After a mini-marathon of flights from Singapore to Ho Chi Min and Ho Chi Min to Hanoi, we drove through the busy streets of Hanoi to our hotel, Holidays Gold in the Old Quarter. The Old Quarter is the most frequently visited area because that is where many historical sites, temples, pretty lakes, and other entertainment are found. At first glimpse, I loved seeing the stores selling silk goods, with tunics and sarongs and all sorts of embroidered silk delights everywhere. Street vendors and pedicab drivers are everywhere vying for trade.
Most of our time in Hanoi was spent wandering the streets. The end goal was to visit a museum or a temple. But the real experience is in the getting there. Walking down a Hanoi street, there is an overwhelming array of colour, sound, smells and, optionally, tastes that greet your senses. Women walking along in the conical straw hats carry a bar holding two baskets, one balanced on each side of the shoulder and in these are anything from flowers to fruits to meals of freshly cooked Nem (Vietnamese spring rolls).
When we found ourselves more than snack-ish, we sought out one of the many street side cafes. You can just walk in, pull up a seat and order your choice of bia (beer), Tiger is Justin's favourite, or sodas. The tastiest of these cafe offerings are dishes of Pho, noodle soup - Pho Ga (chicken) or Pho Bo (beef) - which is usually eaten for breakfast and lunch The boys love this mild, easily recognisable food. Pho comes with a little side dish of chilis, one of pepper and sauces like soy, fish sauce and sweet chili. Adjustable to personal taste, it is highly customisable. Talk about delicious! While we all worked on eating with chopsticks, Sam continued to perfect his one-chopstick noodle eating method.
Inside the floating temple, the boys found a man writing messages in chinese letters on posters that were marked 'Happiness', Prosperity', 'Longevity' and the like. We paid for one of these to be painted with Andy, Ben and Sam's name on a Happiness poster. The boys are in awe of this poster and keep trying to open it back up - we keep it rolled for transport.
Hanoi is a thousand year old city - the oldest capital city in southeast asia. We see commemorative statues on the streets and lots of patriotic single star'ed Vietnamese flags. Ben chose a popular hat with a Vietnamese flag on it because it looks cool.
One of our favourite sights was the Than Long Water Puppet Theatre that offers shows a few times a day opposite the Lake Hoan Kiem. Inside a dark room, we sat in the front row facing a pool of water backed by a temple-like structure. An orchestra sat to the side and opened by playing beautifl old songs on ancient instruments. They wore colourful, traditional outfits and were obviously all highly-skilled performers.
The show then consisted of several sets of themed music, about dragons and farmers with oxen and other traditional themes. I wondered if the boys would find puppet theatre a bit boring after IMAX movies and Disney, but they were each watching closely, focused on every action. A long dragon was in the final act and he was splendidly done with fire for special effect. The whole audience was thrilled with this performance, as were we.
We walked by the lake a few times. It's great seeing the sides of the lake full of life where lots of locals congregate to enjoy sitting on the shores and relaxing. We loved seeing Turtle Tower in the centre of the lake, it makes for a good centrepiece. With the heat reaching nearly 40 degrees C one day, having ice cream by the lake became a necessity!
If anything marks out Vietnamese culture at a street level, I'm afraid it's the traffic. The quantity, yes, but really it is the lack of rules and complete absence of traffic police that make driving (or even walking) down the street a unique experience. What is most fascinating are the traffic lights - they actually exist, like everywhere else, and change colors every 30-60 seconds or so ... but NO ONE takes any notice of them. No one stops on a red light, not even to pause or slow down. Same with the zebra crossing paths. Again, no one will stop for a pedestrian. Not ever.
So, when you would like to cross the street, you have to step out a little when the traffic is at it's lightest (in the old quarter it is never empty!), then bravely begin to step across the road while motorcycles from different directions are visibly aiming in your direction, close your eyes and hope that they swerve around you like fish in the ocean - and they usually do! - until you are finally at the other side, sweaty palms, heart racing and rush of relief overcomes you ... until you realise you still need to cross 3 more streets to get where you're going!!
Not even on the sidewalks are you safe. Motorcycles and scooters are just as likely to take shortcuts up the sidewalks as they are the road - heck, they don't mind driving down the road in the opposite direction of traffic in their 'lane',so a sidewalk is a mere inconvenience really.
What I find odd is that the Vietnamese seem to have Split Personality Disorder. There is the side of them that is always smiling and extremely polite ... but once they step on the scooter or motorcyle (with or without helmet), watch out, the whole world is a target! This is where people let their aggression out, like we might go to an exercise class or squeeze a stress ball. Mind you, I'm only theorising here, but I may be on to something...
For a light days' entertainment, we took the kids to go see the infamous Hanoi Hilton. We walked about and looked into cells, read plaques - most of which cover the prisoners' history prior to the American war that I'm more familiar with. Interestingly, the sections covering American prisoners make it look as though the US soldiers were in a holiday camp with sports and Christmas buffets ... not quite living up the reputation earned back home. Well, it is a communist regime in place, with the expected censorship and all .. adding to the fact that each country tends to write up their own version in the aftermath.
For another days' outing we visited the One Pillared Pagoda near the Ho Chi Min Museum. Outside, we found a throng of locals milling about and taking their turns to visit the pagoda. One family was very excited to see our little redheads and were showing us their baby who was obviously a huge source of pride. Andy and Sam loved on him as he was thrust into their arms - luckily, as they are not as fond of human babies as they are of puppies and kittens!!
Another day, we visited the Tran Quoc Pagoda, the oldest temple in Hanoi. It is built on a small island in the West Lake. While Justin and I took pics and walked around with a couple from Hong Kong, the boys set up a bey blade tournament in the courtyard - which, as they were being pretty quiet, I hoped was not too disrespectful. As you can imagine, temples and pagodas are nowhere near the top of their list of fun places to visit.
And of course we had to visit the Ho Chi Min museum. the building is huge, but a visit takes only about an hour. For us, that hour was on the hottest day of the week and we were so happy to be in air conditioning that for once, we didn't get much complaining from the children about it being a museum and all.
As the name implies, you are entering a building that is dedicated to Ho Chi Min and it is filled with artistic commemorations of the wonders of his reign, his humble background, antiques from the era, etc, etc. All very interesting and pretty much above the kiddies' heads as it was hard enough to make out any English descriptions at all.
Outside the museum, we walked back along the path through the memorial gardens and mausoleum. We watched the changing of the guard manoeuvres. I happened to be the celebration of Independence of Vietnam while we were there so the streets were red with Vietnamese flags and the Ho Chi Min gardens and mausoleum were no exception.
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