Hanoi

Trip Start Aug 17, 2008

Trip End Sep 24, 2008

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Flag of Vietnam Hanoi, Vietnam
Friday, October 3, 2008

Returning to Hanoi from Halong Bay was not easy. We had already spent one night in the city exploring the environs around our hotel. As far as I could tell, Hanoi was polluted like Beijing without the excitement, crowded like Shanghai without the elegance, dirty like Siem Reap without the charm, loud like Ho Chi Minh without the comfort, and hot like Nha Trang without the beach. But to a large extent, that's my traveler's fatigue talking. In fact, the more we explored Hanoi, the more I came to like it. Now, I can even understand how some might fashion Hanoi the "Paris of the East."

Here are some of the abridged highlights:

The Temple of Literature - A great escape from the motorbike orgy that is Hanoi. Several gardens and fountains house this oldest Confucian university in the country. Throughout the Temple, you can find man-sized monuments to the famous graduates of the university that record their works. You can immediately see the Chinese influence on the entire place, especially considering how all of the monuments feature huge turtles of the kind we saw in Nanjing. Of interest, almost all of the memorials had a single line of text scratched out around the same place. At some point in history, someone must have declared a tidbit of knowledge dangerous and had it removed from all the tablets. I wonder what it was, why it was removed, when, and by whom.

Ha Loa Prison - The infamous Hanoi Hilton actually began as a French colonial prison. So, of course, the museum now focuses almost exclusively on French abuses. It was neat to try to read all the old French documents, including one plea by the warden to his superiors for better facilities for the prisoners. Most of the Vietnamese prisoners were shackled by the ankles and placed shoulder to shoulder on long concrete slabs. A towering guillotine guarded the death row dungeon. There was a small, upbeat section of the museum dedicated to the good treatment of American POWs. It was some of the worst propaganda I've seen in Vietnam, complete with pictures of Christmas dinners and POW arts and crafts. John McCain's jumpsuit hung at the end of a display (we later visited the lake where he was shot down for the fifth and final time). The Vietnamese actually like McCain a lot. Recently, the former head of the Hanoi Hilton came out with a Presidential endorsement for his "old friend." In fact, out of the dozens of internationals who asked us about our opinions on the election, only the Vietnamese ever declared their preference for McCain. But even in Vietnam, almost everyone prefers Obama for President. In Hong Kong, we even saw a car with an Obama bumper sticker.

Army Museum and the Vietnam Revolution Museum - I personally liked both of these museums. The Revolution museum was the first chronological history I saw about the struggle for Vietnamese independence. The Army Museum featured a fascinating depiction of the battle of Dien Bien Phu (the finishing blow against the French) that used interactive lights to illustrate the battle strategy for both sides.

Ho Chi Minh Complex - We began the tour at Ho's mausoleum. Unfortunately, it was closed for Ho's annual embalming checkup. We then continued on to the Presidential Palace, a lavish French-style mansion that is now used for affairs of state. We then moved on to Ho's old house, a small two room building on stilts. It is unclear how long Ho actually lived there, but its interior was as austerely decorated as a broke PhD mathematician's studio apartment (sorry Chris). We ended the tour at Ho's museum, which was surprisingly good. The exhibit was set up chronologically based on Ho's life. But instead of the usual biographical data, the museum featured larger-than-life metaphors and allusions to depict Ho's life. For instance, one room featured statues of Picasso's Guernica to describe how Ho's experiences during the Spanish Civil War convinced him of the evils of fascism. Very unusual for a Communist museum...but then against nothing about Vietnamese Communism tends to be stereotypical.

Catholic Conflagration - While walking near one of Hanoi's many lakes, I came across a procession of Catholic priests, nuns, and faithful flock. Vietnam hosts a significant Catholic population, but they have hit harder times due to their support of the corrupt South Vietnamese governments during the War. In any case, it was odd to see thousands of Catholics walking in straight lines in the middle of Vietnam. So I took a few pictures. Later on, I learned that they were protesting the announced destruction of the Vatican's former embassy. During the protest, the AP Bureau Chief was arrested and beaten by the authorities. His crime? Taking pictures.

Water Puppet Show - This is the somewhat corny but probably obligatory thing to do in Hanoi. For one thousand years, the Vietnamese have practiced the art of puppetry on water. The custom originates from the yearly flooding of the Red River Valley. All in all, I enjoyed the show that featured traditional music, amusing vignettes, a few pyrotechnics, and hard-hitting puppet action.

Leaving Hanoi, I could definitely sense the trip was coming to an end. We had a day and a half to spend in Hong Kong once again. We were all just about done with tourism. Rachael went shopping. Adam and I went to a bar. That night we took a fast-ferry over to Macau, the newly crowned gambling capital of the world. I have never been to Las Vegas or really gambled before (besides once in Budapest), so it was a lot of fun. At the end of the night, I was down about 500 HK dollars so I decided to do something stupid. I went to the ATM, withdrew the amount I was already down, and put it all on black. Sometimes luck rewards stupidity and I came out even for the night. We left well after midnight and didn't arrive back at our HK hotel until 2:30. About 4 hours later, we left for the airport and for America.

I apologize for this laundry list of a post, but I've fallen far behind on keeping this thing updated. I'm planning one final post to wrap things up. I hope to have it done within the week.

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