Sunday, February 2, 2014

Day 159 – Hanoi

Crossing the Red River into Hanoi.
We had to leave the hotel by 7 a.m. to get to the airport this morning.  Our flight to Vietnam left at 9:30, and we had to go through immigration, because we were leaving China for a few days.  The flight was very nice in a new plane, and we had a lot of legroom and only two people on each side of the isle.  A very comfortable two and a half hour flight.

When we landed in Vietnam, we had to go through the visa process here.  It all went quite smoothly, and we didn’t have any problems.  We were on an earlier flight than had been in the original plan, so they decided to take us to lunch first and then the hotel.  Most of us agree that we like the Vietnamese food a lot.  It is not as heavy in oil and fats as the Chinese is. 
 
Tall, skinny houses are multi-level for the family houses.   The grandparents live on the bottom level, the other ones are for the parents and their children.  The more levels, the more generations of family that live there.

I guess I didn't get a good picture of it, but the houses reminded me a lot of some French architecture.

West Lake in Hanoi.

We had twenty minutes at the hotel to drop off our things and get back on the bus for our visit to the “Hanoi Hilton.”  This is where they kept American prisoners shot down in the Vietnam War.  They are very proud of having had John McCain stay here.  The French originally built it in 1896 when they were in control here.  They used it to keep those who were involved in the rebellion against the French government.  It was a place of torture and very inhumane conditions, but then, most of the prisons at that time were.   They use it as a museum now to idolize those who were involved in the rebellion and also to show how horrible the Americans were during the Vietnam war, but also to tell us how humanely the American prisoners, especially the pilots were treated while they were here.  Yeah, we tired of that one soon.
 
Out side of "Hotel Hilton."  Built by the French government in 1896.

To discourage breakouts, they lined the top of the walls with broken glass and then had a 1000 volt wire on top of that.  There were some attempts to break out of the prison through the sewer line, only a few were successful.

One of the torture chambers.  You were strapped in and the floor slanted down with the blood going to your head.

The French used a guillotine there also.

A dark hall leading to several chambers where they would stack the prisoners and strap them in.

After the museum, they took us to a water puppet show.  This type of entertainment was begun by the farmers in the rice patties a long time ago.  They would build a stage over the water and then they had puppets perform in the water.  It was interesting to see the performance, and I wish I could have taken pictures to show you, but they wanted money to let you take pictures, and I was not going to pay.  I kept wondering how long it had been since they had changed the water on the stage, it smelled a little like the muddy water from a rice patty.  They also had a live band of traditional Vietnamese instruments and singers performing with it.  The puppeteers came out on stage when it was done, walking in waist deep water.  It was interesting, but because of the early hour we had to get up to catch our flight and the stress of traveling, we were all having trouble staying awake. 

Dinner was on our own and the guide suggested a nice Vietnamese restaurant to us.  There were only eight of us that wanted to go to it, and the rest wanted to explore on their own, so they drove the eight that wanted to go there, and we had a wonderful dinner by a very attentive staff and very delicious food.  They called a cab for us when we were done, and we arrived home safely. 
 
Just one way to get around in Hanoi.

The restaurant that we had dinner at: Le Tonkin.  YUM!


This is an interesting city.   It seems that the influence of the French in the past has made it more modern than China in some respects.  You can also see the French influence in their architecture.  I think there are more western toilets (believe me, when your knees are hurting, you are grateful for western toilets).  It also does not seem as crowded as China is.  I may be wrong, we have only been here for half a day, but it just seems so.

1 comment:

David Milo Pearson said...

I wonder if it doesn't seem as populated may be because possibly more headed "South" (to 'Saigon' aka "Ho Chi Minh City"? Or, maybe more have left the country? Or, in at least 'North Vietnam', they have or have had lower birth rates?

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