Vietnam: HANOI (part 1)

I've been back from my Vietnam voyage for weeks now. A lot has happened in those weeks. The world has gone from snowy long winter to happy changeable spring. I went from Anticipation to Homesickness. I viewed and edited about 3000 photos from Vietnam. I lost the use of my legs. I contemplated travel and the unknown.

Now, I'm ready to give some details about more than the yummy food we ate. I'm ready to write about the story.

HANOI

After a long flight, with a long layover in Dubai and a short layover in Ho Chi Minh City, we arrived in Hanoi around midnight. We were initiated into Vietnam travel immediately because the taxi that we had arranged with the hotel to pick us up was not there. We didn't want to fall victim to all the scams we had read about, so we were dubious about the offers from the airport taxis. Finally we sorted it out, got safely to our hotel and settled in to a deep sleep.

We chose to start in Hanoi because the weather was the most "if-y" up north. We would rather start with the bad weather and move ourselves into the sun and sea. Luckily for us, there was no rain and the weather was warm...even if a bit overcast.

Why I like Hanoi 

I liked Hanoi. I liked that it was a big city with a village feel. I liked that the streets were twisted and windy and you never ended up quite where you thought you would. I liked that at different times of the day you could find completely different activities happening in one spot: in the morning a stall sold Pho Bo soup for breakfast, a bit later a shoe polisher had set up shop and in the evening a family selling t-shirts might be open for business. I liked that an entire street was dedicated to selling one type of product. Here is a street full of sunglasses, here is a street with luggage and bags, here is a street with clothing.

All the information out there said that Hanoi is the more strict and legalistic city and Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) is the move relaxed party city. And I have to say that all the information wasn't wrong, but I liked that strictness about Hanoi. You know where you stand in a city with stated expectations. I don't think I felt that Hanoi was strict, but more like militant (un)organization. You knew when shops opened and you knew when they closed, except when they didn't. You knew where to stand in line and how long, except when you didn't. You knew when the taxi would arrive, except when it didn't....They tried, they really did, but it didn't always work.

A taste of what I saw and did

I like to walk in a new city and Hanoi is a great city for walking. It isn't so big that you'll be lost forever but it is big enough to let you find your own little treasures along side the tourist "must see" sites.

The Temple of Literature

The Temple of Literature is an overly-crowded, yet peaceful place. There are manicured lawns and goldfish ponds. There is courtyard after courtyard that leads you towards an incense filled temple where students, teachers and scholars once met for knowledge. This is Vietnam's first university; built in the year 1070. A thousand years of education, that is a legacy!

The Water Puppet Theater was a delightful surprise. It was an hour of Vietnamese culture and history, where the past meets the present in a nearly magical way. The puppeteers are hidden behind screens in a pool of water. The puppets are on long poles that the puppeteers control under water. The training takes years, which is clear when you see what precision and dexterity these men and women have.

In a large park stands a tall gray Soviet style building. A long line of people snake away from it. They shuffle along, mostly silently. Some are school children in their red Pioneer handkerchiefs around their neck (Pioneers are the Communist version of Scouts). Some are rural workers dressed in their best slacks and blouse. I am part of this line. We are all waiting to see the preserved remains of the leader Ho Chi Minh at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

It was standard practice among the Communist leaders to have their bodies embalmed and displayed to the masses. Ho Chi Minh, however, had requested before his death that he be cremated. He explained that land was valuable and could be farmed to give the people food. His request was obviously overlooked and now there is a massive mausoleum, museum, pagoda and park to commemorate the man that Vietnamese view as their liberator from foreign rule.

As I try to write what I felt standing in front of the body, and in the preceding time of waiting in line what leaves the deepest impression is the pomp and circumstance, and with it the emotion that it is meant to evoke. Perhaps as the outsider this was lost a little on me. But I could see that this was a very sacred ritual for those waiting in that line with me. And this gap between what I experienced as the outsider and what those around me experienced as insiders of the culture, it holds all the words that I'm unable to find to describe what I felt.

And that was Hanoi for me: it was a place where my Vietnam voyage began and it filled me with aromas, tastes, thoughts, lessons and confidence. It was the place where at first I saw chaos, but after observation found order. What may look like manic driving and horn blowing is actually a sophisticated  communication system, what may look like trash being discarded carelessly on the ground is actually managed by a public waste service. Where my foreign eyes saw confusion, local eyes saw logic.

Hanoi was a beginning and as was once so well said by Lao Tzu: “A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” 

Next blog: Halong Bay