An occasionally published narrative of our travels. An emphasis on photos and the "offbeat" aspects of Tom and Linda's jaunts around the U.S. and the world.
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At the end of our first day in Hanoi, we headed out to explore a bit of the Old Town neighborhood where we were staying at the Silk Path Hotel. We turned right and headed up Hang Bong Street toward Hoan Kiem Lake.
We hadn't gone very far when we noticed a Circle K convenience store. If you forgot to bring something along on the trip like shaving cream, toothpaste, etc., the Circle K stores here are just like home. There are over 500 of them in Vietnam including three on Hang Bong Street near our hotel - and they all seemed busy.
There are lots of "travel stores" on the street selling the same tours along with telephone sim cards, changing money and some even offer laundry service.
We soon came to a few fast food and restaurant operations. Dee offers the popular Banh Mi sandwich. This is the equivalent of a Philly Cheesecake in Philadelphia - you must eat one while you're here. The ones we bought came from Lila, not Dee, but that's a story for another day.
There are plenty of street food vendors anywhere you venture in Vietnam. This barbecue operation was the most elaborate one we encountered. You choose the meat or fish you want and while the chef grills it for you (shown on the left photo) you pick out the vegetables or other sides for your meal.
A food operation doesn't need much space because tables and chairs can be set out on the sidewalk or around the corner in the alley.
Sidewalks along the narrow streets of Old Town serve multiple purposes. They are parking places for the motorcycles, serve as display areas for the local merchants and, of course, provide seating for the food patrons. With some difficulty, a pedestrian can also walk on them.
We had noticed earlier in the day the large number of sidewalk restaurants, coffee shops and food stall operations that line much of the middle of the city. Large and small groups gather on tiny stools for coffee, breakfast, lunch and dinner. The variety of offerings is large. (Ten minute video on small stools and street vendors here.)
Hang Bong Street eventually reaches Hoan Kiem Lake. A large square there is surrounded by shops on three sides with the lake offering a nice view of city lights in the distance. The square had a large video display playing a New Years greeting on this night.
The Coffee Club Cafe on one side of the square looked like a nice spot for desert which was all we were looking for so we ventured up to the 4th floor.
This is a modern up to date operation with menus and service available via QR code scans from your mobile phone. We ordered beverages, ice cream and cashews; we were surprised when the cashews came in a shrink wrapped package - Vietnam is the leading exporter of cashews.
We didn't discover our favorite Vietnamese street food until late in our trip: Chuoi Chien - fried banannas! While we were on the road with one of guides near Saigon, she pointed these out to Linda; they are delicious. Recipe and instructions on YouTube here.
On the way back to the hotel after our dessert by the lake, we came upon a store selling pottery. Walking inside I couldn't believe my luck at finding so many choices for a Vietnam souvenir for my basement mug wall. We soon discovered that Bat Trang pottery is the top of the line in ceramics in Vietnam.
Our next stop on our first morning tour was the Temple of Literature. Along the way to this site, we passed the Mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh. The two banners at the sides of the Mausoleum building translate into English as, "Long Live the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam!" and "The Great President Ho Chi Minh Lives on in Our Cause."
Think of the Temple of Literature as the University of Vietnam, founded in the year 1070. During a thousand years of Chinese rule, Confucianism dominated as a philosophic basis for education and government in Vietnam. Rigorous examinations were held to determine those qualified for government positions and the center for training and examinations was here at the Temple.
The paper note on that sign above observes that admission is free, Feb 20-22, at this and sixteen other cultural sites in the city as part of a move to promote tourism. (Announcement in the morning Hanoi Times, here.) There was quite a crowd as a result.
The temple consists of five progressive courtyards. The first two are more or less "green space" where scholars could contemplate their studies. In the third courtyard lies the Well of Heavenly Clarity (Gieng Thien Quang.) The well is surrounded by 82 stelae resting on the backs of sacred turtles and recording the list of 1,307 people who obtained their doctorates between 1442 and 1779. The stelae in the complex were recognized by UNESCO as a world documentary heritage site.
Guide Mike pointed out that a view of the well is found on the back of the 100,000 dong note.
The fifth courtyard is used for various public events. It serves as a site of "Human Chess" during Tet; a game was underway as we visited. (Human chess here was featured on a segment of Amazing Race in 2013.)
Linda is always on the watch for interesting architectural details. She found several examples of dragons perched on the roofs of buildings across the country including this one at the Temple of Literature.
Hoa Lo Prison Remnant
Our next stop was the infamous Hoa Lo Prison museum. Nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton" by United States airmen during the Vietnam War, the prison has a long history dating back to 1896 when it was built by the French colonial government. (See Lonely Planet page for more.) The long history of the prison is recounted in numerous photos with an accompanying audio tour available. Much of the exhibit space is devoted to the prison's use by the French to suppress dissent during the French-Indochina wars. The most notable French artifact is a 13 foot high guillotine just past the entry that sets the mood for visitors.
Narrow passageways and prison cells serving as mini-lecture halls for the audio tour set the mood for visitors.
A good bit of space is devoted to the story of women imprisoned by the French.
The pictures of smiling American pilots reading letters from home and decorating their Christmas tree stand in marked contrast to the well-known memoirs of John McCain and other POW authors. Some might say that the smiling prisoners make their confinement seem more like a summer camp experience than a prison. (See this YouTube video featuring ten survivors of the North Vietnamese prisons for an interesting story of their religious faith that helped them endure captivity and torture.)
One of the stark reminders of the Vietnam War era is the picture of nearby Kham Thien Street after a B-52 bombing run in 1972.
One odd artifact in the museum is this copy of Ho Chi Minh's 1969 New Year's greeting. The connection to Hoa Lo according to a few websites is purported to be that POWs assisted in the translation from Vietnamese to English; we don't recall seeing any such reference at the museum. The English language version of Minh's poem actually appears at two different times in the western press. On January 1, 1969 it shows up as being broadcast on Hanoi radio monitored in Tokyo and then on Feb 17 it is described as being printed on the front page of all Hanoi's newspapers and periodicals.
On the backside of the museum, there is a good aerial photo of the full site when the prison was in active operation; I have outlined the section still standing as a museum. The majority of the block is now occupied by a 27 floor apartment building and 14 floor office tower.
Vietnam, especially the Northern portion, has a long and interesting history. Wikipedia notes seven museums in Hanoi and lists twelve wars, many with neighboring China, from 214 BC to 1975. Our hour at the Hoa Lo prison doesn't begin to cover the country's history. Our two weeks served only as an introduction to the country.
Lunch Break
It was approaching lunch time as we headed back to our driver and his comfortable SUV. Our lunches on most days were prearranged by our tour company at very nice restaurants and were served from a set menu. This one was at the Home Hanoi featuring a Tet oriented selection of northern Vietnamese cuisine.
Those are not choices listed on the menu; everything on it was delivered to our table! We never went hungry. It was an excellent way to taste food we might not have ordered without a set menu.
Water Puppet Theater
One of the well known attractions of Hanoi is the Thang Long Water Puppet Theater located on the edge of Hoan Kiem Lake. This was our last stop of the day.
This is a fun show, perhaps a bit long for those of us that don't understand the language, but definitely worth seeing. The theater probably seats close to a thousand and a high percentage are using the video cameras in their phone to record the event. If you've not previously heard of "water puppets" as we had not, you can google it to help understand how truly amazing it is.
Well, if everyone else is recording, let's just join in for a few seconds.
The supporting musicians and singers on the sides were quite talented.
A Cyclo Tour Back to the Hotel
The puppet theater is fairly close to the Silk Path Hotel and our day's tour included a cyclo ride through the Old Town neighborhood ending up back to the hotel.
The development of the Cyclo, a three-wheeled taxi operated with a bicycle drive mechanism and the passengers up front, is credited to French engineer Pierre Coupeaud during the 1930s who lived in Vietnam when it was known as part of French Indochina. It's a fun way to get around Old Town and the French Quarter after you've walked a few hours and are ready for a ride back to the hotel. The slow speed and open-air seating offers much better photo opportunities than shooting from a taxi or bus window.
After a bit of rest, we were ready to strike out on our own for a walking tour through Old Town before calling it a day, but I'll leave that for later.
Many more photos, of course, for this post and the previous post at this Flickr album.
Most BlogRolls that I've seen are a list that are too long and too predictable. Tell me the blogger's political leanings and I'll name at least five of the blogs right now.
I have tried to capture just a few blogs and have them be as offbeat and local as the places we visit.
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