January 24: Hanoi Day 1

The old quarter of Hanoi is filled with narrow streets and many small vendors and stores selling everything from pots and pans to t-shirts to lots of red decorations for the upcoming New Year celebration. It’s difficult walking — easy to be accosted by a shop owner, or run over by a motor bike, who park and pull onto the sidewalk. The hotel is quite close to Hoan Kiem Lake, which was peaceful but just adjacent to the chaos of the streets. There’s a red bridge leading to Ngo Sun Temple, which made for a lovely morning stroll. Back on the esplanade we encountered several groups of small children with their teacher engaged in games — completely captivating. The park where they were playing was dedicated to Ly Thai To, who reigned in Vietnam from 1009 to 1028, and relocated the capital to Hanoi.

We visited the Vietnamese Women’s Museum which showcases women’s role in Vietnamese society and culture.  It was the  memories of the wartime contribution by individual heroic women that was most poignant.  And some of the wartime propaganda posters were a wonder.  One reads “Every person is a soldier”, which seemed certainly true as we discovered the thousands of women who took part in combat missions during both the French and the American wars.  The other reads “Nixon owes the Vietnamese a debt of blood”. It continues to fascinate me reading about the American/Vietnam war from the perspective of the other side. Further, the government instituted the Three Responsibilities Movement — focussing women on Production, Combat and Family — to give North Vietnam strong support. After the war a Three Responsibilities Award was given to more than 3 million women, and over 50,000 women were given the title of “Hero of the Popular Armed Forces”. It was an inspiring museum — to see the strength and fortitude and resilience that women brought to their country in times of strife and war.

Then it was on to the “Hanoi Hilton”, technically Hoa Lo Prison, which has been re-cast as a museum of sorts.  Most of the focus is on the time that the French used the facility to house and torture Vietnamese, but there was a section about the American war.  The propaganda story is that it was a pretty good prison for the American pilots (mostly pilots) who were housed there — good food, exercise, treatment according to the Geneva Convention etc. Another example of war from the perspective of the other side, as this view of life at that prison has been widely disputed in many first hand accounts, including that of John McCain.  Tough to watch and walk through that space.

Then we walked.  And the city streets here are as stressful, if not more so as Saigon. Fascinating to watch how life is lived, but it’s impossible to look around and not get trampled or hit by a motorbike, so one had to be vigilant. By the time we got to the hotel I needed scotch neat.  Now I’m better.