Days 60 - 62 (May 04 - 06, 2013): Hanoi, Vietnam

The Quick Facts:

* Settled in for ~3 days in Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital and the cradle of Ho Chi Minh’s communist government
* Activities included Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum (seems like only the communist leaders have egos large enough to preserve themselves for all time), Ho Chi Minh’s presidential palace, Hoan Kiem Lake, the Old Quarter, the Hanoi Women’s Museum, and of course the Hoa Lo Prison (aka the “Hanoi Hilton”)
* We were joined for the weekend by one of my roommates from college, Travis, who now lives in Hong Kong
* Stayed at the Calypso Grand, a newer hotel set in the heart of the action in the Old Quarter; what it lacks in charm or history, it makes up for in every other way: the rooms are clean with new furniture, the aircon worked extremely well, and the wifi worked better than my wifi at home (which isn’t hard to do since Time Warner is awful!)

The Good:

* Hanoi is a bustling city, although much different from Saigon: Saigon feels more like a “city”, whereas Hanoi is much more of a large village, with its narrow streets and shops selling the same types of stuff as they have for hundreds of years
* Hoan Kiem Lake, which acts as the centerpiece for the entire city, is quite beautiful and a great way to see and meet the locals

The Bad:

* Back to the “how are you going to rip me off?” routine, Hanoi is unfortunately full of unscrupulous touts who will do just about anything to scam you out of your money; while you can largely insulate yourself from this by being smart, it gets tiresome
* Also again, back to the Asian city norms: the traffic and noise are insane, with no sidewalks to walk on (and, if there are sidewalks, they are usually full of parked motos) and intersection crossings that make every hair on your body stand on end


After landing in Hanoi late Friday night, our time began on Saturday morning by meeting up with my college roommate Travis (and his lovely girlfriend Bonnie) to take in the Hanoi sites, starting at the top with the chilled, preserved body of Ho Chi Minh.  This is where they keep the old man on ice:

And here is the line to get in; it moves quickly, we were in and out in a total of 20 minutes, although the lines can be much longer.  As you might expect, there are no pictures allowed inside, so this is all you get.

 

After the mausoleum, we moved to the grounds of the Presidential Palace.  Despite being minimalist communists, they still manage to occupy, use, and glorify the opulent buildings left behind from their hated imperial occupiers.  As Carrie says, it’s there so why not use it?  Convenient.

 

Here is “Uncle Ho’s” (as he’s known here) “House on Stilts”, where I believe he lived.  It is a bit more utilitarian than the Palace, but far nicer than where most of his people lived.

After lunch, we went to the Army Museum, which is a testament to the strength and fortitude of the North Vietnamese people and Army.  There is a fair amount of anti-American propaganda here, as well as US military equipment left over from the war.  Most interesting, however, is the tank that rammed through the gates of the Presidential Palace in Saigon on April 30, 1975 to signify the reunification of Vietnam.

 

And here is this picture.  If you’re keeping score at home, that’s a car driving down the sidewalk we were walking on.  I hope NYC cabbies don’t get wind of this technique, I’m just getting used to the left turn from the middle lane routine!

 

At night, we started out by meeting Travis at his hotel, the Metropole, which even before Travis decided to stay there was one of the most famous hotels in the world.  Built in 1901, it is most famous for hosting several writers (Graham Greene, Somerset Maugham), actors (Charlie Chaplan, Roger Moore), and singers (Joan Baez got caught in a US bombing raid in 1972 and recorded a song where you can hear the air raid sirens in the background).  Now it is operated under the Sofitel brand.

 

Our night ended on Te Hian Street, which is a lively street in the Old Quarter filled with bars and people sitting outside on small plastic stools (think stools kids use in pre-school, only smaller).

 

We had fun, until the po-po showed up!

 

Day 2 we walked around the Old Quarter for a while, including the Quan Chuong Gate, which is one of the only pieces of the old stone wall that surrounded the old city.  As you might expect, the Old Quarter is the oldest part of the city, with streets named for the type of goods that shopkeepers here have sold for generations.

 

We also went to the women’s museum, which is wonderfully done and a great depiction of the role of women in Vietnamese society.  They even have interactive exhibits where you can try various things to understand what the women do, including how they transport things using their heads.  Here’s Carrie:

 

And here’s me, making it look easy ha!

 

And no trip to Hanoi would be complete without a visit to the Hoa Lo prison, aka the “Hanoi Hilton”.  Built by the French to house Vietnamese dissidents during the French occupation, it was used as the main detention center for US servicemen during the Vietnam War.  Most of the museum is devoted to the brutal treatment (true or not, I don’t know) of the French on Vietnamese “martyrs” during the French occupation of the country, on and off, from 1858 – 1954.  There is one room devoted to the imprisonment of US servicemen, which makes the prison look like a country club: pictures of the servicemen celebrating Christmas, playing basketball, cooking, etc all depicting how lovely the North Vietnamese were as hosts during the period of the “American War”.  Propaganda at its best.  There unfortunately weren’t too many picture opportunities in the prison, but here is the outside:

 

Day 3 was spent taking care of errands, meeting up with our Swedish friends Oscar and Annika one last time for lunch before they head off for China and then Africa, and walking around the city one last time.  Here are pictures of Hoan Kiem Lake:

 

And of St. Joseph’s Cathedral:

 

And of a “historic house” museum, which shows a traditional Hanoi house with a shop in the front, followed with various living quarter rooms in the upstairs and the “second” house which is directly behind the first house, connected on the ground floor but separated by a courtyard.  There are other courtyards everywhere, to allow for maximum breeze and cooling, which don’t work so well when it starts pouring out:

 

 And, finally, here is a brief Vietnamese lesson:

 

 

Really?  This is the translation for 'table'?  Is this from the '25,000 Pyramid School of Translation': “OK so this is something that you put things on; the dinnerrrrrrr…..”  I’m no linguist, just seems a tad inefficient is all I‘m saying.

 

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