Hanoi

My first imprint of Hanoi - the major city in the North of Vietnam- is that it was splendidly chaotic and busy. After spending about 4 days there I see no reason to change my initial impression. We didn't cover too much in our four days- a few museums, Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum, getting lost walking around the Old Quarter, and spending most evenings sitting on the street at a bia hoi establishment, but I enjoyed this place a lot.




One of the things which struck me about Hanoi was how much happens in the street. The street is not just a method of walking from A to B, it is also somewhere to eat, to drink, to sell and to buy. You might say 'Simon that is a foolish statement, those things happen in the street back in NZ as well', but in Hanoi's Old Quarter these things are happening in every street. The picture at the top of this post is me attempting to gain nutrients from a chicken foot in a roadside restaurant. When I say roadside, I mean chair on kerb and feet in road. The pictures on the right show a couple of crowd shots to show what level of frenetic activity I am talking about. If you look very closely you might see a couple of things sticking out in these two pictures.

My favourite roadside innovation is the bia hoi - fresh beer- establishments which are dotted through the Old Quarter area. Someone will set up camp on the kerb with a keg of draught beer and a bunch of plastic chairs. You take a chair, park it either on the kerb or in the street near the kerb, and order beer by the glass, at 2000 dong (Yes the Vietnamese currency is the dong, bahahaha) per glass. As the exchange rate is about 12000 dong to the NZD, each glass costs 15c. If you wanted to get pedantic then you could argue that the beer isn't very strong- maybe 3% alcohol- but this is for the best as we were dehydrated most of the time so full strength beer would not have been optimal. There is one particular junction in the Old Quarter where 3 of the four corners of the intersection have bia hoi dispensers. And the best part is that the entertainment is laid on for you in the form of the passing foot & motor traffic. Neither Marie nor I have yet seen 5 people on a scooter, but we kept seeing 4 people.

We were going to head out to Halong Bay for a 2 day cruise, but unfortunately a tropical storm came through right when we were planning on going out in the boat so no Halong Bay this time.

Pictures of more highbrow endeavours as follows:



Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum was a must see. In the mausoleum itself there were three guards scattered around the walkway, and another four ringed around his coffin. Quite a lot of security, considering the guy is already dead. In addition to the mausoleum itself, you could also see his house, his cars (Uncle Ho drove a Morris), and a museum dedicated to the struggle for independence. Several writers have pointed out that if Uncle Ho actually spent much time at his house the US military would have bombed it heavier than Afghanistan, so I am not sure how much time he spent there. Having said that, it is a pretty house.

The museum had a ground floor setting out the struggle for independence which I could understand, and a second floor which went through the struggle for independence via abstract art. On the second floor I gave up trying to fully comprehend and just went along for the sensory ride. I have done a bit of reading regarding the photo on the right, and as far as I can tell: the Ford Edsel crashing through the wall was one of Detroit's greatest ever motoring failures. In this context the car represents the failure of the US military to conquer the Vietnamese people. I think. This whole modern art gets a bit confusing for me sometimes.




The 'Hanoi Hilton' is a museum on the site of a former prison which is most known in the west for being the site of imprisonment of US pilots during the US-Vietnam war, with its inmates including John McCain. The (arguably questionable) picture on the left is my impersonation of a desolate inmate.










For assorted pagoda/ Uncle Ho pictures please see below.