Hanoi is smoggy. It is in a perpetual haze. If you have asthma, this might not be such a great place to visit. If you are an electrical engineer or electrician, do not come here. You would have a stroke. The wiring is unbelievable. I will have to post a picture. Transformers are about two feet away from housing and stores. Wires are coiled and jumbled in the most amazing ways. If, maybe when, something happens, it won't be pretty.
After our rural expedition, we came back into the city, Vu brought us on a walking tour around Lake Hoan Kiem and through the Old Quarter for a taste of Hanoi. The lake is small and pretty mad there are many people sitting, walking, exercising and getting pictures taken. It is a favorite spot for a bride to come with her fiancé and the wedding photographer to take pictures. Yesterday there were at least 10 couples we saw doing this. The Old Quarter is a trip. It has a maze of streets and each block, if you can even call it that, has a name. They seem to change quickly. Originally, each street was dedicated to selling particular items. Hang means street so Hang Gai is Silk Street. There are streets for cotton, metal, herbs, toys, etc. It isn't absolute that only one product is sold on that street but it is predominant. In between there are cafes and bars, hotels and street food vendors, women carrying the two baskets on a stick balances on their shoulders with whatever they are selling, fruit, sweet potatoes, socks, soups, whatever. The sidewalks are pretty much all parked up with Hondas and people need to walk in the street along with the traffic including motorbikes, cars, cyclos, trucks, tour busses, bikes. You must pay attention to what is going on around you always.
In the morning we met up for a tour of several of Hanoi's attractions including the Temple of Literature, founded in 1076 to educate royal men and mandarins. It is now a peaceful landscaped place with a temple honoring Confucius. Even now students come to this place to make an offering before their important exams. Education is determined by how well you do on exams which makes it rigid and stressful but at the same time, this developing country has a 96% literacy rate. Then we went to see Ho Chi Minh as he lies in state at the Mausoleum. He is honored the way George Washington is with us because he was able to finally secure independence from colonizers. Even people who don't like the communist government like Ho. Lastly, we toured the infamous Hoa Lo Prison where John McCain was held prisoner for 4 1/2 years. Originally a French prison used to house Vietnamese independence fighters, it was pretty gruesome. Most of it is gone, but enough remains to get a sense of how bad the conditions were.
We ate at a restaurant known for its Bun Cha. It's sort of a version of pho. You sit down at a laminate table on plastic stools and they plunk down plates of vermicelli noodles and another of lettuce and cilantro and then give you a bowl of broth with sliced pork and pork patties in it. I was still recovering from the traveler's curse so Thai was kind enough to go across the alley and grab me another version of pho with chicken. They always serve it with a small dish with small sliced red chilies. It is a signature dish of Hanoi and without Vu and Thai, I never would have ventured into this establishment. Later he brought us to another Hanoi tradition called hidden coffee. You have to walk through a business into a back alley and then go up several flights of stairs to get to one of two floors overlooking Hoan Kiem Lake where the view is great and there is a breeze. There you can order Vietnamese coffee or tea or a soda. We finished the afternoon by attending a performance of a traditional water puppet show. This folk tradition evolved hundreds of years ago when it was flood season and there was nothing to do in the rural rice paddy agricultural areas. Someone came up with the idea to create wooden puppets, attach them to a pole with wires, stand in a rice paddy up to their waist behind a bamboo screen and enact a drama. Go figure. It is now a very elaborate show with traditional musicians and singers and a large pool of water where these puppets "perform."
Later we met up for our farewell dinner for the tour. 5 ended the tour and 6 are extending for two more nights in Ha Long Bay. The next few days are on our own to do as much or as little as we wish in Hanoi before we head back home.
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