#26 - Hopping Hanoi

Hanoi, sunny with a chance of Pho

Well, that’s way better than cloudy with a chance of meatballs!

Another quick flight today to North Vietnam where we expected a bit more Communism and some sunny skies. We got the sunshine but as it turns out, Vietnam is socialist, not Communist. The first difference is that Communism is a political system and Socialism is not. They are both economic systems but in Communism the workers own everything (or so the definition goes) and in Socialism there is private ownership. So I finally understand why it has never felt like we have been in any Communist countries during this trip. 

Our hotel is in the Old Quarter and if you saw the streets, they are so small, you would never think cars could drive here, but they do along with motorbikes and large tour buses and even trucks. 

   

Then add in the vendors, the mobile shops on bicycles, the street food and the sidewalks that are essentially parking lots for motorbikes and you have an impossible time walking. And when you are sitting on a third floor terrace, having an afternoon cappuccino, overlooking a traffic circle, it’s more like watching a real life video game with the object being to avoid being hit, maimed or killed.

Hanoi’s Old Quarter is the original planned city of 36 streets. Each street had a purpose and the street was named after the shops on it. The word Hang basically means ‘Street Of’ so for example, Hang Bac, is the street of Silver which is still true today. But you also have the ‘Street of’ shoes which is now the street of the fruit sellers and the old Hang Be which translates as the street of things but is today the street to buy candy. And the street names change every block or so making it way too easy to get lost. 

Last night after we saw a local acrobatic show, touted to be a Vietnamese Cirque d Soliel (not even close), we set out to walk the four or so blocks to dinner. We finally gave up and hopped in a cyclo (pedicab with the passengers sitting in front of the cyclist) who took us in a few circles to the Paris Bistro. Steve is certain we went in a few extra circles so the driver could justify the fare. He had asked for 200,000 Dong and settled at 60,000 ($2.75) for what was probably only 3 blocks the fast way. Oh well, we couldn’t seem to get there on our own! 

Marci & Ha, our Hanoi guide

Our tour guide Ha took us all around Hanoi today. She speaks marvelous English in that her vocabulary is excellent and she clearly thinks in English as she never has to pause and translate in her head. But it can still be difficult to understand everything because there are simply certain sounds the Vietnamese find it difficult to make. It’s hard for them to say a word beginning with 'sh' like shrimp, it always is simp, which since they eat a lot of I easily recognize now. My name is very hard also with the ‘r’ sound in the middle so I am usually Mahxie or Mahsi and probably still better than my pronunciation of their names. 

Our first stop was Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum.  He died in 1969 and here in the north he is still revered. So much so that even though he wanted to be cremated, the Vietnamese brought in a Russian doctor to preserve his body for eternity. You can only see it in the morning, so off we went. As we drove by we could see the line of hundreds and hundreds of people queueing. Ha estimated the wait at over an hour so we passed and decided to come back later simply to see the rest of the area.

Surprisingly, as we rode around New Hanoi, there was much more French Colonial architecture that had survived the war than in Saigon. The city seems fairly modern but I guess that is because it was bombed so badly by the US B52s and rebuilt in the 70’s and 80’s. 

As we drove around the lake it seemed bizarre to see a statue of John McCain, a man who was once a POW in the famous Hoa Lo prison, better known to us as the Hanoi Hilton. We visited the prison and the story they tell is only of the American pilots there getting the best of treatment with Christmas trees at the holiday and plumper chickens for dinner than the common people could eat. But the story McCain tells is a bit different, including delayed medical care after his capture and torture and interrogation. I guess each side sees the story differently and tells it the way they want to write history. We certainly don’t own up to all the atrocities we inflict. And let’s not forget....they won.  Still, although McCain has returned with supposedly warm feelings, it still seems odd they chose to erect a statute to him????

OK - This is Steve - The  exhibit at the prison showed a bunch
 of items, this is from when some prisoners were released
back to the USA - see the newspapers on the bottom....

The one in the back is the Philadelphia Daily News, which is
weird in and of itself.......

......and this issue, in the display case, in Hanoi, at the 'Hanoi Hilton' prison, is the 

exact date of Marci and my first date....in 1973...!!

We saw pagodas and Buddhas and temples and we are glad today will mark the last of them. Steve is getting weary of the touring and has admitted that almost seven weeks will be enough. After all, how many markets, or temples can you see? How many breakfast buffets can you eat? How many airplanes can you take? And how many manicures can you get, even if they are only 100,000 Dong ($4.40 before tip)? But even if you have been traveling a long time and seen so much, sometimes you can still see things that surprise you. 

Seen at the local market - Acres and acres of 
dried seafood ( used for soups)........

.....and enjoying this local bounty, used by restaurants and locals......

.......yum!!