June 21 – Hanoi, Vietnam
We flew into Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam. We took a Grab – like Uber – to the old district of Hanoi. Our driver didn’t speak any English, and the google translate wasn’t working too well. I was trying to tell him where we were for getting picked up, and he replied via text “I sing you”… I was wondering if singing was a form of welcome in Vietnam, but he didn’t speak a word to us, let alone sing.
I’ve never seen such a beautiful highway, with lush green on both sides. Though driving was utter chaos. There were so many scooters – even scooter taxis. Lines in the road didn’t mean anything People would just courteously honk to let others know where they were. Old ladies, children, entire families were riding scooters. I was surprised at how much Vietnam looked like some cities in Mexico, with old colourful cement buildings, bars on the windows, smelled like a mixture of food and garbage, but without the road rage and relative lack of green space.
We arrived at the Serendipity Hotel. I told Noe that it was fitting we stayed here because how we met was ‘serendipitous’. We dropped off our things, took a mini nap and shower, and then explored the area. The first thing I needed was food and a coffee. We had a simple ham and cheese sandwich with what looked like Bimbo (Mexican) processed bread, and an iced white coffee (condensed milk, ice, and Vietnamese coffee). I asked our young server how to say ‘thank you’ in Vietnamese – “Cah mun”. This was a word I came to use a lot (being a polite Canadian and all). I get nods from the servers and drivers I say it to.
On our walk through the city, we came across some stray chickens. This was very strange to us, as we normally see stray dogs…but we came to the hypothesis that stray dogs wouldn’t last long in the streets because dogs are eaten in some parts of Vietnam…but chicken is eaten in all parts of Vietnam, so that doesn’t make sense. Anyways, any dogs we saw were obvious pets.
I would say one of my least favourite parts of Hanoi so far was exploring the Maison Centrale or Hoa Lo Prison, or Hanoi Hilton, or HELL HOLE.
This prison was built during French occupation in 1896 to hold Vietnamese political prisoners. Later on, it was used by Vietnamese people to hold American political prisoners during the Vietnam War. In the 1990s, it was no longer used as a prison and was converted to a museum. It was painted a dreary black and grey inside to inspire stress and fear – it worked. I was stressed and afraid while wandering the halls and cells inside. Aside from the psychological mistreatment, prisoners were also fed poorly, and were not given necessary medical aid – though there was a hospital. Many died due to preventable or treatable illnesses like dysentery, cholera, diarrhea, chronic diarrhea (not sure what the difference was, but doesn’t sound pleasant), malaria, dengue fever, etc. etc.
There was an almond tree (in the picture above), from which prisoners would treat themselves with the leaves or bark or nuts. Also in this picture is a piece of the sewer system through which some prisoners managed to escape and aid the rebellion. Many escaped prisoners are now well-known political leaders in Vietnam.
Men were shackled to cement slabs, sometimes slanted towards the head so they would have trouble sleeping and maintaining circulation in the feet and legs. In this photo, the prisoners would teach each other politics and other useful information, and secretly plan the escape (as explained above).
Women rebels and their children were also kept here and beheaded here (I hope they spared the children, but I’m not sure) – by the notorious guillotine – a brutal French invention. Behind Noe are photos of real women’s severed heads, and a basket box to keep them. It was in this room that I started to feel the ghosts of the prison.
Death row – where prisoners were kept in isolation, sometimes for days, sometimes for months or years. Sitting in their own filth, eating in their own filth, only with a tiny window for ventilation. I am sure that many people died here before their actual sentence was supposed to be carried out. I could not go down the hall or enter the rooms. There was psychic negative energy here that caused me pressure in my chest and anxiety. I had to get out.
The rest of the exhibit explained how following French occupation, Vietnam took over the Hell hole (or Hoa Lo) prison for holding American political prisoners. Supposedly, American pilots were treated very well, which is why pilots nicknamed it the Hanoi Hilton. But reading about others’ experiences…apparently ghosts of American pilots remain here to tell those who can see them that that was not how it was. U.S. Presidential Candidate, John McCain, was one of the pilots imprisoned here and his flight suit is still on display. Seeing video footage of the bombings, and pictures of casualties, young and old – I had to get OUT OF HERE.
Finally, we left that horrible place, but the anxiety stayed with me until we reached a nicer part of town – the railway market (Kham Thien). There are restaurants and cafes on either side of an alley with a railroad. We walked through here, chowing down on a Vietnamese donut (rather more like a Timbit). There were many tourists enjoying beers on tiny chairs lining the tracks. Music – mostly American top 40 – could be heard throughout the way.
We stopped to enjoy a beer in the drizzling pleasant rain. Like other developing parts of the world, the server asked that we stay to return the beer bottles when we were done. From there, we started our way back to the hotel.
We were getting hungry – maybe my subconscious was hoping for Chicken Fingers. Though, after getting a load of THESE chicken fingers, I lost my appetite. It’s like Freddy Krueger and Elephant Man had a threesome with a chicken….Just like Freddy, this chicken will haunt my dreams, chasing after me with razor sharp talons and fat elephant fingers.
A word of caution to pedestrian travellers…crossing the street is scary. Until you get used to the process, tag along with a local as your chaperone when crossing the street. Let me give you a mental image – because I was too afraid to video record while crossing as this takes all of your focus. Imagine that scene in Mulan when the old lady covers her eyes and crosses a busy street with her lucky cricket. In theory, this is what you do – walk slowly with purpose, and all of the drivers will avoid you. Noe and I are a little more technical and try to get the timing right before we start crossing. Eventually we got the hang of it, but it is still a stressful affair. There is also no proper sidewalk. Business spaces and parking lots cover the walking area, so you often find yourself on the road. We made it back to Serendipity and had a peaceful night in (and slept ALOT).
The next day, we were more adventurous. It started off with a lovely complimentary buffet breakfast, complete with rice oatmeal, steam bun, deep-fried meat spring roll, pizza, fried rice, dry wonton, potato corn patty, breaded pork, and veggies. Oh! And lots of Vietnamese coffee.
We ventured to the Pagoda – you can tell this was a highlight, because pictures of this monument are throughout this Hanoi blog post. It was situated on a big beautiful lake. I think it is actually on an island entirely made up of this Buddhist monastery.
Surrounding the main Pagoda were other smaller monuments dedicated to the passed monks with varying numbers of levels that represent the stage of awakening that they had reached in life. I do not remember the order or details of each level, but you had to forego certain things, like experiencing hunger, or anger, or intimacy. True dedication and proof of reaching these levels was demonstrated by a Vietnamese Buddhist monk during a time when practicing Buddhists were discriminated against by the leadership in Vietnam. In protest, this monk went to a busy intersection, doused himself in gasoline, and calmly meditated as he burned himself alive. Horrible image, I know, but I do not know of any soul who could go through that without so much as a grimace.
In the monastery, there are alters with many statues of monks or Buddhas, and offerings of fruit and food in front of them. To enter the room, you had to take off your shoes as a sign of respect. Locals would enter and bow in prayer in front of each alter, moving their prayer hands rhythmically towards the statues.
On our way from the Pagoda to the botanical garden, a vender lady approached us to sell fruits, but seeing that we weren’t interested, she plopped her hat on Noe and gave him the carrier pole saying “pictcha pictcha”. This was a brilliant tactic, because in the end, we ended up buying fruit as we felt like we owed her. It WAS a pretty cool photo.
The botanical garden was free and not quite what I was expecting. It was not designed to show off all of the tropical plants of Vietnam, but was just a park – though lush and beautiful. It had a public outdoor gym, caged peacocks and birds (and rats!), and nice walkways among the strange jungle grasses.
Our adventure continued to the Vietnam National History Museum. Holy cow was that ever boring. Maybe it’s not fair of me to call it boring in general. It might be an entirely different experience for a learned local Vietnamese person. But for me reading the English translation, nothing seemed to be in any logical order, there was no explanation of who was who and what the significance of certain events were. For me, the experience was more a visual rather than informative one. I saw prehistoric artifacts from around Vietnam, where the first peoples were depicted to have lived in caves, and used horn and bone and rock tools. I saw crowns (more like decorative caps) of emperors or kings. There were lots of pottery, brass instruments, and bead jewelry on display. The statues were confusing, because while the description would say what it was, it did not provide any detail…for example…a statue was called “Shiva” or “Garuda”, but I did not know why these statues of Hindu gods were in Vietnam. Or, this is a huge burial jar…but what did it hold? Organs? Treasures? Body of the deceased? It would have been big enough for the latter – but I have no clue. The museum left me with more questions than answers. Below are some of the cool things I saw but know nothing about:
Also, something to mention for anyone hoping to learn more about the more recent Vietnam War, this exhibit was at the Hell Hole Hanoi Hoa Lo Prison, not here. The National History Museum documented the more ancient wars between Asian countries or tribes.
Man, after a Buddhist temple/monastery, botanical garden walk, and bombarding my eyes with numerous cool artifacts that didn’t have context for me, I was pooped. We grabbed a Grab (remember, this is Vietnamese Uber), and had dinner at a highly rated restaurant – Quan Com Pho Co. We shared a meal of beef pho, spring rolls, pork fried rice, and FLAN called “caramel”. Supposedly, flan was a French thing, which may be why you can see it everywhere there was French colonization (Mexico for example).
After dinner, we experienced the Hanoi night life. There were many open markets with what appeared to be knockoff products (though we would have to consult an expert to be sure).
After we got tired of door shopping – because there were no windows – we stopped at a local hostel for a game of pool. There was a young Vietnamese boy watching us and making quiet suggestions for what balls to sink. After one game, in which I lost, I offered the boy to join my team for the next game…he was reluctant I’m sure, probably because he already knew I was a loser. But he was happy to play. His name was Ba. Unfortunately, we lost…then he tried again on Noe’s team, but lost again. I hope he doesn’t think it was because of him, because he had some good shots.
After a full day of exploring and shopping and pooling, we called it a night. Though we woke up early to head to our next destination – Cat Ba Island, Hai Phong, Vietnam!
Laramie Travels the World 