A Few Days in Hanoi

Though we arrived in Hanoi two days after the Vietnamese New Year began, we were to learn that Tet lasts for weeks -- and weeks! As you can see, the streets were still in full celebration. But, having come from Saigon, Hanoi was different. First of all it was much cooler; some people even wore sweaters and jackets. For me, I was determined to soak up every bit of cool air I could before returning to the tropical south. Apart from our drive from the airport, we spent most of our brief time in Hanoi in the old quarter, which had more character and charm---a feeling of having been in a city with a long history.

People from the North are considered more serious than those in the South, but to us, they were just as friendly and openly accepting of we tourists. It also had the feel of a capitol city, the seat of government, whereas Saigon is the business capitol, busy making money and entertaining itself.

Hanoi was also enjoyable because the city was relatively empty due to Tet. We didn't experience the wall-to-wall density of people, motor scooters, and bicycles that we had in Saigon. But Hanoi was also a city in transition, running fast to modernize and expand its economy. As you can see to the right, the land line telephone system was having a hard time keeping up.....this chaos of wiring was a typical sight in both Hanoi and Saigon. In fact, it is so common it can be seen on T-Shirts saying, "Vietnam Telecom."

On a rare occasion I was not with Jon, I met a gentleman who was in his 60s and a licensed tour guide. (I couldn't help but think of my brother, who is also in his 60s, and spent 4 years in the Navy from 1966-1970; part of that time spent in Vietnam and Thailand.) Like many others, he approached me asking where I come from; the opening line for all who want to part you with your money. What a hoot he was. When I told him I was from the US, he immediately responded with, "Don't worry, be happy! Let bygones be bygones! No hard feelings!" I couldn't help but start laughing and listen as he showed me his notebook of comments from previous pleased American customers. While I didn't have the time for his personal tour of Hanoi, I did let him give me a ride back to our hotel on his motor scooter. (I finally got to experience Vietnamese traffic from another perspective.) While he was clearly out to make money from the many tourists, he was also clearly a person who enjoyed meeting foreigners and sharing his city with them. It was a charming, if brief, experience, and one shared by a large number of Americans. Jon and I could not help but notice the many American tourists who would have been young adults during the war....many of whom we assumed had been veterans.

Having had a brief career as a Sovietologist, I was keen to see if more people spoke Russian in the North, or if there was more Russian influence. While there is a bit of influence to be seen, trust me, no one in Vietnam says "Zdradstvietye" to a foreigner....they all say "Hello."

Hanoi is home to the Soviet-style Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. Like Lenin, Ho Chi Minh (Uncle Ho as he is still lovingly called) had no desire for this kind of over-the-top deification, but he had little say in the matter once he died in 1969. Imitating the Russians, the Vietnamese embalmed him and put him on public display. His body is even shipped to Russia annually for re-embalming. Pretty gross to me, but who am I to criticize? We Americans can have our own pretty gross forms of idol worship. The square in front of the tomb was not quite Moscow's Red Square, but seems big and severe enough to host a large military May Day parade. Around the corner, is the Ho Chi Minh Museum where one can learn about the Father of modern Vietnam, although it would be more interesting to one who could read Vietnamese. Interestingly, but not really that surprising, he is depicted as a nationalist, not a communist, who devoted his life to ridding his country of French colonialism (although I love to visit France, and even like French people, I would not want to be their colonized subjects either) and, later, to unifying his country which was artificially divided at the 17th parallel in 1954.

The One Pillar Pagoda is nestled back in between Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum and Museum. An iconic Vietnamese pagoda, it was built by Emperor Ly Thai Tong in 1049 in honor of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. He was childless and dreamed that she delivered him a son while seated on a lotus flower. Soon after his dream, he married a peasant girl who bore him a son. The one pillar is to depict the lotus flower stem. Ever since, Vietnamese wishing for children come here to pray to her. One of the last things the French did before leaving Vietnam in 1954 was to blow up this pagoda, so what you are looking at now is reconstructed, and not the original thousand year old shrine. (Earlier in our trip, we passed thru the Tuomotus, which the French used to test nuclear weapons; later, we are traveling through New Zealand, where the French violated NZ national sovereignty and blew up the Greenpeace vessel, Rainbow Warrier, to halt its anti-nuclear testing efforts.)

The Temple of Literature (Van Mieu) is Vietnam's oldest university. Founded in 1076, it was dedicated to teaching Confucianism to the noble and warrior classes, and later became a place for scholars based on merit and not class. There are two halls dedicated to recording the achievements of the school's best scholars throughout the ages. Located in the heart of Hanoi, it is a sprawling complex of gardens, ponds and shrines, and is advertised as an oasis of peace and quiet in the otherwise bustling city of Hanoi. It being Tet, however, when I went there, it was packed with remaining locals who came to see the flower displays and have their holiday photos taken.

Outside the Temple of Literature, along one of its walls was what I called Calligraphy Row. Vietnamese and Chinese calligraphers were lined up with their wooden trays of pens, brushes and Indian and gold ink, and of course, plenty of red paper. They were inscribing traditional sayings, such as good luck and prosperity in the New Year, which everyone seemed to need to complete their Tet holidays. It was not an art and interest just for the more traditional elders either. Many young people seemed to be apprenticing alongside the older calligraphers and many young people were lining up to get their sayings written; and good street food could be had on the other side of the street.

Finally, we took in a show at the National Water Puppet Theater, known as Thang Long. (Thang Long was the original name for Hanoi, and some want to return the ancient name to the city, which we're sure would make the Hilton Hotel company happy since there is no way of getting around the infamous implications of its current accommodations in Hanoi.) Water Puppetry originated around a thousand years ago in the Red River Delta, the Red River runs through Hanoi, where rice farmers created this form of entertainment to please the spirits who controlled their lives and harvests. The plays depicting folklore as well as everyday life, such as rice planting, were first performed in the rice paddies when they were flooded. Today they are performed in waist-deep water inside theaters. The puppets are carved from wood and then lacquered, and are manipulated form behind the screens.

The performance is accompanied by a live orchestra of traditional Vietnamese instruments and singers who sit off to the side of the stage. They were very professional and clearly enjoyed entertaining us with their national art. Once Vietnam opened itself up to the world, these performers began traveling the world sharing their art form. Vietnamese musical instruments seemed very exotic and the delicate manner in which the women can play them was captivating. We were lucky to get good seats up front.

The show Jon and I attended had about a dozen scenes that ran the gamut of farmers planting rice, young love, wars, noble life, and coconut harvesting. And of course, there was a dragon or two thrown in for good measure. Some puppets had candles lit on top of their heads as they danced and one even performed a fire baton act. After the show, the puppeteers waded out in the water with a dragon of their own to receive the audiences applause.