Hanoi Hilton

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Yesterday (now two days ago - last night we were in Halong Bay without internet so I'm sending this on Saturday) was a full day in Hanoi, with an early morning exercise observation, a walk with a chef through the street markets and sampling of street food, lunch at a local restaurant, a visit to the Hanoi Hilton, then to a factory where they made lacquer products, then to a local contemporary art gallery, and then back to the hotel for dinner. Whew. It was all memorable but I decided to focus this entry on two experiences; 1) street markets and street foods, and 2) the Hanoi Hilton.



After breakfast we met a local sous chef, a very nice woman named Li, who took su through the markets. People in Hanoi are always cooking on the street. It doesn’t look so sanitary. They have aluminum pans that they mix stuff in with their hands. They heat with camp stoves, while they sit on little plastic stools in the opening to the front of their business stall and behind that where they sleep. There is a public bathroom down the block that is shared by many families. There’s often a big pot of liquid with grease floating on top and who knows what down below. Sometimes it smells good. Next to the pot there are cut up vegetables and sometimes meat, the meat being difficult to identify unless it’s a chicken which is identified by its head an feet which are still attached. We saw one pot where next to it there were live bunnies in a crate. We deduced what was in the pot. As appetizing as this all sounds, three of us were adventurous and decided to try a “salad” prepared by a lady at on the sidewalk. In it was white papaya, which they told me is not related to the papaya fruit, herbs, peppers, mild chiles,vinegar and tendons, yep tendons. No further information on the source of the tendons was available. It was terrific. Later two of us, the guys, tried a terrine of pork that was still warm. That was not so successful. Words that we used to describe it were rubbery, gelatinous, chewy, the consistency of silly putty, and a bland meaty flavor with a particularly gross beige color. The lady cut huge pieces for us to try but after one bite, which both of us dutifully masticated then swallowed, we searched for a place of disposal. It’s not like there are garbage cans all over. Strangely, there’s not much garbage either. Subtly, I let mine slip into the ground. Gary’s disappeared too. Then we tried freshly steamed corn on the cob. It tasted just like corn but without any hint of sweetness. Disposal presented a bigger problem. It was too big to let slip, but our guide saw our distress and took it away. Lest you think that this was all bad, we had a great time. The spice markets were fascinating, the smells exotic and lively and the people couldn't have been nicer or more generous. They are poor and they do difficult jobs to make enough to buy food and they use every part of the plant or animal possible. We saw an entire basket full of peeled garlic and one woman in the back who peels garlic all day. I guarantee that whatever job we have or have had it was easier than that.



After lunch we visited the Hanoi Hilton. We were expecting to see some propaganda here, but we were surprised by at the extent of it, how blatant it was, and how poorly it was executed. I had seen some of this before; the staged photos of the American pilots having Christmas, the photos of Americans being treated by Vietnamese doctors, but I wasn’t prepared for the quantity and its intensity in this setting. The tour started with the experience of Vietnamese prisoners by the French, including showing us the guillotine that was apparently used often. It showed where the prisoners were shackled and basically made a strong impression that the French treated the Vietnamese horrifically. Then we went to the section where they housed the American flyers. They had a film running showing American protests against the war with captions that I wish I could remember about our imperialist ambitions and our efforts to kill, kill, kill women and innocent children. A lot of this propaganda exhibit was based on selective use of our own media and the real dissension within our country during the war. They had copies of our newspaper articles and magazines questioning the rationale for the war. They had photos, many of which we’ve seen before; the young girl running down the street naked, her clothes burned off by napalm, the street execution photo by a South Vietnamese soldier, and others. They had John McCain’s flight suit on display. That upset me, probably because they turned our own information against us, one sided for sure, but it could be argued, fair game. But most was just pure lies about how wonderfully they treated the American prisoners. How do we know they were lying? In 1973 all 400 or so prisoners were released in an exchange, John McCain being the most well-known and they told the stories and showed their scars and permanent damage. Anyway it pissed me off. I have sympathy for the Vietnamese people. They endured terrible devastation and suffering at the hands of our country. We bombed the crap out of their cities, killing more than a million people that were not soldiers. We mined their land and harbors and every year Vietnamese people continue to be killed by these land and water mines. We burned their land with agent orange and that land remains unusable. The north’s goal in the war was to reunite their country, albeit under a communist regime. Many in the south had the same goal, hence the Viet Kong. Our goal was to stop communism. Our goal was not to lose the cold war to the Russians.Yes, the North Vietnamese were communists but with the benefit of hindsight, they were not threats to us or our way of life. I feel for them. I get that they were angry at America and I’m really very much surprised at how welcoming they are to us just 40 years later. But the Hanoi Hilton still pissed me off and the Vietnamese failure to come clean on it rubs me badly the wrong way. They could have told the truth, that this former French prison, notorious for torture and inhumane treatment of inmates became the prison that the North Vietnamese government used to house pilots, torturing and starving them because we believed at the time that this is how they deserved to be treated. But no, they just made shit up about how wonderfully they were treated and continue this fiction today. Nothing more to say on this.

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