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Published: October 28th 2007
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Snake Eyes
My look before downing a bite of King Cobra. I apologize for the lengthy account of my travels to Vietnam, but I certainly didn’t want to shortchange Hanoi. In the end I found myself eating King Cobra on the outskirts of the city. So read on and find out how I got there.
I had just one day in Hanoi.
I started Saturday with a walking tour of the city’s Old Quarter. Hanoi is amazing and probably the best city that I have visited on this trip. Yes, even over Paris, London and Bangkok.
The fusion of Vietnamese and French culture is the most interesting part.
My first stop was at a nearby French pastry shop, where I ordered some croissants for 25 cents a piece. If I was to walk the entire day, I would need water. They didn’t have any.
The Vietnam Dong is about 16,000 to one U.S. dollar. So I knew when I withdrew 1,000,000 Dong that I might have trouble asking for change. And I was right.
The woman at the shop couldn’t break my 50,000, so she gave me the change that she could and one stick of Doublemint gum. I guess that’s how they do it Hanoi.
The Proof
Down the hatch. On a side note, it was pretty weird going to an ATM and withdrawing 1,000,000 of something.
So my walking tour commenced down the narrow streets of Hanoi at Ngoc Son Temple on Hoan Kiem Lake.
The streets are curvy, like Paris, but Hanoi looks like the City of Light after a nuclear holocaust. It is full of poverty in a very French-appearing city. Pretty strange.
(Check out this video of a Hanoi street corner:
Motobike Mayhem!)
I walked all through the Old Quarter and stumbled upon the only cathedral in the city. Vietnam is predominately Buddhist but, like the architecture and street design, there is still a good amount of French influence.
As I approached St. Joseph’s Cathedral, I saw a Catholic Vietnamese wedding getting started. The bride looked very happy amidst a bevy of motos whizzing by.
So I continued my trip around the city ate lunch at a French café and went on to Dong Xuan Market - a three-story extravaganza of anything you could want - except Ho Chi Minh t-shirts (which is what I really wanted).
Now the story starts to get good.
I took a moto
Good Morning, Vietnam!
The view at 7:45 am Saturday morning from the Hanoi Queen Hotel. back to my hotel and decided to go to a nearby intersection called Bia Hoi corner.
If you need to know any two words in Vietnamese, those are it: “Bia Hoi” (fresh beer)
So I sat in a plastic lawn chair on a Hanoi curb drinking fresh beer for 2,000 Dong (12 cents) a glass. Anytime you order a beer, simply shout “BIA HOI!” and everyone shouts allowing with you. It’s quite funny.
So as I am sipping 12 cent beer, I am joined by a Vietnamese guy my age who decided that he would quit selling books for the day and grab a beer. Wise choice.
His name was Quang and he was a native of Hanoi, never having left Vietnam. He wanted to know about America and the “American War.”
“I like Americans. They are friendly. It’s the government that sent troops over here, it wasn’t the people,” he said.
I guess that was comforting to know considering when I told my cab driver I was American his smile turned to a look of worry.
Quang and I got talking about the “Hanoi Hilton” and I asked what direction it was
The Dong
Uncle Ho looking proud on his country's currency, the Dong. in. He offered to take me on his moto.
Off we went to the Hoa Lo Prison where all of the American fighterpilots, including John McCain, were kept after they were shot down over Hanoi. The history of American soldiers here is an afterthought compared to the time spent depicting the long suffering of Vietnamese prisoners at the hands of the French.
But there is a little section talking about the "great care" given to the American pilots.
“Vietnam government treat the pilots very well and give them back to US government,” the 28-year-old Quang said.
I wonder what McCain would have to say about that.
Any visit to Hanoi would be incomplete without wandering by Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum. Although Uncle Ho was in Russia being embalmed (even though his wishes were to be cremated), I still had a good time.
Quang was a character. His English was impeccable and he sported the traditional Vietnam comrade cap and long hair. He also had a good sense of humor.
“Uncle Ho is on tourist visa to Russia. He no home,” he said.
After dropping by Uncle Ho’s, we ventured into the outskirts
Ngon Soc Temple
A temple on an island in the middle of Hoan Kiem Lake. of Hanoi to “Silk Village” where one of Quang’s friends runs a silk factory, which I asked for a tour of.
Quang and I talked while walking around Silk Village. He’s a new father of a baby boy named Vinh, who is two weeks old. He claims to have had many girlfriends, but once one had a baby, he dumped the others. Chivalry is not dead.
“I glad we have boy. In Vietnam, you always want boy. If you have girl, you keep trying until you have boy,” he said.
“Many families who don’t have boy are angry and break up,” he added. "Having girl is a sad day."
Wow.
As we talked more, he decided it would be a great idea to head over to “Snake Village” where I could see some King Cobra, hold a few snakes and, in the end, eat one of them.
Figuring that it would make a good blog posting, I obliged.
We traveled over to Snake Village and sat on a rooftop of a Vietnamese restaurant eating snake. To me, it doesn’t get much wilder than that.
By then it was late evening on Saturday
Offers
Offers to Buddha at Ngon Son Temple. and I figured I couldn’t top snake eating. So Quang took me home and we parted ways.
I decided to rest up as my flight left the following morning at 9 am.
I topped the night off watching American movies (Hannibal Lector made it to Nam!) and eating some French pastries and a mini chocolate mousse cake.
Good trip. Lots of pictures....make sure you take a look at the second page of pics as many of those are good ones.
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Aunt Mary
non-member comment
Uncle Ho, snakes and meatloaf
You know, I remember our own Uncle Ho used to bring a "knucklehead" salad recipe to the Helfrich home.....It was made of green jello, marshmallows, mayonnaise and mini shrimp......Oh wait, maybe that was your great Aunties Anne and Loretta.....As a "selctive eater" myself...I am recently revisiting Grandma's meatloaf after swimming 5 miles at the local junior high senior swim program...And trying to eliminate bread from my diet...The meatloaf has strips of raw bacon on the top....Baked for about an hour....Seriously.....that's the recipe.... The snake looks fabulous at this point. The genes allow you this....I wish I were there for the 12 cent beers...love ya.....Aunt Mary