Greetings from Hanoi and Ha Long Bay
by Steve McAdoo in Asia , Vietnam
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Photos from Hanoi (6 photos) |
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Cleaning up at the Ho Chi Minh Museum |
I'm typing this from an Internet shop almost within throwing distance of Ho Chi Minh's mausoleumóthe shift key on this keyboard takes almost Herculean strength to press, so I hope you appreciate the effort. The mausoleum is closed, so we didn't get in to see Uncle Ho in person. The guide book says it's because they close the mausoleum every November to touch up his makeup, etc. Still, it's quite a sight, as is the presidential palace, and his 'house on stilts' nearby.
Before leaving Hanoi, we hit one more tourist site, the last remaining few buildings of the "Hanoi Hilton." Most of the old prison has been replaced by the looming office building, "Hanoi Towers." What's left features a few cells, a prison bathroom (Joseph's comment - I bet it wasn't this clean when John McCain lived here), a lot of old photos, a few mannequins of Vietnamese prisoners from the evil '50s when the French were running things here, and the centerpiece, a guillotine. It looked very similar to the one I saw on display at the war crimes museum in Ho Chi Minh City 9 or 10 years ago; possibly from the same guillotine company. Not sure if it's the one actually used at this prison when it was run by the French, or if it was "a guillotine just like the guillotine...", as the old newspaper expression goes.
The trip to Ha Long Bay was fantastic (despite the fact the four-hour drive from Hanoi involved being folded up like an intricate bit of origami and stored in the back of a tiny Isuzu minivan). Once we got to the boat in Ha Long, and I managed my way up the precariously small step ladder and squirmed on board, things were lovely. Great food, a great room, gracious service. And Ha Long Bay itself, despite overcast skies, was breathtaking. Emerald waters, dramatic, strangely shaped limestone islands scattered throughout the bay, and all sorts of tourist, fishing, and trade boats plying the waters back and forth, as well as the occasional big flying bird, leaping fish, or ghostly floating jellyfish.
Of course, it wouldn't be Vietnam if there wasn't some place to stop and get out and climb several hundred steps up a mountain, so we did that too, as well as climbing more steps the second day to get into, and then back out of, a big cave on one of the islands. At night, after dinner, the skies cleared to reveal a brilliant blanket of stars, and it reminded us of the last time we were in such an exotic place, lying on our backs outside looking up at the stars, earlier this year at Iguazu Falls in Argentina. My favorite part of the Ha Long trip, however, was simply sitting back in the deck chair during the day and watching the amazing scenery slide by. While day one was overcast and cool, day two was bright and sunny, and I'm glad we got to see the place in both lights.
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Photos from Ha Long Bay (7 photos) |
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A cloudy evening on Ha Long Bay |
This was our first outing this trip with a tour group, something we managed to avoid in Da Lat, and which we don't need in Ho Chi Minh City, since it's Joseph's home town. But it really was far simpler for this particular outing than trying to book our own private transportation up there, and boat once we got there.
It got me thinking about the fact that no matter how much I try to fool myself into thinking that on a trip like this I'm going to learn a lot about the local culture, the truth is, you end up learning a lot more about other tourists in that country, about tourism and tour guides in that tour company, and if you're lucky, maybe a little bit about yourself, and perhaps a sliver of truth about the place you're visiting.
Traveling with a group in Asia, I always end up being almost as fascinated by the strange exotic members of the tour group as by the locals. For example: * The French woman who traveled halfway around the world to get on a boat touring magnificent Ha Long Bay, and then spent almost every second of it with her nose stuck in a paperback book. You would have thought she was on her twice-daily commuter train trip rather than floating through one of the most stunningly scenic spots on earth. * The two Russian couples, one of whom was a Vietnamese man who evidently had been in Russia for some length of time, and who appeared to have a Russian wife. What was his story? What was he doing in the 60s? What made the cigarettes he chain-smoked smell so much like to raw sewage? * The Australian woman who after a couple of glasses of wine at dinner declared loudly to her companions - and thus indirectly, to every soul on the boat - about the vegetable dish we'd just been served "I know what this is! In Europe, people don't eat this - THEY FEED IT TO THE PIGS!" A point she found necessary to repeat five times. (I didn't recognize the vegetable myself, but it tasted great!)
All the guidebooks talk about what a go-go center of capitalism Saigon is, while Hanoi is more laid back and relaxed. Based on my very small experience in both cities, I have to say, I don't see it. Things seem to be every bit as bustling, and folks every bit as hustling, here as in Saigon. At least those I've encountered. Especially the lady-of-the-evening-on-motorscooter three nights ago who must rank among the most persistent (if ultimately unsuccessful) sales people I've ever encountered.
Seriously, overall this is a place with a big whiff of economic boom in the air. So unlike Argentina, which was clearly a once-rich nation in a slump, this place definitely feels like a poor country bound and determined to be on its way up, and fast. In that sense, it reminds me very much of Taiwan when I lived there in 1989-90. Bonus factoid: In Hanoi, houses have pointy roofs. In Saigon, they have flat roofs. It's one very easy way to tell which you are in should you happen to forget.
January 30, 2005
