Advertisement
Published: September 20th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum
Where they keep a stuffed Communist leader... Well I think the first thing that comes to mind when in Hanoi is "wow, what's with all these horns honking?". The chorus of beeps is pretty much neverending, and for no apparent reason, because no one really takes any notice of them. Just like they don't really take any notice of red lights. First arriving here, every road crossing was an adventure. In theory, you know the best practice is to just walk at a slow, consistent pace in a straight line. But when you look and see a motorcycle coming straight at you, it's pretty hard not to automatically jump out of the way (and often into the path of another). It's amazing how quickly you can turn this reflex off, to the point where now a swarm of motorcycles around me does very little to phase me.
On our first night here, we did the thing that apparently everyone must do while in Hanoi (other than learn to deal with motorcycles), and that is see the water puppet show. I could remember having seen one of these shows in Darling Harbour when I was a kid, and absolutely loving all the smoking dragons and jumping fish, so
Mannekin district
That's right, a street devoted to selling mannekins... I was really looking forward to the show. To add to the evening's wonder, before going to the show, we went for a foot massage, where they served free tea, then to a cafe overlooking a large intersection. The show itself was a little long, but there were still some really great parts: like the dragons with fireworks coming out of their mouths, the fairy dance, and a scene where two birds courted, then laid an egg which hatched.
The next morning we got up bright and early to visit Uncle Ho. It was a pretty intense atmosphere, with guards everywhere making sure you were staying in 2 straight lines, and no one was smiling, talking or laughing. It was pretty cool to see Ho Chi Minh's stuffed body though, though it did look a lot like it was made out of wax. But the mausoleum is shut between October and December so the body can be taken to Russia for restoration, so their story adds up. Unless they're fixing the parts of the wax sculpture that had melted in the Hanoi heat...
For all the waiting around, it probably took about 20 seconds to walk around the
Imprisoned
Me in the Hanoi Hilton body. I saw one or two people saluting his body as they were directly in front of it, so I copied suit. It probably means I was professing my alligience to communism or something.. o well, in theory I guess.Then it was a rather uninteresting tour of the outside of the presidential palace, and around Ho Chi Minh's living quarters. After that I spent the day shopping. On the way to water puppets the night before, I happened to notice a street with really outrageous poofy dresses (which ended up being wedding dresses), and so I was determined to get one, and a tailored blazer etc etc. Well the shops seemed a lot less interesting when you actually go in them. But there was one or two with some original stuff, and I kind of splurged on a sort of 1950s style summer dress from Germany. I also got a fake Chanel wallet which looks pretty 1970s tacky. I
In the three days I was there, the was only one meal I didn't have at KOTOs. KOTO is an acronym for the Confucius saying 'to know one is to teach one' (or 'Know One Teach One for short). Basically it was set up by an Australian/ Vietnamese guy to give disadvantaged kids a direction in life. All the cooks and waiters in the place (except for the mentors) are training, for employment oppurtunities in the future. The food is exquisite. The kind of stuff you'd have to go to a pretty expensive restaurant to get back home. So obviously, in terms of Vietnamese prices, the meals were very expensive. Like you could spend around $7 for your meal and drinks. That's a lot considering the $1-3 I'm used to paying. But the waiters are just so sweet, the food soooo good, and the standard of everywhere else near our accomodation only hovering above the 'definite food poisoning' stage, that it was hard not to keep coming back.
Anyway, on my last day in Hanoi, I got a nice big sleep-in, then went to check out the 'Hanoi Hilton', where Vietnamese political prisoners were kept (and tortured) by the French, and then later was the home of American POWs. The place seemed to me one giant propoganda machine. In the part about the Vietnamese, everything is emotively written about the bravery of the men and women, who faced such hardships yada yada yada. Not that I'm saying that this isn't the case. As with a lot of politicial prisoners they were treated really badly- but I guess I'm just a bit more used to having facts laid out in front of me, even if they are edited to fit a certain viewpoint. But the viewpoint was practically spewed in my face.
Then it was quite funny seeing the contrast when you go to the rooms about the American POWs, where it's all about how gracious the Vietnamese were to house these people who were trying to hurt their people. How they re-educated them to love life rather than want to destroy it. How they even had time for pow wows (the Hilton's wording, not mine).
The museum displayed pretty much anything they could think of, such as "Toothbrush. Provided to the Americans by the Vietnamese government". To their credit, there was a room devoted to the French and Americans who protested against the Vietnam War. Actually, I'm sure I would have nothing to fault, if it wasn't for the highly emotive plaques, devoid of any actual facts that plagued the first few rooms. But yeh, it was rather interesting, but having been to Canchanamburi and Tuol Sleng, I was always going to be hard to impress.
In all though, Hanoi seemed a pretty nice place, and is supposedly the more artistic chilled out centre of Vietnam, but I actually found it a bit devoid of any particular character. That said though, it was a very good 'general Vietnam' experience, and I enjoyed it a lot.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.354s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 8; qc: 51; dbt: 0.2729s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb