Our second day began with breakfast in the hotel. There is no real kitchen here, but a young guy cooks some eggs on a burner and serves them with some toast, fruit, and powdered coffee. Oh, how John yearns for the big country breakfasts of his childhood! (Sorry for such a short entry, but the computers we were using in Hanoi were full of viruses and kept crashing on us. Now that we are back I will update you all on the trip.)
After breakfast we waited around for our guide to come pick us up. Again, there was some confusion with the hotels and since there are about 30 hotels in Hanoi named "Prince", he was waiting at the wrong location for us. We figured it out and our guide, Khun, finally arrived. We headed out to the Dong Da district for our first stop at the Temple of Literature and National University. The temple was built in 1070 to worship Confucius and the Kings and important people in Vietnamese history who supported, or promoted, education there. There was also a university there, and when you walk through the first courtyard you can see the stone diplomas of the students who received their degrees there from the 1400's to the 1700's. In addition the the diplomas there are rows of stone tortoises, which represent longevity, and are one of four sacred animals in Vietnam. The other three being the dragon, unicorn, and phoenix. It is supposed to be good luck to rub the tortoises head, which is done often, and some of the tortoises will soon have no heads at all! The actual university was destroyed by the French, but we were able to see a model of how the complex originally looked. While at the Temple of Literature we met a young man with his mother. He was currently studying to take the entrance exams for university and wanted to practice his English with us. He and his mother were so kind we spent a lot of time talking to them. He was practicing his English, and I had an opportunity to try out some of the Vietnamese I learned.
Next, we stopped by the Ho Chi Minh complex, but since it was Monday the mausoleum was closed. We were disappointed, but decided to stop by on our own on another day.
We moved on to the One Pillar Pagoda, built in 1049. Evidently, King Ly Thai Thong, desperately wanted a son, and had a dream that the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara handed him a lotus flower and promised that he would have a son, which he did. In gratitude, he built the One Pillar Pagoda, which was to represent a lotus flower coming out of a lake. Many people from Vietnam come here to pray for luck and fertility.
After that we went to the West Lake area, where many foreigner business people live. You can tell right away by the new and shiny residences, which stand out against most of Hanoi. There, we stopped by Vietnam's oldest pagoda, Tran Quoc, built in the 6th century. This pagoda was a good example of the Indian Buddhism in Vietnam, which differs from the Chinese Buddhism practiced my many here. We were getting some information overload, so don't ask me what the differences are as I will never remember correctly.
The day was HOT!!! Luckily, the nice mother we met at the Temple of Literature gave me a paper fan, but it didn't help much. John was absolutely soaked. We stopped off at a Vietnamese cafe for lunch, and after one look at John, they brought their fans over to our table and blasted us with air! We gathered that the Vietnamese style of service is to continue to bring you food until you cannot take another bite. We really enjoyed our lunch, and the cook even make a vegetarian pho for me!
Stuffed, we headed back out into the Hanoi heat and humidity. We went to the Hoa Lo Prison (Hilton Hanoi) and walked around for an hour or so. Much of the prison has been torn down and replaced by office towers, but what remains is a gruesome reminder of the Vietnamese occupation by the French. Of course, most of the prison is now a museum honoring the Vietnamese comrades who fought, and sometimes died, fighting the French, but part of the museum deals with the "American" war there. After seeing so many horrifying photographs of Vietnamese prisoners, the guillotine used to execute them, and stories of malnutrition and torture, you are surprised to see photos of American soldiers opening Christmas presents and playing basketball. The Vietnamese curators would have you believe that it was a full blown party for the American POWs housed there, so it is hard to get a clear picture of what it was really like. Overall, it is a place that makes you stop and think about the horrors of all wars and the awful price that the people fighting them pay.
It was getting late in the afternoon, and Khun thought it would be a good idea if we took a break and saw the Old Quarter by cyclo. It is scary enough just crossing the streets in Hanoi, but getting on a cyclo take its to a whole new level. You are in a little metal cab on two wheels, driven by a cyclist on one wheel behind you. All the while, you have the motorbikes, taxi cabs, and cars honking their horns and whizzing all about. You just have to stop thinking about it and enjoy the ride. Once again, John and I were amazed by the Old Quarter. There is a street for purchasing everything you can think of.
After the cyclo tour, we said goodbye to Khun, who dropped us near Lake Hoan Kiem, and handed us tickets to the water puppet show. We stopped for a frozen drink to cool off, before heading over there for the show. Being a big supporter of the Center for Puppetry Arts back in Atlanta, I was excited to check out the show, which originated hundreds of years ago during the flood season, when rice paddy workers would entertain themselves with humorous stories from thier daily lives. We were relieved to find the theater air conditioned, and that we had excellent seats! The puppet show had a live traditional musical group, and the puppeteers stood in the water behind a curtain to operate the puppets. Although the show is in Vietnamese, foreigners have no difficulty understanding the simple stories, such as workers in the rice paddies, and the story of the recovered sword from Lake Hoan Kiem.
As you can see we had a really full day and were exhausted after the show. We went back to our hotel to enjoy the AC and process all we had seen.
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