Hua Lo Prison was very erie. It was first used by French colonialists to house Vietnamese, and later used by Vietnamese to house American PoWs. (Isn't it creepy and yet so interesting how the prisoners changed throughout time?) Inside the prison, the exhibits displayed both photographs and scenes from the French colonial battles and the Vietnam American War. The videos that played showed Vietnamese mothers in horrible grief as they buried their babies, and American B52s plummeting to the ground. The films were in black and white but felt very present, still. Both of these scenes brought tears to my eyes- on one hand I identify a lot with the Vietnamese after spending a year in Southeast Asia and they are just trying to live their lives. On the other hand, in those plummeting planes, were Americans. Maybe even Americans that did not agree with the war. The whole thing was very sad, but very worthwhile. Interestingly, there was a whole room on John McCain. You could see his flight suit, and there were images of him being pulled out of Truc Bach Lake and then being treated by a Vietnamese doctor. Throughout the prison-museum, Americans were referred to as "American Imperialists" and "unnecessarily cruel" while Vietnamese were very "kind" and "treated the American PoW pilots well." Then there was photo after photo of American PoWs playing basketball inside the prison, chess, even celebrating Christmas dinner together and decorating a tree. When I went home that night I read excerpts from John McCain's accounts of being a PoW. He describes horrendous torture- not aligned at all with the photo of him being treated by a doctor in the museum. Very interesting. John McCain did, however, mention that the prison was referred to by American PoWs as the "Hua Lo Hilton Hotel."
After purchasing a few political pins from the gift shop, I walked to my next stop: The beautiful "Temple of Literature." The Temple of Literature is regarded as Vietnam's first university. Today it is simply beautiful Chinese style buildings, reflecting pools, and courtyards that you can walk around in. I really enjoyed it. Every museum entrance fee in Hanoi is no more than 20,000 dong, roughly $1.
My third stop of the day was to Bach Ma temple: Hanoi's oldest temple. I had a bit of a hard time finding it because it was tucked away behind lots of newer buildings. It was small, old, and desserted, and there were no tourists there at all. It was an amazing experience. The doors to the little yellow temple were closed, but I pushed one open. I entered, and there was an old woman asleep near the alter. Lots of incense was burning, but there was no one there. I felt like I shouldn't be there haha. I am really happy that I walked there :) On my walk back home, I heard the Thai word for "guava" as a cart of guavas on a bicycle passed us. I listened carefully and then heard the word "arroy" (delicious!) THEY WERE THAI! THAI! MY LANGUAGE! I joked with them in Thai... the word "farang" in Thai means both guava and Western foreigner. We talked on the street corner for maybe 10 minutes in Thai. It was lovely. A moment that I will remember for a long time. I felt like they were my people! Haha. Lots of Vietnamese were staring at me as I spoke to them...that was pretty cool too. My new friendly Thai friends invited me to join them, but I had an appointment with Stone to help him with his website. Sure enough, back at the hostel he picked me up, and we drove down the street to a little cafe where I had the BEST coffee I have ever had. We created a name for his company (Motorbike Adventure Tours Hanoi) and submitted all of the necessary information. Then he dropped me off at my hostel (so I could put my computer away), and then dropped me off at the Water Puppet Show (a beautiful, unique form of puppetry originated in Hanoi!) He told me he would pick me up when the show was over. I waited in a long line for a ticket, but because it was just me going to the show, I got a last minute FRONT row seat at the theatre. Oh, the perks of traveling alone! :)
Sure enough, after the beautiful show- where the traditional Vietnamese music was just as interesting as the water puppetry- Stone was waiting for me outside. He took me to a local outdoor bar where we drank the cheapest beer in the world (Bia Hoi, pronounced "bia heury") and we ate BBQ DOG!!! I thought I was going to throw up when I was chewing the dog meat if I thought it was dog, but if I thought of it as chicken or beef, it was actually pretty good. Upon seeing that it was my first time eating dog, and that I spoke English, the table of Vietnamese next to us joined in our conversation. They offered me some of their dog meat, which they said was better because it was cold like salami. I tasted it...that was much harder to swallow! We all drank beer after beer, and soon the conversation turned to the present day political situation in Vietnam (which I now know is never a good idea to discuss publicly). Stone and one of the other men had a small disagreement about whether or not their computers could log onto facebook. Stone said that he could not, and the other man whipped out his smartphone and logged in to show me that you could. When this man went to the bathroom, Stone asked me not to talk about politics anymore (which I didn't!) He later told me a lot about his high-powered father, The Party, and opportunity in Vietnam. I was fascinated. At the end of the night, he dropped me off at my hostel, and we agreed to meet at 730am the following morning for our full day motorbike adventure.
Tomorrow would be one of the best days of my entire life, but I didn't know it yet :)!
A man on a bicycle peddling baskets right outside of my hostel
Cyclos (the red peddled by men) in Hanoi
Beautiful fruit stand!
(Although, this woman is one of the women who wouldn't
bother to help me with directions when I approached her with a smile)
My first bowl of "Pho" (pronounced "fuhh") in Vietnam!
Katie
The tables and stools in Vietnam are smaller than Thailand's :)
Also, no Thai condiments here!
Pho, a small bowl of herb broth (left), and a delicious parsley salad!
Happy Emily!
The plate of free bananas in Katie and my room the first night :)
I was very impressed!
Free breakfast at my hostel every morning!
The baguettes were excellent.
Common sight in Hanoi: Women peddling fruits, vegetables, and flowers
The busy streets of Hanoi
(It's true, the best way to cross the street as a pedestrian
is to walk very slowly...as opposed to darting across the
road like you might think is the best strategy!)
Street fruit
Women buying green beans and roots
I just love this image
Electrical wires, French architecture, motorbikes
(Hanoi reminded me a bit of Buenos Aires, Argentina)
More street peddles.
These street peddlers are always women, often very old,
and they make about $1/ day. They all travel in from surrounding towns
in order to bring money home to their families or to support themselves.
The women sleep 10 people/ 1 room for about 35 cents per night in Hanoi.
(I learned all of this information at the Hanoi Women's Museum)
The flower peddlers are my favorite
There she goes, working hard.
Bird cage on a tree!
Policeman directing motorbike traffic. Madness.
A tree was being cut down on the rush hour morning commute.
(Hilairous). I am so glad that when I travel I wake up early.
The mornings are a whole different feeling :)
A Hanoi street
Pho Bo!
Cool tree in a wall that I took a photo of.
I like the man who looked at the tree while I took the photo.
Hua Lo Prison
("Maison Centrale" in French)
Creepy replica room of what the prison looked like
inside during the French colonization
Almond tree...prisoners used it for all sorts of remedies
The present day almond tree still stands
Selling mangoes. I have tried to carry one of these...SO HEAVY
This man, Douglas B Peterson, was formerly a PoW
and later became an American ambassador in Hanoi.
I was very inspired by him.
Photos of American PoW's in Hua Lo prison
having a "great time."
Photo of John McCain being treated by a Vietnamese doctor.
Hanoi street
I don't know what this is, but it's a beautiful Chinese building.
Bird cages
More flowers
(Vietnam has many more flower shops than Thailand)
Selling pineapples
Another beautiful Chinese building
Tall skinny French building
Motorbike traffic
The Temple of Literature
The gardens and courtyards within
A mouse topiary!
I would LOVE to live in this French style building
overlooking the gardens of the Temple of Literature
Information about the texts that students read during the
15th century under the "Le" dynasty. Their texts included
the "Four Books" (The Great Story, The Golden Means,
The Analects, and The Great Pre- Confucian Classics).
Students learned for 3 -7 years, and had 4 tests/ year.
During the National Exam in order to sit for the Dinh,
the King himself posed the questions (!)
It's me! In front of one of the pools within the temple
The largest Vietnamese flag I have ever seen :)
Beautiful hand painted puppets and masks for sale
The crane standing on the turtle is significant,
and found throughout temples in Vietnam, but I am
not exactly sure why. I think that it might have something
to do with the "longevity" of turtles in many Asian cultures,
but again I am not sure. (I must research this!)
The shrine found at the back of the Temple of Literature
A giant gong!
These women, dressed in traditional Vietnamese attire, loved
practicing their English with me. They were so kind!
Traditional Northern Vietnam puppets
A cool Chinese style door I passed on the walk back to my hostel.
A street, and restaurant, underneath vines :)
Hanoi alley
A beautiful building
Ahh, the French style architecture was a spectacular!
I liked this one shorter, older building above the "lovely" sign
Some less nice buildings
I love this shot of a woman in a conical hat, sitting on a
little Vietnamese stool, selling Durian. So exotic!
More fruit street peddlers
Cyclos, and three grown adults riding one motorbike
This is a famous shop that I stumbled upon.
It's called "Old Propaganda Posters" and it's
fascinating to go inside and check them out.
Bach Ma Temple
(No wonder I had a hard time finding it- tucked away
down a little quiet lane!)
The doors were closed!
But I still went inside ;)
The view from inside the temple (I closed the doors behind me again)
Ancient Chinese warriors guard the temple.
The friendly Thais I ran into!!!
Helping Stone submit a TripAdvisor applicaiton.
The best coffee ever...but it must be stirred!
Water Puppet Show!
The musical talent...as good as the show
The "stage"
The beautiful, complex water puppets.
They enter and exit through this trap door.
View from my front row seat!
At the end of the show, the puppet controllers? came out :)!
The audience cheered.
Left: Fresh greens; Top left: Salt and chili peppers;
Far right: Barbecued dog!
Stone, my driver and friend, popping dog like tic tacs
"Let's go grab beers and dog"
Now that's a first, and a last for me!
No comments:
Post a Comment