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Published: July 24th 2009
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On the morning of Saturday 11th July we arrived back in Hanoi via the sleeper train and checked into the Youth Hotel to get an extra couple of hours sleep after an uncomfortable night on the train bunk beds. The rest of the day me and Amy spent just lazing about and eating some good food before we met up with the group for a few beers that evening. First of all we went to Minh's Jazz Club and saw some excellent jazz but left after about an hour because the drinks were fairly expensive and we were all trying to reign in the spending a bit. We left and went to Legends where the bar staff are worringly starting to recognise us. We had a few drinks and after a couple of hours Doug got up and stunned us all with his skills on the piano.
The next morning me, Amy, Amy Ward, Doug and Emma Levett decided to go to Hoa Lo, the infamous prison that was used by the Vietnamese to hold US prisoners during the war and was used by the French colonialists to detain Vietnamese insurgents before that. The prison was nicknamed "The Hanoi Hilton"
by the American soldiers in a sarcastic dig at the terrible conditions and torture that took place there. John McCain was famously imprisoned at Hoa Lo and cannot raise his arms above his head due to the injuries he suffered during his stay.
We decided to get cyclos to the prison as it was fairly close so flagged down four just outside our hotel. Emma and Doug managed to squeeze into one while Amy, Amy and I took one each. Pulling away and into traffic in all together was a very amusing sight and I don't think the dozens of motorbikes were best pleased with the cyclo convoy clogging up the roads. I got a quick video of the journey that you can see here:
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We walked through the small rooms of the prison looking at the exhibits and information on the awful conditions the Vietnamese prisons were subjected to when Vietnam was under French rule before World War II. We saw the enormous guillotine that was used to execute prisoners and the tiny and cramped rooms that they were kept in. Unfortunately the information wasn't at all balanced and every exhibit simply proclaimed that the
French were evil brutal oppressors and that every Vietnamese prisoner was a loyal and strong hearted hero. It was a shame because it would have been interesting to understand what had actually happened. While I'm sure that there were many crimes commited by the French it was virtually impossible to distinguish between the real and exaggerated claims. Then we got to the very small section on the American war. At this point the signs and information changed from simply exaggarated patrionism to outright lies. There were propoganda videos playing in most rooms showing the supposedly excellent living conditions the captured American soldiers enjoyed and how they actually loved being at the prison and didn't want to leave at the end of the war. The exhibits proclaimed that every prisoner was treated lavishly which is completely at odds with the stories that came out after the war. Of course, those stories were told from an American point of view so you could argue that they were also biased but I don't think that all of those soldiers simply made up stories of torture and abuse. If the conditions suffered by the prisoners hadn't been so awful it would have almost been
funny to see the willful denial of the Vietnamese government and the contrast between the colonial era and American era exhibits in the museum.
That evening Giang organised for us to go to Le Mat, the famous snake village just outside Hanoi. We had heard lots about the area and the various farms that raised snakes for all of the surrounding area to eat in traditional restaurants. There is a large restaurant in the village itself where each person can get a snake to themselves and have the whole thing served up from head to tail in a variety of dishes. When we arrived in Le Mat we were led inside a large house that had dozens of snakes in cages downstairs and a large dining table upstairs. The owners explained that we could have three snakes to share between the dozen people in our group (a few had decided to stay in town instead of come for a dinner of snake) for 12 US dollars each. We had heard from people that had been before that each person got their own snake as it was tradition for the chef to gut the snake in front of each diner,
Enjoying a drink in the Minh's Jazz Club
From L-R: Emma Levett, Emma Howath, Charlie, Amy Ward slice out its heart and offer it with blood and rice wine so asked if this would be possible. We were told it would be possible, but only for a much higher price so decided to stick with three snakes between us. It was a shame as we wanted to try the whole experience but had guessed by this point that we had actually come to the wrong place. Nonetheless we sat down and proceeded to watch the chef cut open the three snakes in front of us. Now, I was really up for eating the still beating heart and bloody rice wine but the minute the poor thing was sliced open my world started to go a little grey. Anybody who knows me will tell you that I'm not great with the sight of blood but because this was going to be food I thought I would be ok. I was wrong. I went very green and had to sit outside in the thankfully cool evening air while the remaining snakes were cut open. Luckily I wasn't alone and one by one a few other people came out to join me looking rather pale and clammy. Amusingly, it was
Enjoying the jazz!
From L-R: Sally, Jo, Arlene only the guys who had a problem and all of the girls were absolutely fine. Don't believe that weaker sex rubbish! By the time the chef had finished gutting the three snakes I had come round a little so went back inside to try and grab a heart to try. Unfortunately they had already been snapped up by Ollie, Sally and Doug so I didn't get to try one but I did get a great video of Doug eating his still beating snake heart that you can see here:
- Doug snake heart
Although there were only three hearts to be eaten there was plenty of the tasty blood and rice wine cocktail to go around so we all got a shot each and downed it after the traditional Vietnamese toast of "Mot, hai, ba, jo!" which translates as "One, two three, go!". Simple but effective. The bloody rice wine was surprisingly decent and actually succeeded in bring me even further back to life.
After a little wait the chef started bringing various snake dishes out for us to eat. We had a couple of snake meat soups which weren't that great but the snake with
lemongrass and crispy fried bits of snake skin were actually delicious. In total we got about 8 dishes of varying quality and what seemed like gallons of free and very potent rice wine. A couple of hours later we rolled out, very full and quite drunk and headed back to central Hanoi.
When we got back we decided that we weren't finished for the night so went to the excellent Rockbilly Bar where we spent the rest of the night downing beer and cocktails before leaving the next morning for Halong Bay.
Oh, just remembered I have this video too. This is a quick clip of the mental rainstorm that we got stuck in on the first day back in Hanoi. We've got used to these tropical storms that start with no warning, pour down for an hour and then stop just as abruptly as they start. Despite the darkness this is actually around three in the afternoon on a sunny day!
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Steve
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Food
Hello you two, I know you were keen to try new tastes but still beating hearts and fresh blood cocktails??? No thank you, I would have been outside with Lee but throwing up I think. Whats that wonderful phrase Amy... "all part of lifes rich pagent" hmm ok. Loving all the blogs as usual. Steve(Dad)