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Hanoi, Vietnam After an hour or so flight from Hue and a 45 minute transfer from the Noi Bai airport we arrived at the Hotel Nikko Hanoi (5 star) slumming it as usual. Hanoi has 32 lakes and looks much nicer than I thought it would. Went for dinner to the French Quarter opposite the Hotel Metropole where Charlie Chaplin had his honeymoon in the 1920's. Had another great seafood meal. Ross then took us on a walk around the heart of the city, Hoan Kiem Lake (Lake of the Restored Sword) with its colourful lights and beautiful French Colonial buildings. Again the roads are extremely busy with bikes but we noticed they have more cars here than in other cities. Hanoi was founded in 1010 and because of flooding the King had earth dykes built to protect the city. Today the dykes survive but have now been made from cement.
Hanoi is called the Paris of the East and it is easy to see why with its 32 lakes, many parks and wide tree lined boulevards and grand French style buildings alongside now modern high rises. I didn't expect this from the capital of socialist Vietnam! The Old Quarter with its many narrow streets 36 to be exact - has been bustling for more than 1000 years and is today one of Vietnam's most unusual places to visit. Apparently a shoppers paradise!!! Hanoi is also considered the art and design city of Vietnam and Ross said he would take us to a gallery and show us more of the local art. Yesterday (Monday 4 April)we had a long day to Ha Long Bay. The bus departed at 8 am and we arrived at 11.30. Passed many villages including Snake Village where they farm snakes for medicine - gave that a miss. Many rice fields along the route are lush and vivid green now. We saw the people working on them and for the first time witnessed one of the 'irrigation' processes - 2 people either end of a rope with a bucket in the middle and they swing it into the channel and pick up the water and throw it into their field. Ha Long Bay would be spectacular in good weather but unfortunately was shrouded in fog as Hanoi was today as well. There were hundreds of junks all very congested around the jetty and we had to walk on a narrow plant from the jetty onto one boat and then scramble over 2 more to get to our boat - junk. We cruised around the limestone islands (2000 in all in the Bay) and visited a cave and then had another seafood banquet on board.
We arrived back to the hotel another 3 hours later and went out again last night to a very up market restaurant again in the Old Quarter called Seasons, but it still only cost us $60 per couple and it was magnificent food and lots of cocktails and wine. Today the visibility from our 10th floor window is only about a kilometer because of the fog/smoke??? but Geoff took some photographs which look better than the actual visibility.
We visited the Ha Lao Prison "Hanoi Hilton" built by the French in the early 20th C and housed Vietnamese revolutionaries and later in the American War, US pilots who were shot down. Then on to Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum built in 1973. He died aged 79 in 1969 and of course is treated as a God now and revered as “Uncle Ho”. He doesn’t look too bad for a guy who has been dead for over 30 years and we understand he is removed for a “spit and polish” for a couple of months each year.
It’s a short walk from the Mausoleum to the Presidential Palace a beautiful 20thC French colonial building which is today used as Government Offices and for State Functions. Ho Chi Minh refused to live here and we went over to the small 3 room cottage nearby where he lived in winter and in summer a stilt house nearby. Ho Chi Minh lived here from 1958 to his death in 1969. Then we drove to the Temple of Literature, Vietnam’s oldest educational institution dating from the 11th C. Walked across the road to KOTO (know one, teach one) a charity supported by Ross and others to train street children of Hanoi in hospitality. They train here for 18 months and if successful are employed by the many hotels etc. It is estimated there are 20,000 street children in Hanoi. They are sent to the city by their families in the country to earn money. Street occupations range from selling packets of chewing gum and postcards to shoe shine services. Some of course fall into drugs, crime and prostitution. Currently there are 50 trainees at any one time in conjunction with Box Hill TAFE (Vic). They provide accommodation and lunch for them. It was a great lunch with an extensive menu and each couple 'bought' a brick for US$50 for their planned new house and restaurant. Ross often holds fund raisers in Canberra to help them. We then walked through the fresh food market - always very interesting with huge bowls of fish swimming in the water and huge sides of beef etc. Then into some of the 36 streets established in the 13thC by Hanoi's 36 guilds - silk street, silver, wood, china, shoes etc. I would probably need a month to do justice to this area!!!
We had a really nice coffee (rare in Vietnam) in a cafe on the lake before going into the 4 pm performance of the water puppets. This is unique to Vietnam and began in the 10th C during a long flood to entertain the people. It is in a theatre with a large pool of water as the stage with bamboo curtain as a backdrop and the puppeteers behind that standing in the water using long bamboo poles. It was very entertaining and depicted village life and mythology. The show lasts for 50 minutes. Tonight we are meeting and going to a place called Highway Four for dinner. Ross has promised me Snake Wine - something I have been successfully avoiding the whole trip!!! I will cut this short now as the hotel charges US$6 for 15 minutes – very expensive considering we have been paying less than A$2 per hour everywhere else. The Nikko obviously want to keep their “Business Centre” free of tourists like us so the real businessmen can have access. I also have to get ready now to go out on the town - don't know how I am going to manage getting back to normal life next week!!! We arrive back in Canberra on Friday morning and Ross has promised us a fantastic farewell dinner at another up market restaurant The Emperor tomorrow night. |
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