Hanoi, Hue, Hoi An and HCMC (Saigon)

---

Hanoi

Hanoi is a bustling city with streams of motorbikes like a US city would have lines of cars. Crossing the street here is very different from the US. You just start walking from the sidewalk when you see a small gap in traffic and everyone steers around you. Also we observed how the sidewalks are used for an extension of a business’s workspace or as a parking lot for motor bikes. Pedestrians do not have a high priority when it comes to sidewalk access.

Unfortunately we were there on a Monday so all of the museums were closed. We also ran out of time so did not see Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum; I would have liked to compare it to Mao’s.

However, we did see several interesting sights. First up was a water puppet show. It started with traditional music followed by about 15 vignettes. The puppets were controlled by sticks from behind a screen and the stage was about a two foot deep pool. We were at an evening show and I am not sure if it was not exciting enough or just too late for us early-birds but both of us found ourselves snoozing during the performance.

The next day, our first stop was a restored 18th century merchant’s house called Memorial House. It was a two story townhome with a courtyard in the middle. I was surprised by the bed. It was only wood, no mattress. The docent said it was to keep them cool in the hot summer. Also the toilet was just a little 6 inch hole…both men and women would need good aim.

Next we walked about 2km to the Temple Of Literature, a university dating back to the founding of Hanoi 1000 years ago. They even have the names and specialties of those trained there 900 years ago inscribed on stelae (upright stone slabs).

It was approaching time to catch our sleeper bus so we did some food shopping from the sidewalk vendors and that required negotiating. First up was a mini-pineapple. She asked for 30KD but I offered her 6. It went back and forth and finally I walked away. She called me back and accepted 6. Next was bananas from a different lady. She wanted 40KD for three bananas. I offered her 10. She tried to make it 20 by throwing in another pineapple which I rejected so I got the bananas for 10. I am sure I paid too much. Finally we wanted baguettes. They wanted 5KD each but I got 3 baguettes for 11KD. Again, I am sure that was too much. I find I prefer shopping where the prices are marked. I probably end up paying the same amount but at least I don’t feel cheated.

That night we took a sleeper bus to the city of Hue (pronounced hway). We paid only $25 for two tickets and that included a cab ride to the bus station. The bus was not as nice as the previous sleeper bus but John and I had some of the best beds on the bus, locationwise. We were far enough in back to avoid much foot traffic, including some people who were sleeping on the floor in the aisle. We assumed they didn’t have to pay full fare for their spots. We were only on the road for an hour when they made a dinner stop and that was the last stop before Hue 12 hours later. Luckily there was a reasonably clean bathroom on board. It was a bumpy night but we arrived safely in Hue, in the rain.

Hue

Hue is the former imperial capital of Vietnam and is known for the tomb complexes of emperors and the imperial palace called The Citadel. We decided to tour the tombs by boat and thus began our first significant round of negotiations. We headed down to the waterfront and on the way, one of the pedicab drivers asked where we were going. In order to get him to leave us alone, I told him. Unfortunately, he has “family” who own a boat. He tried to get us to ride on his pedicab to the water but since it was only two blocks and taking the ride would commit us, we decided to walk. So he called ahead and a man was waiting to talk to us. I explained the four places we wanted to see and asked “how much.” He responded 400KD. By dint of telling him I could get 300KD from the hotel and walking away, I got him down to 290KD. By this time we had reached the waterfront. I tried to find the woman who had given us a card the day before but got blank stares from people I asked and were told by the people I was negotiating with that they had gone out already. I doubted that because the card said she represented 9 boats. Finally a woman walked up and offered 260KD. That was promising but it turned out she was with the man I was already talking to. Then the woman from the day before walked up and she was very mad but not at us. She saw we were using her card and started shouting at the other two. I tried to tell her that we were not committed to this boat and that I had been looking for her but she was too busy yelling to listen. The yelling went on for a minute or two (seemed longer) but it finally ended as she walked away. Since we had the one offer, we accepted and climbed in the boat. It was quite an adventure first thing in the morning.

We were on a dragon boat, so called because it is a long boat painted like a dragon. There were two women inside with us and one man in back driving. During the negotiations, we had been told the four stops plus travel time would take 4.5 hours. Turns out it took six hours.

Our first stop was the Thien Mu Pagoda. It was a nice pagoda on the grounds of a monastery. The monastery is remembered as the place where the first monk who immolated himself in protest of South Vietnam policies lived. They had the car he took to the scene of his protest on display.

The next stop was the tomb of Tu Duc, a fairly incompetent emperor in the late 1800’s. It was his primary residence when he was alive then turned into his tomb upon his death. It had a man made lake and island where he and his family would relax. Despite having a wife and several hundred concubines, he never had any children. It was 3 kilometers from the boat dock to the tomb and there were motorcycles standing by to drive us. The clerk at our hotel said to expect to pay 40 – 60 KD each. We negotiated with them to 55KD. It is easier to negotiate when you know a reasonable price in advance.

Next up was the tomb of Minh Mang. It was further up river. Like Tu Duc, the location was a favorite residence and after he died it was turned into a tomb. We saw the residence but the tomb itself is in a locked and buried underground city. The government will not excavate because it would disturb the afterlife of the emperor. This generated a discussion between John and I of when is it archeology and when is it looting. We concluded that if people still care about the dead person in question, then it is looting.

The final stop was the Hon Chen Temple. This had been recommended by the clerk at our hotel but was not worth the stop. It was a nice temple but just another temple.

We got back to the dock shortly after 3pm and paid our crew the promised 260KD plus a 40KD tip. It still amazes me that they can participate in such negotiations and not be resentful about the results. Next we headed for The Citadel. We had talked about taking a pedicab so when one approached us we started negotiating. The opening bid was 100KD, my initial counter was 20KD and our final price was 40KD but we tipped 10KD on top of that. The pedicab was fun. John sat on a board above the seat, I sat between his legs on the seat and he gave me a neck rub as we rode. From my point of view, the pedicab was well worth the price.

The Citadel is the Vietnamese equivalent of the Forbidden City in Beijing. It has an imperial city as well at the Purple Forbidden City for the Emperor and his entourage. Unfortunately between the Indochina War and the American War (their term) it was pretty much totaled. There are several buildings that have been restored that give a glimpse of what life was like.

Hoi An

The next day we took a bus to Hoi An. Hoi An is a beach town that used to be a major trading port so has significant influences from China, Japan and Indonesia. It is best known for the food, the Cham ruins and the custom tailor shops. We ate a lot of food and visited the ruins but purchased no custom clothing.

We took a tour to the Cham Ruins which are called My Son. My Son was a religious site for the Cham people between 300 and 1400 CE. The Cham were Hindu so most of the temples were dedicated to Shiva and are made from bricks not stone. It was abandoned in the 14th century when the Cham Kingdom was conquered by the Ly Dynasty of Vietnam. It was consumed by the jungle and re-discovered by the French in 1898. Unfortunately it was in an area that was carpet bombed and badly damaged by the Americans during the war in 1969. It is currently being protected and repaired.

We walked about 1 mile from the gate to the ruins. At the ruins the guide gave us some information about the ruins but his presentation was marred by his failed attempts at bawdy humor. There are several yonis and lingus’ on site. Yoni is the representation of the female and lingus’ of the male and is an obvious phallus. His sexual innuendoes were distracting and not even close to funny so we left the group and explored on our own. We saw several beautiful examples of the temples and several statues that were works of art.

Next we re-boarded the bus and rode about 30 minutes to where we caught the boat part of our journey. It was a small boat but we got a good seat and we also were given a light lunch of rice, stir-fried veggies and tofu and a banana. The ride was pleasant especially with the breeze. We had one 30 minute stop in a small village on an island in the river where they do woodcarving and boat building. Not wanting to deal with anymore dirty jokes or hard sells at gift shops, we explored the town on our own. It is a poor, small Vietnamese town. Back on the boat it was only 10 minutes back to Hoi An.

During our long walk back to the hotel, I stopped in a shop to buy a swimsuit. I paid a bit more than I wanted ($13) but I now have a suit that fits. The owner was quite “helpful” even coming into the dressing room and undoing my bra as I tried the suit on,

Next we put on our swimsuits and headed for the beach. Inspired by seeing some people riding two to a bike, I suggested to John we rent just one bike and I’ll ride on the rack on the back. It worked, and even though we got a couple of thumbs up by a few people on motorbikes passing us by, it was an uncomfortable way to travel and we won’t do it again. Once at the beach we played in the ocean. The waves were large and the water was warm so we had a nice time. Unfortunately the tide was going out so it was dangerous and I called it quits earlier than John would have liked. I had to promise to buy him a bag of M&Ms to get him out of the water.

Ho Chi Minh City

The next day we took a flight to HCMC (formerly Saigon). It is your standard big city but our first impression was “hot and humid.” We spent the afternoon just wandering and ended up in a park where it was cooler. It was a long, skinny (block wide) park and after awhile we sat down in the shade to people watch.

Soon after we sat down, a young women named Soe sat down and started talking with us. At first we were wary…what was she selling? But it soon became obvious that she just wanted to talk to practice her English. She is 20 years old, studying marketing and wants to be a tour guide. She asked what we liked about Vietnam and what we did not like. We asked about her home town and how old she was. We asked about each other’s families. After a while, some of her friends gathered around to listen and join in. One had a book that was a bit old fashioned so he sat next to John and got help with several unfamiliar words. Soe wrote down the words work, walk, world and word and asked for pronunciation help. We talked about movies, politics and many other topics. People would say good bye as they had to leave and thank us for the time. Finally, after almost two hours, we needed to leave. We bid everyone farewell and said thank you. Apparently this is a standard routine for them to help them learn English—engage a foreigner in conversation. John joked that he felt used but I just felt honored.

For dinner we had arranged to meet a colleague of John’s named Tran. Tran lives in Colorado now but grew up in Saigon. When the South Vietnam government fell she was able to immigrate to the US but much of her family remained behind. So while she lives in the US she visits Vietnam regularly. And it turned out we would both be in HCMC at the same time so we arranged to meet for dinner. She selected a good Vietnamese restaurant and, at our request, ordered a nice Vietnamese dinner for us. We started with a pork and lotus root salad and spring rolls. Then we had fish soup and glazed fish with sticky rice. It was all very good.

After dinner, we started walking in search of a coffee shop. As we crossed the open area of a corner gas station, I noticed a motorbike with two people approaching Tran from the rear. I was concerned because it looked like they were too close and they would side-swipe her when suddenly they accelerated and made a grab for her purse. She had it around her body so they did not get it but all three of us were pretty surprised. Our guidebook told us to be aware of purse snatchings by motorbike, but we didn’t expect it to happen on our first day in Saigon, or to someone who used to be a local. We are lucky because I was right behind her and had the backpack slung only over one shoulder. If they had grabbed for that they would have gotten it.

The next day we set out for Independence Palace aka Reunification Palace. This was originally the French governors palace and when the French withdrew, it became the South Vietnam Presidential Palace and was renamed Independence Palace. After the Saigon Government fell to North Vietnamese forces it was used for unification talks and called Reunification Palace. It is still decorated the same way as it was when it was captured by the North Vietnamese in 1975 and I was surprised that it was not looted in the ensuing chaos. It was interesting to get the Vietnamese official view of the war and, needless to say, it was not flattering to the US. But as I have noted, we have yet to have anyone be angry or even unfriendly to us because we were Americans.

When we finished it was lunchtime so we headed towards the location for our afternoon plans looking for a restaurant. We found a sidewalk restaurant and were helped by a girl about 12 who spoke reasonable English…they must teach it in the schools. She said “We have rice with fried egg. What would you like?” I responded “Do you have anything else?” And she said “no” so I said “We will have two 'rice with fried egg'.” It was a simple lunch. When we were done I asked how much and was told 60KD ($3). From the reaction of her little sister (she looked very anticipatory) we were paying a tourist price but it could not have been too much of a surcharge.

Then we went to the History Museum. We had to wait 40 minutes for it to open so we found a shady spot and people watched. It was right outside the entrance to the zoo on a Sunday afternoon so there were lots of people to watch. Interestingly, we began to feel like a zoo animal because we got a lot of stares from adults and children alike.

Finally the museum opened. It covered 4000 years of Vietnamese history and had good introductory signs explaining what was happening in each time period. As a result we got a helpful history lesson. In summary, the Vietnamese history has been a constant fight against foreign invaders. First it was the Chinese (for 1000 years) then the Mongols and last the French and the Americans. I have found that with both the Vietnamese and the Chinese, we have judged them based on a short observation period of 200 years. We really should look at them across their entire history. For instance, Vietnam has always repelled the invaders and China was always a world-class power.

The museum only took an hour so afterwards we went to the zoo. It is what I imagined a zoo was like in the US 50 years ago. The animals were in cramped quarters and had people throwing them both people food and trash. We saw all the standard animals plus some cool white tigers.

Next…

Next we fly to Phu Quoc (pronounced fu hwok) which is an island off the coast of Cambodia that belongs to Vietnam and has a reputation as a tropical paradise. After a couple days of beach lounging we head for Cambodia.

Assorted Observations on Vietnam

• The Vietnamese own motorbikes like we own cars. I have seen up to four people at a time on a motorbike. The adults must wear helmets but children do not.
  
• In America it is called the Vietnam War. In Vietnam it is called the American War and there are no hard feelings against American travelers.
  
• The bus driver is not in a hurry so relax and enjoy the ride. You will get there eventually.
  
• You will not get a good night's sleep on a sleeper bus.
  
• When you haggle down the price they don’t resent it. Also they will look stunned at the lowness of your first counter offer. Ignore it.
  
• Spitting is like breathing and it does not occur to them to do it privately or to apologize for it. But, thank goodness, it’s not as prevalent as in China.
  
• Most of the houses are narrow like townhomes even when there is nothing on either side. The front is usually nicely painted but the sides are bare cement.
  
• If you catch someone short-changing you, they just shrug and give you the correct amount. It is like a game.
  
• Vietnam can be a wet and muddy place.
  

Practical Travel Advice

• Always count your change and keep 10KD and 100 KD notes in different places because they are easy to confuse. Some of the people will try to cheat you.
  
• Don’t lock yourself into a single bus company. It may be cheaper but only by a few dollars and you may want to travel another way. For instance, it cost $28 pp to take the 22 hour bus ride to HCMC but we found plane tickets for just $50 and saved ourselves the uncomfortable ride.

---

Photos

Guidebook
John swears he took this picture to show how so many people in Hanoi were carrying the Lonely Planet guidebook.

Chicken Crossing the Road
In answer to the age old question, the chicken had no comment.

Buddha
Buddha at Thien Mu Pagoda, Hue

Fisherman
Fisherman on the Song River, Hue

Beth and an Elephant
This elephant stands ready to serve the dead emperor.

Pedicab
Beth and John in the Pedicab.

Rainy Afternoon
What do you do on a rainy afternoon? When we were in Hoi An, we drank exotic fruit drinks.

Bike
The bike we rode to the beach leaning against a palm tree.

Tran
Tran and her coconut milk.

Uncle Ho
A bust of Ho Chi Minh at the Reunification Palace.

Hanoi Electric Wires
Beth wondered how long it takes to regain power when a tree falls on the lines.