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Published: August 6th 2007
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Turtle Pagoda
worshippers at the Turtle Pagoda in Hanoi I had the worst night sleep I have ever had in my life! The traffic noise and the beeping horns did not stop all night. Our room was on the second floor, facing the street and had the added bonus of having the hotels neon sign just outside our window. When you live in the peace and quiet of the mountains it is hard to adjust to such a non-stop level of human activity outside. Things did not settle down until well after 1am. So, I woke up feeling like a wreck. Lorenza had the sense to put some ear plugs in not long after going to bed so she wondered what I was complaining about.
Cyclos & Turtles
We took a cyclo tour around town, stopping at various sites of interest like the Cathedral, the Opera House, etc. Then we wound our way through the “Old Quarter again. The cyclo was a good way to see the sights at a very leisurely pace. We took a look at the Turtle Pagoda on the lake. There were some American-Vietnamese folks at the pagoda dressed up to make offerings and pray in whatever fashion was the tradition. They were interesting
to watch and when we approached one asking what the significance of the Pagoda was he was more than happy to explain the history and importance of the temple.
There are reputedly giant turtles living in the lake and way back in history one of these turtles came to the surface and gave a golden sword to a warrior, who then used it to defeat an invading army. Sometime later the warrior was called upon by the turtle to return the sword. The warrior did so and the turtle took the sword back to the bottom of the lake, where it is still supposed to be. The prayers made at the Pagoda are generally requests for longevity and good luck, he turtle being a symbol of long life.
I asked if I could take a photo of the group praying at the temple, they were all happy for me to do so, except the man who explained the story to us. He simply said that, “I don’t really want anyone to know I am in Vietnam, there are some people here who might try to harm me. So, just in case I will stay out of the photo
please”.
Something else we noticed made us laugh, back home we frown upon people using mobile phones while driving. Here we noticed it seemed normal for scooter riders to be on the phone talking or sending text messages, all while juggling some bags and probably a passenger or three.
Food with a Buddhist twist
That evening Ha took us to dinner at a vegetarian restaurant. The menu listed such things as roast chicken, salmon, beef, etc. All of it was actually tofu - but looked and tasted exactly like what was listed on the menu. The explanation being that the restaurant based it’s cuisine on the Buddhist idea of not making your guests feel uncomfortable by not offering them food they were used to, but at the same time allowing the hosts not to break their ideals of remaining vegetarian. I seriously could not pick that any of this food was tofu, the roast chicken even looked like it had chicken skin on it.
Shabby but nice
Our impressions of Hanoi after about 24 hours were that it was a bit shabby in parts, but a very nice city. We also switched rooms in the
Turtle Pagoda 4
small reminder in the distance that we are in a communist country hotel, because there was no way I was going to put up with al that noise over again. We got a room at the back of the hotel, which was a huge improvement.
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