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Published: September 23rd 2007
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Ok, so it is time for us to play some massive catch up on these blogs now that we are back in the land of cheap and reliable internet. Brit and I flew into Hanoi from Vientiane on July 29th. We spent the first two days in Hanoi checking out the sites of the city and getting used to life in Hanoi which was a little interesting. It took a little getting used to walking around the narrow, crowded streets and dodging the millions of motorbikes. It was quite amazing to see what people would pack on these bikes; tons of live chickens in baskets, pigs, buffalo, appliances, and the whole family (5 people was the record I saw). Street signs seemed to be more of suggestions than anything else too. We saw several times where red lights were totally ignored, cars would be 3-4 wide on a 2 lane road, and people regularly went the wrong way down a one way street because it was faster. Basically it was organized chaos to us but everyday life for them.
On our first day we walked around the areas surrounding the Hoan Kiem Lake. Our first stop was the Ngoc
Son Temple on a small island in the lake. From there we walked to the Museum of Independence which is the house where Ho Chi Minh worked on Vietnam’s Declaration of Independence. We spent some time walking the streets of the Old Quarter north of the lake and then walked to St. Joseph’s Cathedral.
On our second day we headed to the Ba Dinh District and Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum. It was quite a scene at the Mausoleum with a huge line of mostly Vietnamese and a few tourists lined up around several blocks to get a look at the well preserved Ho Chi Minh. We had to leave all of our bags, go through a couple check points, stay in a straight line, take off sunglasses and caps, and stay quiet. We finally shuffled into the Mausoleum for our minute look at Uncle Ho. It was a little creepy seeing someone who had been dead for 38 years sitting in a glass case but you could really sense the tremendous amount of respect the Vietnamese people have for this man.
After we exited the Mausoleum we walked around the rest of the area where we were able
to see the Presidential Palace, the stilt house where Ho Chi Minh lived for a while, the Ho Chi Minh Museum, and One Pillar Pagoda. In the afternoon we walked to the War Museum which had a rather pro-Vietnam rendition of the French and American wars. From there we walked to the Temple of Literature which is a temple dedicated to Confucianism and some of the great followers of Hanoi. In the evening we went to a water puppet show. The show was based on traditional puppet skits that were performed in flooded rice paddies during the rainy season. The puppets were simple wooden puppets but were controlled by poles under the water. A small band playing traditional music accompanied the puppet show.
From Hanoi we headed to Ha Long Bay where we booked a two day tour. The bay is about 3 hours east of Hanoi and is well know for the huge limestone monoliths/ islands found throughout the bay. We spent two days on a boat checking out caves on some of the islands, the floating villages found throughout the bay, and kayaking around some of the islands. The scenery of the area was truly amazing.
We headed back to Hanoi from Ha Long and got a “sleeper bus” for our next destination, Hoi An. The bus had bunks running down the sides and middle of the bus and fit probably 36 or so people. The bunks were short and narrow which made for a difficult sleep but it sure beat sitting in a regular seat for the 16 hour trip.
We spent two rather wet days in and around Hoi An courtesy of a tropical storm that ran through the area. Hoi An is a great little town that used to be an important seaport for SE Asia. There is a great mix of Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, and French cultures seen throughout the town. The town is also know for the great deals of custom made clothing and you can get a suit for under $100US.
In-between the heavy rain storms we got out to see some of the sights of the town and the surrounding area. We checked out some of the old Japanese merchant houses that have been there since the 1700’s, the Japanese bridge which is one of the oldest bridges in the area, some of the museums, and one
of the Chinese meeting houses which are organized by the different regions of China. On our second day we headed to the nearby ruins of My Son. This area was a center for worship for the Champa Kingdom and has ruins that date from the 4th to 15th century. This area was inhabited far longer than any other Indian-influenced site in SE Asia and has great examples of the architecture and sculpture of the time.
From Hoi An we flew down to Ho Chi Minh City via Da Nang. We stayed in HCMC for a couple days and checked out more of the American war sites of the area starting with the Cu Chi tunnels outside of the city. Cu Chi had a system of tunnels that, at the peak, had 250km (150 miles) of tunnels ranging from 3-10m (9-30 feet) underground. The tunnels ran under towns and even some US bases and were used to house and hide the Vietcong and their supporters. We saw some shelled US tanks, creators created by US bombs, sniper holes used by the Vietcong, and the tunnel system itself. The tunnels were very small and hard to navigate and it is amazing
to think that whole villages would live in these while the bombings were going on. We had a very interesting guide who had fought with the US who gave us some interesting perspective on the war.
Our last day in Vietnam we spent looking around HCMC itself and the different American war sites. We visited the City Museum, Reunification Palace, and War Remembrance Museum. The City Museum had some mildly interesting things on the history of the area and some cultural artifacts. The Reunification Palace was the work place of the president of Vietnam during the American war and was where the handover of power during the fall of Saigon occurred. The War Remembrance Museum was an interesting collection of things from the French and American wars. There were some rather brutal pictures and depictions of the effects of Agent Orange and other defoliants used during the American war but also some very interesting stories of many of the international journalists who had died in the war. The sights of Ho Chi Minh City were a great way to finish up our time in Vietnam.
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