Heavenly Hanoi

I'm not sure "heavenly" is precisely the term to use to describe Hanoi, but I was searching for "h" words and "heavenly" was what I came up with. That being said, we do like Hanoi substantially more than Saigon, which seemed to have few redeeming qualities. Hanoi has lovely lakes and parks as well as lovely buildings. We can imagine coming back here.

I'm writing this on Thursday evening. Actually, I'm rewriting this on Thursday evening as Blogger, for the second time, has lost all my work. I'll spare you the gory details and simply say that I would not consider using Blogger again and suggest you don't either. A word to the wise. . . .

Onward. I last posted on Monday, our last full day at Nam Hai in Hoi An. Tuesday we left for Hanoi, but we didn't need to leave the resort until 12:30. That gave us time for two more wonderful meals from Huong and to savor the last few hours before leaving. I thought I would show you a couple of typical meals. For breakfast Tuesday we had corn, for something sweet, and little ravioli-like morsels stuffed with shrimp. Of course, the little envelopes holding the shrimp were made from rice, not wheat. Also, just to keep it interesting, the little shrimps had their little shells making them a little crunchy and a little more fun.

After lunch, we went for a walk to explore a part of the resort we hadn't seen yet. To our surprise we discovered a small farm along the road.

Apparently the Nam Hai grows many of it's own vegetables. It's really quite a place.

For lunch we had delicious soup and a mango smoothie.

And with that, we bid farewell to Nam Hai, and especially to Huong, hopped in a cab and headed to the airport.

Our flight to Hanoi went well and soon we were in another cab headed for our hotel. Predictably this proved to be the most harrowing part of the journey. Our cab driver was clearly an expert at straddling center lines and weaving through motor bikes on the shoulder, but we came awfully close to some of those bikes. As Nancy said, she could have pinched their zits, and she wasn't kidding. Fortunately, most of the really close encounters came at low speeds, except for those that didn't. As my take on the old saying goes, "All's well that ends" and after nearly an hour of this we arrived at our new refuge, the Sofitel-Metropol, where the language in which they greet you is French for crying out loud. Mon Dieu!

Our room is in the older, more genteel section. Here's the hallway,

Here's the view from our window,

here's the pool,

and here's the view across the street.

Nice!

The next day, we decided to go for a walk. I have no idea what this building is, but it had a guard so it must be important.

You can eat VERY cheaply if you know the right places.

These kids were on their way to school. They were adorable, of course.

When they see a tall, blond person they say "Hello, how are you?" If you then reply, "I'm fine, how are you?" they'll say "I'm fine, how are you?" and so on.

We were heading for Hoan Kiem lake, close to the hotel. It was a misty, moisty morning and the lake would be especially lovely. On our way, we encountered this gentleman, Ly Thai To, who moved the capital of Viet Nam to Hanoi a thousand years ago.

As expected, the lake was lovely.

There's an old Buddhist temple there, sitting on a little peninsula. In we went.

This picture of a turtle is especially significant.

The lake is the home a giant, soft shelled turtle of mythical significance. Interestingly, there have been a couple of articles lately in the English language newspaper about the giant turtle in the lake. Apparently the poor thing has to endure highly polluted water, has injuries from fish hooks and is being nibbled on by little turtles people release into the lake. There are plans to remove the turtle, heal him up, clean out the lake, and put him back, but somehow none of it actually gets done. Come to think of it, the article only mentioned one turtle. I would think they would need at least two if saving this one is going to matter in the long run.

Anyway, in the temple there's a room with a stuffed ancestor of the one currently living injured and harassed in the polluted lake. The room with the stuffed turtle is guarded by a cat.

Here's the turtle. Big, no?

There is, of course, a lot in the temple relating to Buddhist ceremony.

I was more attracted to the bonsai, of which there were several.

Eventually, we got back on our way.

I can't convey to you the sounds or smells, but I'll try to give you some of the sights of Hanoi old town. The streets are crowded with people and with little shops. Every few feet someone new is selling something different.

The buildings are narrow with shops on the ground floor and living quarters, I presume for the people who own the shop, above.

Some of the shops are quite nice.

Others, less so. Shops selling the same sort of thing tend to cluster together. I imagine you could could get pretty much anything you might want, if you only knew which area to go to. I remember reading about GIs who had children with Vietnamese women and about the problems those children had to deal with. On seeing these things it occurred to me that if the Tin Woodman from the Wizard of Oz had been one of those amorous GIs, his illicit progeny might have looked something like this.

Here, again, are those bottles of booze with the inner serpent. I wonder whether we should worry about the viability of small, poisonous snakes in S.E. Asia. These are cobras.

Eventually we came to the Cathedral which seemed to me a bit incongruous. As in Saigon, we couldn't go in.

After lunch we headed for the final destination of the day, Hoa Lo prison, otherwise known, to us at least, as the "Hanoi Hilton". The prison was built by the French in 1896. It was a maximum security prison and was used, apparently, to hold political prisoners. At least that's what the information given at the prison implies. Most of the prison is gone. Only a wing remains as a museum. The Vietnamese see the prison both as a physical reminder of French oppression and as a reminder of their absolute refusal to remain suppressed. The first thing you see, ironically, is the souvenir shop.

After that, it gets heavier. Here are the old main doors.

There are exhibits showing how the prisoners lived.

There was a section for women.

And a death row.

There was a courtyard with moving, bas relief sculpture.

I'm very impressed with the Vietnamese. They fought to be a unified, independent country for well over a hundred years. That's a very long time to fight for a dream. And they did it. Good for them!

After the prison we headed for our hotel. We trudged past the people having dinner al fresco,

past the motor bikes parked so closely together that you could never get your bike out of the center until people took theirs from the edges,

and, finally, past the two gorgeous, antique Citroen limousines our hotel will happily rent you for an absurd amount of money, and we were back.

That evening we had dinner at the hotel. There was a cheese buffet with 90 different kinds of cheese at the peak of eatability. That plus soup plus entree plus dessert plus wine and coffee made for a memorable dinner. I expect we each took in about 20,000 calories that night. It's been quite the vacation.