devoted to weddings and funerals was particularly interesting. Some cultures bury their dead, then run quickly away from the burial site. Others dig up the dead after two years, clean the bones, and place the remains in an ossuary or stone box. On the way, we'd seen people, in a van carrying a deceased person, throwing paper "money" out the window as they went, to lead the lost spirits back to their rightful place. Many of the rituals are based on superstition. The worship of Mother Goddess was displayed here as well.
Tien explained how each village specialized in a particular craft
Symmetry is very important on a
mother goddess altar
ceremony to communicate with deceased loved ones
Black Thai ethnic minority
Outside, we had a cool drink (no A/C inside), watched a bit of a small water puppet show (not nearly as good as the one we saw the first night), and saw some structures from a traditional Vietnamese village.
community houses were built tall so villagers
could easily find their way back
one stairway for men, one for women -
can you guess which is which?
Tien called another taxi, and we rode to our next stop, the "Hanoi Hilton." Hoa Lo Prison, labelled Maison Centrale by the French, and known to Americans as the "Hanoi Hilton," was built by the French colonists to house Vietnamese political prisoners in horrible, subhuman conditions. It was then used by the North Vietnamese to hold and torture American POWs in the 1960s. Only one small part of the prison remains; the rest was demolished in the 1990s to make room for two high-rise buildings. Evidence of the imprisonment of Americans was scarce here; the primary focus was the inhumane treatment of Vietnamese prisoners by the French - both were horrific. Again from Wikipedia:
Only part of the prison exists today as a museum. The displays mainly show the prison during the French colonial period, including the guillotineroom, still with original equipment, and the quarters for male and female Vietnamese political prisoners.[23] Exhibits related to the American prisoners include the interrogation room where many newly captured Americans were questioned (notorious among former prisoners as the "blue room") is now made up to look like a very comfortable, if spartan, barracks-style room. Displays in the room claim that Americans were treated well and not harmed (and even cite the nickname "Hanoi Hilton" as proof that inmates found the accommodations comparable to a hotel's). Propaganda in the museum includes pictures of American POWs playing chess, shooting pool, gardening, raising chickens, and receiving large fish and eggs for food. The museum's claims are contested by former prisoners' published memoirs, and oral histories broadcast on C-SPAN identify the room (and other nearby locales) as the site of numerous acts of torture.
Thick walls topped with barbed wire and broken glass
shows the small part of the prison that was preserved, with high-rises behind
After this sobering end to our visit, we walked a good distance in the heat back to our hotel. We invited Tien to join us for some snacks in the lobby. We enjoyed chatting with this energetic and ambitious young man - he was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. Then he headed home, and we headed to the airport. Until we meet again...
Nhat Tan Bridge across the Red River just opened last year
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