Vietnam: Hanoi & Halong Bay visit

I had mixed emotions approaching this trip to Vietnam.  I not only didn't know for sure what to expect but I still harbored some trepidation due mostly to feelings and prejudices acquired growing up during the Vietnam war era.  Indeed there were a couple of times where I had feelings that perhaps I was giving honor to an enemy.  Those feelings were particularly evident when going to the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh who was the founder of the communist state.  He is Vietnam's Chairman Mao.  He was also the architect of the French defeat and later the expulsion of the US and eventual overthrow of the south Vietnamese government.  Years of growing up hearing about things like the Ho Chi Minh trail from northern Vietnam into south Vietnam and the direct or indirect loss of American lives resulting from the infiltration along the trail left definite negative prejudices.

A bit of an aside.....my Grandmother and Grandfather Holbrook lost a son, Phil, during WW II in fighting the Japanese.  As an act of compassion and healing, G & G Holbrook reached out and adopted, or perhaps more accurately, sponsored a Japanese girl, Chioko, who grew up in Utah and was like one of their children.  She met and married a Japanese man that was also in Utah.  As real and strong my emotions were from my young, peripheral exposure growing up during the Vietnam war, I now marvel at the grace and magnanimity of my G & G Holbrook.  Even more reason for me to respect and honor their memory!

Vietnam is quite the place!  General impressions:  (1) Flowers, so many beautiful flowers and gardens; (2) so many Americans and Europeans..especially French...they're everywhere in Hanoi and Saigon; (3) Friendly to foreigners and specifically Americans (American currency was widely accepted in the cities and tourist areas as a second currently to their Vietnamese dollars, but Chinese money was not welcome); and (4) the french left a positive impact on cuisine particularly bakeries.  Great pastries and breads....better than the Chinese attempts to dot their new developments with allegedly French inspired bakeries.

Vietnam used to be part of China during the middle ages.  Their written language was chinese but some years ago, Vietnam made the strategic decision to throw out the Chinese characters and adopt a romanized phonetics-based language.  The spoken language didn't change and is still a distant dialect more like Cantonese (Hong Kong and most US China towns) than Mandarin (Taiwan & Mainland china).  Historic sites will still have Chinese characters carved in old stone structures or art but then they will put up Vietnamese and English signage too.

Unsurprisingly there was the propaganda at historic sites that memorialized the wars with France and America....the Imperial enemies!  But I didn't feel the people were steeped in that propaganda like the Chinese have been indoctrinated in their propaganda.  Vietnamese seem very interested in American business and capitalism.  It also appears that there are current rifts between Vietnam and China because Vietnam has adopted some Government reforms that are too democratic in that they allow more than Communist party representation in their people's congress.  Well, enough of the background....now the tour!  I will save the best picture for last.

First stop is the Hanoi Hilton!  Actually, the "Hanoi Hilton" is the nickname the American POWs gave to the infamous prison where American pilots in North Vietnam were brought.  The prison was actually built by the French and was used to imprison all of the political prisoners and trouble-makers that gave the colonial French government problems.

This is the main entrance to the Hanoi Hilton. There are two museum sections: One for the French colonial period and one for the war with America.

They had propaganda posters lauding their efforts opposing the imperial Americans.  This one talks about the young man who set himself ablaze in protest against the Vietnam war.  Did we show the Tibetans about self-immolation? Anything we did, like Hanoi Jane (Jane Fonda who came over on a visit protesting the war....what a traitor she is!) was picked up and communicated within the country.

Parachute and flight suit from one of the captured pilots.

This was used by the French and there were many pictures of the beheaded.  The French used this up until they were ousted in the .....was it the 50's?!?!  I forgot!  And I thought guillotine's went away as a cruel 18th century punishment.  The Vietnamese allegedly didn't use it for their captives.

This cutaway shows the prisoner on a hard bed and kept in leg irons.  Of course they paraded them around and showed people like Jane Fonda how nice they were treated....things like Thanksgiving dinners....and of course the prisoners were then put back in the small cells after the sympathetic visitors left.

Okay, now we are off to Halong Bay.  We drove about 2 hours (or more) through the countryside to get to Halong Bay.

We passed many narrow homes along the roads.  Taxes / real estate allowances are based on area of the ground level in general but most specifically on the number of feet along the street.  So the net result is that home are very narrow and multilevel.  Oftentimes the family business is worked out of the ground floor and the family lives above.  These home are some of the nicer ones that have what appear to be little cathedrals on the tops.

Many beautiful rice fields.  In the background you see many free-standing narrow homes.  Even if you are on a country road the size is defined by the length of the street front...looks very odd.  But there are places like this for similar reasons in Taiwan and China.

The French have influence some of the more humble abode architecture as well. Obviously these are less well-to-do than the little wider homes shown above.

Vietnam has a population of about 90 million so it is much smaller and less densely populated than China with its 1.3 billion.  Our Chinese tour guide often refered to the Vietnamese tour guide as "little brother".  Vietnam is still part of the family.  Regarding agriculture.  I saw more tractors and powered equipment working the fields in Vietnam than in China.  China has so many people I guess they don't need as much mechanization.  I do know that there are tractors in use in China.  I just haven't seen it on my several months here.

However, they still have and use water buffaloes to plow the fields

This well-heeled farmer had this nice home sticking out in the middle of nowhere.

I wasn't too impressed with the state of maintenance of our tour boat....put it worked!

Halong Bay (near Hyphong harbor) is kinda like the Guilin limestone formations on steroids.  I think I took over 300 pictures on our cruise out here.  Very, very awe-inspiring!  

This is a close-up of this formation that the waves have left it on but a few pillars.  If we had sea kayaks you could paddle under this formation.  You can also see this formation in the above photo.

This looks two birds kissing...do birds kiss?  Perhaps lovebirds!  Depends a bit on what angle you are looking at this.

Did I mention that this was amazing?  The meal on the boat was less amazing but I didn't get sick!  Most of the food we had in the restaurants was better than Chinese food.  It wasn't like my stereo-type of Vietnamese food which was I guess pretty much limited to Pho (a type of noodles).

And yes, there were caverns we went into...fortunately we only went into ones above the water line.

And the water was clean too...

Before we went back to Hanoi.  We saw a water puppet show.  The stage is actually a large pool.  The people stand in hip-waders behind a curtain and operate control rods or sticks that are under the water and can move the puppets up and out or through the water.  Interesting concept that left us somewhat under-whelmed and scratching our heads....is this for real?

Now back to Hanoi.  Hanoi means "in the middle of the river" so it has many rivers and lakes.

There are two large lakes in downtown Hanoi.  This island connected by the red bridge has a garden and small temple for ancestor worship. This is the second to the largest lake.

Same lake at night.  The Vietnamese, like the Chinese, think that colored lights lighting the trees along the shore are better than just white lights.  These colored spots are there year round.

This is a tour boat on the largest lake.

No, for the hundreth time, I'm not from Norway.  I need another shirt. But this light, knit shirt dries overnight in the hotel room without using a hairdryer so I wear it everyday.

Beautiful gardens around the Norwegian lake.

In this confucian temple they have these tortoises..which symbolize wisdom and longevity...have these stone tablets on their shells which record the names of those that successfully passed the imperial exams.  Confucious lived ~2xxBC and among other things one of his greatest contributions to Chinese history is the idea that merit, not heredity, should determine your opportunity to be a national leader (except for the Emperor).  So the emperors had imperial exams so that those that could pass them were given government positions.  Quite a concept!

This tree was on the island in the lake.  It is like the tree on Hong Kong that drops runners down which grow into new trunks of the SAME tree.

This is a Bonsai version of the same type of tree.  Even as a little tree it drops runners too.

This is a small lake around the living quarters of HoChiMinh when he was living.

This is the current resting place for HoChi Minh.  He is on display in this mausoleum.  I did go through this and it was the time when I felt like I was betraying something.  I hoped that someone did take a video of me lining up to see him and interpret it as my awaiting to pay my respects.  I even had thoughts of doing something inside....my bad...

This is an ancester worship memorial on the island temple.  This is a few days before the lunar or chinese new year and so there was food and other "sacrifices" presented at the memorial.  You see these all over China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Cambodia and other asian countries.  Even businesses have smaller versions right in their lobbies and during the time before the new year, food and other gifts start stacking up

I zoomed in on the funky yellow fruit,  They are called Buddha's hand.  I didn't taste that kind of fruit.  Vietnam was the first time I had seen it.

Also a new year tradition.  However, this is mainly a Vietnamese new year tradition.  Small Kumquat trees are sold and taken home for good luck for the new year.  They don't decorate them like we do Christmas trees, but they might put some ribbons on them.

In addition to Kumquat trees.  You also need to take home a peach blossom tree to ward off evil spirits.  The Chinese ward evil spirits at the new year differently.  A cheap family can get by with only a branch as long as it has some blossoms.

A nice Kumquat tree like this was likely a rental tree from a farmer.  And of course the motorcycle is used to haul the tree to its destination.

Another new years tradition in Vietnam and China is to eat a rooster, or at least give one as a gift for new years.  So here are some cages of roosters heading to market.  It was very noisy here around our apartment in Chengdu because you could here the roosters crowing in the morning....and at all times of the days.  Finally after a few days the birds were quieted......

Not a new year tradition but I really laughed when I saw these water-filled bags with gold fish heading down the road.

Speaking of odd things to be carried.  Here is a refrigerator on the back of this motorcycle.  I wonder what that does to the maneuverability of the bike!

Not to be out done, here you have a dining room set all on one motorbike:  4 wooden chairs and the table....I admire his handywork.  I think I can get more on my pickup the next move I make.

And, why yes, talking on the phone is common while riding in Vietnam and China.

This reminds me of something my dad would have me do on the farm.  The girl on the back of the motorcycle is pulling a work cart behind her.  So many things could go wrong with this......

With all of these creative motorcycle riders and few driving rules you end up with some great traffic-filled intersections.  This video is of an exemplary intersection that leaves me marveling on why there are not more injuries and also leaves me speculating on how this might work in the US..

This lady is selling souvenirs outside the park gate.  Those on leggings she is wearing not tattoos   But it definitely caused a double-take.  And, like the Chinese, all Vietnamese women wear high heals regardless of what they are doing.

I'm glad I don't have to work on their telephone system.  This was not a unique utility pole.

I saved the best picture for last!