Today is our first day in Vietnam! We had breakfast in the hotel – they had a wide spread from exotic (to us at least) fruit, Danish pastries and cooked breakfasts to congee, dimsum, noodle soup and stirfry! There was some fruit that I’d never seen before – longkong fruits (slightly like a lychee) and a kind of pink dragon fruit.
After breakfast we set out on our tour of Hanoi. Once we had all ensured that we had umbrellas that is! The weather is heavy rain - if we were on our own at home we wouldn’t be venturing out. However, the rain is warm water and as the air is warm too we should dry quickly enough.
Picture 1 - Hanoi in the Rain
We started our tour at Ba Dinh Square. This is where the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum complex is located. As I mentioned in my potted history yesterday, Ho Chi Minh was the founder of the Vietnamese Communist Party and founded the Viet Minh, whose goal was Vietnamese Independence from French Colonial rule. He led the August Revolution in 1945 and, although there were setbacks, achieved the independence of the North of the country. He was the president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam until his death in 1969, unfortunately never seeing North Vietnam’s victory over the South. He is known as “Uncle Ho” by many of the Vietnamese people.
Although he wished to be cremated upon his death, a mausoleum was built and his body preserved, much in the tradition of Lenin and Stalin. This is so that, if the body does not decay and is immortal, communism will also be immortal. The security around the mausoleum is very strict, all bags are scanned prior to entry and you have to go through scanners yourself, like in the airport. Cameras and tablets have to left at the security desk and be picked up later. Guards in snowy white uniforms guard the mausoleum and no photography is allowed within their sight. The mausoleum itself can withstand earthquakes and even a direct hit from a bomb. Ho Chi Minh’s body is in a crystal coffin, not glass as this can shatter when vibrated whereas crystal can withstand vibrations.
I found it a bit of a strange experience, possibly due to not having been brought up with the culture. I suppose the Vietnamese find the British veneration for the Royal Family odd.
Once we exited the mausoleum we visited the Presidential Palace. This is a grand house, originally built for the French Governor General of Indochina (what is Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam today) in 1906. It is painted yellow as yellow is seen as the colour of power by the Vietnamese. However, when Ho Chi Minh became president he found that the palace would be too big for him, a single man, to live in. So much cleaning to do! Instead, he lived in a modest bungalow next to the old servants’ quarters. The Presidential Palace was used to host international dignitaries and events.
Picture 2 - The Presidential Palace and Ho Chi Minh's Bungalow
There is also Ho Chi Minh’s Stilt House. This was gifted to Ho Chi Minh and was where he lived off and on from 1958. It is an interpretation of a traditional rural dwelling and is situated in a garden overlooking a large lake. This was where Ho Chi Minh passed away in 1969 and has been preserved as he left it. There were guards here too, just having a change of the guard. In marched the new guards, the gun was handed from the previous guard to the one that just had come on duty and the previous guard marched off. All very formal and stately. Until the previous guard stopped marching to double back to grab a black umbrella and then proceeded to just wander off – which sort of spoiled the formality of the whole thing.
Picture 3 - Ho Chi Minh's Stilt House
From this area we “paddled” around the lake and through the complex to the Ho Chi Minh Museum. This is housed in a lotus-shaped building, originally built by the Soviets – one of the few pretty buildings they did build! Although we didn’t go in, we were told that it houses mementos that document the life of Ho Chi Minh and would be well worth a visit.
Picture 4 - Ho Chi Minh Museum
Our next stop on our “paddling” tour was the One Pillar Pagoda. This was built in by Emperor Ly Thai Tong in 1024 as a way of expressing gratitude for the birth of his first son. According to legend he dreamed that he had met Buddha, upon asking Buddha why he had not been blessed with a male child, he was told that he wasn’t a good king. The next day he left the palace and travelled to pray at a temple. On the way back he told the guards to stop as he wanted to talk to the common people. They told him that they were all poor due to his taxes taking all their money. A peasant girl returned to the palace with him and became his advisor. Eventually they married and had a son. In gratitude he constructed this pagoda. The pagoda is designed to look like a lotus, a symbol of purity, which is rising from a sea of sorrow.
Picture 5 - One Pillar Pagoda
From Ba Dinh Square it was a quick coach ride to our next stop – the Temple of Literature. This was founded in 1070 by Emperor Ly Than Tong and is an example of traditional Vietnamese architecture. The temple is dedicated to Confucius, a Chinese philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages, as well as the first teacher in China to advocate for mass education. The Temple honours Vietnam’s finest scholars and men of literary accomplishment. This was also the location of Vietnam’s first university which was originally only open to nobles.
However, a couple of centuries later a more egalitarian approach was used and the best students from all over Vietnam travelled to take the entrance examinations – only the best of the best of the best were allowed to become students. This meant that some years there were many students whilst others there may only be one! Hopeful applicants could take the examination as many times as they wished and there was no upper age limit for students – one applicant tried repeatedly to pass, finally managing at 82 years old!
Picture 6 - The Entrance to the Temple of Literature
The Temple is composed of a series of courtyards and is an area of calm amongst the crazy madness of Hanoi streets! The first two courtyards feature formal gardens before entering through Khué Van to the third courtyard. This contains the Well of Heavenly Clarity, a square pond surround on two sides with a number of stelae – stone tablets with the names of students inscribed upon them, each stelae carried by a tortoise.
Picture 7 - The Third Courtyard
We then passed through a side door to the next courtyard which was…..a wee bit damp! If you consider being under half a foot of water damp! Our aim was to get to the main pagoda in this courtyard, which was adorned with two dragons dancing on its’ roof. Behind this pavilion (which we accessed by taking a side path to the last courtyard then going back on ourselves) is a second pagoda which houses a shrine to Confucius.
In the first pagoda is an offering table and two statues of cranes, each standing on the back of a turtle, a symbol of longevity in Vietnam. Behind this pagoda is the temple, this is a traditional Vietnamese building with high thresholds, this is so that, as you step over them, you will naturally bow, showing respect to who the temple is dedicated to, in this case Confucius.
Picture 8 - The Fourth Courtyard
Inside the pagoda is a majestic looking statue of Confucius, flanked by his four disciples. There are several offering tables and the whole pagoda is decorated – even the columns holding the roof! There is also a gold plated ceramic tortoise.
Picture 9 - Inside the Pagodas
On the way out of the courtyard there were some stone statues of guards, this was to remind students how important education is and not to squander the opportunity they had been given.
Picture 10 - Temple of Literature Stone Guard
Our last stop on our tour of Hanoi was a cyclo ride around the Old Quarter. This was the original commercial district of Hanoi and evolved alongside the Red River and smaller To Lich River. It was here that Hanoi’s 36 guilds established themselves, each of them taking a different street which they gave their name to.
We were peddled through the streets, getting to experience Hanoi traffic from a different angle – I’m glad I didn’t have to learn to drive here! The streets are narrow with tall, thin buildings – the wider the building, the higher the tax to be paid. On the ground floor there were a variety of shops from fresh produce and flowers to door handles, clothes and pipe fittings!
We finished our ride by Hoan Kiem Lake. This gets its name from the legend that, in the mid-15th century, the Emperor Le Thai To was sent a magical sword by the heavens which he used to drive the Chinese out of Vietnam. After the war, the emperor met a giant golden tortoise swimming of the surface of the lake. The tortoise took the sword and disappeared, restoring it to its divine orders. Thereafter the lake was renamed Ho Hoan Kiem, or Lake of the Restored Sword. There are still tortoises living in the lake but it is unknown whether they are related to the golden tortoise of the legend.
Pictures – Cycle Ride
After the cyclo tour it was time for our Street Food Tour. This saw us venturing into the Old Quarter, with a guide, to try some of the traditional Vietnamese street food. We first stopped for pork barbeque, this was a mixture of pork cuts – bacon; belly pork and ground loin meatballs – grilled before being served in a broth with lots of rice noodles. We ate sitting on small plastic stools in the back of the store. It was a really nice meal which I’ll have to try making myself sometime.
Our next stop was for beef noodle soup, or pho, this was similar to the first but will a lot more noodles! We really enjoyed it but, for people who don’t normally eat lunch, there was too much to finish. We ended with an “egg coffee”. This coffee was created to get around the shortage of milk and cream. Instead condensed milk and an egg yolk are whipped together and served on top of an expresso shot. You are supposed to drink the coffee through the egg mixture – which is a bit like an Italian meringue. This was really nice but I couldn’t drink two cups consecutively!
After we had finished our coffee we returned to the hotel for an afternoon of relaxations before our evening meal.
Our evening meal was at a restaurant called “Home” We got a taxi there (another method of experiencing the Hanoi traffic) and entered the restaurant through an avenue, lined with lanterns and hanging baskets. The restaurant was located further back from road in a four story French-style house and took up all the floors! It was a real hidden gem! The meal was a buffet style and we let the chef choose what dishes to send us – never having had Vietnamese cuisine before we thought it would be safer. We did draw the line at river snail cake though.
Picture 11 - Evening Restaurant
The food was lovely – we definitely made the right choice in coming here for dinner!
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