Good Evening Vietnam
It’s our last day in Hanoi and the weather continues to be overcast and a tad chilly (50s), which is not do bad for touring, but might not be the best Chamber of Commerce conditions to make you love a place and put it on a must-return list. This trip has not rocked my world like Egypt and Jordan did last year, but since I am most inspired by antiquities, I should wait for that pronouncement until after we do Angkor Wat in the next few days. Nonetheless, I am very glad we have made this trip since this is a critically important part of the world for the next generation and to not have some understanding of it would leave a big hole in one’s geopolitical and global economic perspective. That said, I feel I’ve gotten the right sense of Vietnam in 2024 from these few days, but there is always more to learn.
We started today with a visit to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and Presidential Palace. Both were built with Russian funding after the great leader died in 1969. Ho is clearly the George Washington of Vietnam, or more accurately the Lenin, whose writings he studied to form his philosophy of leadership. In fact, the Mausoleum with his preserved body on display is a lot like Lenin’s Tomb in Red Square. We even passed a 3X life sized statue of Lenin in the Presidential park. Even though there was a large palace built by the French, Ho, being a simple peasant man preferred a small 3-room cottage by a small lake. The guards that protect this national site are very rigid and controlling. No benches, no hats, no sunglasses, no hands in pockets or elbows on the table. Quite a contrast from the street chaos outside the grounds. At one point a young Vietnamese family (looking quite affluent) with 4 children, stopped us and asked to take a picture either us. I suspect that my size was again the culprit, though it could have just been the American tourist angle. I gave the oldest boy of about 8 a high five afterwards and I suspect it was his first one. It’s funny how we think some things like a high five are universal and they are sometimes not.
Our next stop was the Tran Quoc Pagoda on the edge of West Lake. This is the oldest Buddhist temple in Hanoi, built about 545 AD. These pagodas have three parts to them representing the past, present and future. From what I could tell, there was a spire, several shrines, some living quarters for the monks and a main temple with burning incense and various alms for the monks who live there. The pagoda grounds had many huge bonsai trees of great complexity that made me jealous since I know how many years and how much care they take to grow. This particular pagoda has a Bodhi tree that comes from a cutting of the tree sat under by Buddha himself. That makes it a very oft frequented shrine for Buddhists in the area, especially during the first month of the Chinese lunar new year, which would be now.
The most anticipated stop for me in Hanoi was next, the Hoa Lo Prison, built by the French colonialists to contain native political dissidents and then used during the Vietnam War to house POW’s, especially downed pilots. The most famous resident of Hao Lo was John McCain, who is somewhat of a local hero now, there being a memorial to him on the lake nearby. The Vietnamese government decided to preserve 25% of the prison to keep it as a tourist attraction, but built a modern office building on the rest of the site since it is prime real estate. My natural instinct was to wonder which came first, the city center or the prison since I can’t imagine why a prison would qualify for such great placement, but then it was explained that it sits right next to the criminal courthouse, which surely had its advantages.
The colonial part of the prison made me think of one of my favorite movies, Papillon, with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman starring as prisoners in the penal colony in French Guiana, with all its hardships and horrors. The more modern part of the prison display was dedicated to the American POWs that were interred there. The most notable thing about that part is the great length the Vietnamese have gone to to show the world how much they befriended the American soldiers and how once those prisoners saw the error of their ways, they went home as steadfast anti-war protestors, singing the praises of the Vietnamese, their new friends. Another American of similar age to me sat down next to me on a bench and just shook his head mumbling something about propaganda.
At that point in the day we stopped for lunch at a place of our guide’s choosing. It turns out to be a restaurant owned by a French Canadian who we met. The food was a fixed menu and that made for some trepidation on our part. They served Pho Chan Ngu Xa, Nom Du Du Ga Xi, Nem Ran Na Hoi, Pho Chien Phong Voi Bo, Vom Chien Rau Cu and Trang Mieng for desert. Believe it or not, we all loved every single dish. In fact, I had no idea Vietnamese food could be so good. We voted on the spot and all agreed it was the best meal so far on the whole trip. Surprise, surprise.
We headed back to the hotel after one more stop at the Vietnamese Women’s Museum. I’m not sure how that made the list of must-see attractions, but it was fine. We were glad to get home to relax after a long day of walking and sightseeing. What we all agreed was that the day did give us an added dimension on life in Hanoi. The “regal” parts of Hanoi are quite different from the commercial old town parts where our hotel is located. It was all decidedly less hectic and crowded, but also less authentic because of that difference. An interesting comment made by Phong, our guide, was that the big showy buildings were all from either the French or the comrade big brothers like Russia and China. He explained that all the flower plantings that really made the venues sparkle were from local Hanoi residents who donated one day’s wages for the beautification project. As is often the case with developing countries, beauty starts in the public buildings and only much later becomes a priority in the work-a-day places that people live in every day.
Tomorrow we will take a walk around the smaller Hoan Kiem Lake to visit another temple on an island there. It will then be off to the airport to leave Hanoi and say good evening Vietnam.