A Visit to Vietnam - Part Three, The Rest of Our First Day

 

The Temple of Literature 

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.)

  

 

Anyone looking for more details on the five courtyards of the Temple of Literature would do well to look at Vietnam Airlines webpage for the site or this travel agency's description.

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.

 

  

 

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.