PART 1: CITY INSIDE THE RED RIVER

10-11 July 2013. Days 11 & 12 of 17. 
Ha Noi VIETNAM. 
Overnights in Ha Noi VIETNAM.  

It was a picture perfect postcard day when we left our hotel in Hoi An at 7:45am for Da Nang airport about an hour drive away. The 70min flight from Da Nang to Ha Noi was smooth and clear. The airport is a mighty 36km away from the centre of Ha Noi. By 1pm Bundy and I were off on a walk through the old town while the rest of our group went off for lunch. Ha Noi (Pop 7.5million with 4.5million motor bikes) is definitely much more olde worlde than Ho Chi Minh City but not as well kept or modern. It is also more expensive, more compact and more grubby.

It was established in 1010AD and took over as the capital of Vietnam from Hoa Lu at that time. The north achieved independence from China in 968AD and Ha Noi was known as "Thang Long" before 1831. "Ha Noi" means "city inside the red river". There are 65,000 trees in the city and even more baguettes and cups of Robusta Bean coffee. Such is the influence of the past French colonisation of 1853 to 1941 when the Japanese took over until the end of WWII.

Our guide Tuan did not waste time filling us with history on the 45min trip to our hotel - he especially pointed out the 6 different tones or inflexions of pronunciation of most Vietnamese words. The classic example is  "Pho" which has six different meanings depending on pronunciation. This is a stuffy city - we sweated more here than in any other, even under this cloudy afternoon. Our first major site was the "Bach Ma Temple" built in the 11th Century by King Ly Thai To to honour a white horse that guided him to the site of Ha Noi.

Our second site was the "Memorial House which is an old wooden house that is typical of the style that the old Chinese traders used to live in when the city was founded. Our next stop was the Helix Coffee House - a bit of a splurge for us as it was a $AUD4.50 Latte but facing the Hoan Kiem Lake at the centre of town. That coffee set us up to soldier on in the steamy cupboard atmosphere to the city supermarket (small in reality) to stock up on more cheese, olives, wine and even Hungarian salami! From here it was a short walk to the pollution tainted St Joseph's Catholic Cathedral.

This church is big and although the outside is very grubby, the inside is something else. A very ornate Altar and very colourful stained glass windows all around. At the back of the church exterior is an interesting relief of the Nativity of Christ complete with cave like structure reproducing the manger. From here we b-lined along the old city walking route back to the hotel - a total of 4hrs on foot and dripping with sweat. It was good to tuck into our local goodies after a cool shower and even cooler room which I had beefed up before we left. Dinner that night was at another special restaurant that recruited street kids to teach them cooking and hospitality. The dish of the evening was the Ha Noi specialty "Cha Ca", fried fish with dill, tumeric, rice noodles and peanuts with a ton of fresh chillis added by me. Other delights included beef with vermicelli and spring rolls that tasted like spanakopita (Greek Spinach triangles).

That night we relaxed on apres-dinner French Rose and Scorpion King III on TV. Thu 11 July began at 6am for G1 an G2 as we ran 10km around the West Lake, probably the most scenic run to date. Despite the muggy conditions, many local people were out and about, walking, stretching, meditating and even doing aerobics to the sound of Abba!!! There are many consulates, nice houses and up-market cafes and restaurants along the lake and it is definitely the place to live for ex-pats.

The highlight of our day-long mini-bus tour of Ha Noi on Thu 11 July was setting our eyes on the 44 year old embalmed corpse of President Ho Chi Minh who passed away on 2 September 1969. What a strange site for our kids who talked about it for hours after. It was much like Lenin (who I saw back in 2006) - "Bac Ho" or "Unce Ho" as he is lovingly referred to by the Vietnamese people was dressed in a traditional suit and laid out in a glass coffin with a gentle yellow light on his face, his hands on his legs and his trademark white "Colonel Sanders" style beard clearly visible.

Like Lenin, he looked like a wax dummy with pale whitish/yellowish skin. I have now seen 2 of 3 embalmed famous leaders in the world having missed out on Mao when I visited CHina in 2008 since it was National Day - the only day he is not on display! Every year, in September and October, Uncle Ho visits Russia to get a touch up on his embalming and one of the secrets the Russians use is to actually create a vacuum inside the coffin to prolong the treatment. His coffin sits approx 3m above street level inside a huge square mausoleum made of Vietnamese sourced grey and red marble.

 

Even though the queue to see him is 1km long it actually moves quite fast and it only took us 30min to complete the entire viewing. You need to leave all cameras, phones and food at a check in desk - it is times like these I wish I had a camera in my head activated by blinking my eyes! The mausoleum itself sits within a huge complex next to the old city dedicated to the father of Vietnam and contains several other buildings including a bright orange palace built by the French for their Governor in 1906 (used by Ho Chi Minh as a reception hall), the house Uncle Ho lived in (with his bedroom, dining room and office on display) and the bunker that he died in.

Ho Chi Minh is very highly regarded by both the north and south, mainly because he was a humble man and worked tirelessly to liberate Vietnam from France on 2 September 1945 (exactly 24 years before he died at age 79 in Ha Noi of lung cancer having smoked up to 32 cigarettes per day - much like Churchill!). Uncle Ho was born in a small rice growing village called Lang Sen of very poor parents. He had a brother and sister but none of the kids married or had kids so sadly, his bloodline is officially ended.

The key to the rise of Uncle Ho was becoming a cook on a French ship which enabled him to leave Vietnam in 1911 and spend the next 30yrs in France, USA, England, Russia and China. He learnt all about world politics and heavily influenced by Russian and Chinese Communist politics - so much so that he founded the French Communist Party in France in 1920 and the Vietnamese Communist Party in 1941 upon his return to Vietnam. Just 4 years later Vietnam was liberated and he became its first President.

Even though it started to rain we managed to visit Uncle Ho's home (one on the ground and another on stilts just in case of flooding), office, bunker and the one pillar Pagoda where he prayed. We were all very impressed with the whole story and set up of the "Ho Chi Minh Quarter" including his signed inscription as you enter his mausoleum: "There is nothing more important than Freedom and Independence". We then drove through the French Quarter on our way to the Temple of Literature. The influence is very strong - like Saigon, the Opera House and surrounding buildings are also pages out of Paris. The Temple of Literature is a sizeable complex of five courtyards with several old buildings and central temple dedicated to Confucius (of China) in 1070 by Emperor Ly Thanh Tong and later became Vietnam's first University. Most of the complex was rebuilt as a result of the bombing during the Vietnam War but the front gate is intact.

The Musuem of Ethnology some 10min drive away was a real eye opener to the culture and diversity of Vietnam. This is not one country originally divided into north and south. It comprises 54 ethnic groups. The largest of these is "The Viet" peoples which comprise 86% of the country and therefore gets naming rights. Other major groups in terms of population include: The Cham, The Khmer (also in Cambodia), The Hoa and The Tai (which dominate in Thailand). In fact, Indochina is more about many specific ethnic groups that belong to one of five major linguistic origins than it is about countries and borders.

The five major linguistic groups: Austronesian, Austroasiatic, Miao-Yao, Sino-Tibetan and Papuan. It is amazing how different these ethnic groups can be in terms of dress, food, language, beliefs, farming and hunting practices and even the way they build their houses. The Ethnology Museum manages to show you these differences through mutliple indoor halls each dedicated to a collection of groups and a large outdoor area showcasing actual lifesize houses rebuilt from the villages they came from. After an invigorating shot of traditional Vietnamese coffee it was off to see the Tran Quoc Pagoda on the giant West Lake where Nick and I ran that morning. Traditional Vietnamese coffee is actually more like Turkish coffee, very muddy and served in a metal strainer sitting on top of a small espresso style cup, allowing the water to pass through the coffee and into the cup below.

It uses the robusta bean grown in Vietnam which tastes bitter and a bit smokey. The Tran Quoc Pagoda is the oldest in Ha Noi. It is here that we learned the difference between a "Pagoda" and a "Temple": the former contains a "Buddha" inside it whereas the later has no deities but is dedicated to a person or ancestor that has made a significant contribution to the area that the temple is located in. As a matter of fact, 65% of all Vietnamese subscribe to this form of "ancestral dedication" and do not believe in any god or deity. Approx 16% are Buddhist, 5% Catholic and the rest believe in a combination of Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism and Christianity.

The sarcastically named "Hanoi Hiton" was our next stop. This is in fact a prison built by the French in 1899 (and called Maison Centrale) to house and torture Vietnamese political prisoners - 2,000 of them until liberation in 1945. It is estimated that between 80-90 prisoners died each year due to torture injuries or disease. Even women were held here and some beheaded by the French for treason - we saw the guillotine and photos of their heads in baskets.

From 1945 until 1964 it was used as a regular prison for civil offenders. From 1964 until 1973 it was used to house American soldiers caught during the Vietnam War - in particular 72 American pilots shot down over Ha Noi (a total of 505 US pilots were shot down and captured alive). One of these was Senator John McCain who ran for US President back in 2009. He is well known to Ha Noi and earned a statue on West Lake for his efforts to restore diplomatic ties with the USA after the Vietnam War. This work led to the visit of President Clinton to Ha Noi in 2000. By this time it was 4pm and we returned to the hotel for what was our best session of wine, cheese and olives until 7:30pm when we set out for dinner at a very traditional street side eatery with tables in the middle surrounded by many kitchens serving up traditional Ha Noi only dishes, the most famous being "Bun Cha" (spiced coal grilled pork slices in a light tamarind broth with fresh vegies and vermicelli). STOP PRESS: the following morning (Fri 12 July) we completed the following in Ha Noi before heading out for our home stay in the countryside.

We visited the Ngoc Son Temple on a small island out on "Ho Hoan Kiem" or "Hoan Kiem Lake" which means "lake of the Restored Sword" since legend has it that the gods gave the then King a magical sword to drive out the invading Chinese and a giant tortoise then grabbed it and took it into the lake to return it to its owners. The lake is part of the Old Quarter of Ha Noi and next to the temple is a replica of a 200 year old, 250kg giant tortoise actually found in the lake many years ago.

I guess the legend is true! From here we walked into the Old Quarter and learned some key facts about life in Ha Noi and Vietnam. The Old Quarter actually comprises 36 streets and many of them are named after the merchandise sold in them, for example "shoe street", "sun glasses street" and "meat street". Most vendors  own their shops and live above them. They buy all their stock outright with 65% of all goods coming from China. They have to pay tax on their profits and this is assessed by a government assessor, who stands outside the new shop for a month watching them trade.

This is done because there are no cash registers. Many assessors take bribes to report lower income and tax rate. Vietnam has 10% VAT on everything but it is seldom paid/collected because of the mainly cash based transactions. Unemployment is at 15%. Teachers earn $400AUD a month and police officers earn $600AUD per month. Most farmers and labourers would earn between $250-450AUD per month. We also noticed that there are no McDonalds burger restaurants in Vietnam, only KFC and Burger King - our guide Tuan was the only one who explained why. McDonalds is the only US chain that wants to OWN their restaurant land - the government of Vietnam continues to refuse the request!