Vietnam Part 2

I arrived back in Hanoi at around 4:30am after taking an overnight train back from Sapa. They picked me up and brought me to the hostel, but I had to wait until 6:00 for the desk to open. When it did, I could check my bag there until I was able to check in at 11:00. I took the morning to explore the city. In the center of Hanoi there is a small lake, which is really interesting to walk/run around in the morning. Everyone heads out there to get there exercise in. There are some groups doing tai chi, yoga, and dance aerobics. There is one spot on the lake that has different types of dancing throughout the day. One time I went by and everyone was doing some Latin partner dancing, and later when I went by they were doing ballet. There is a small island in the middle of the lake that is some sort of temple, that has this picturesque red bridge that goes out to it. I wish I would have been able to find a time with no one on the bridge to take a good picture.

On a Saturday morning when I went around the lake, there were at least a dozen couples taking their wedding photos. There several interesting statues and sculptures around the city. My favorite by far was this one of the world. I laughed out loud the first time I saw it. I guess Vietnam has big plans to take over the world!
That first day I went to the museum of ethnology. There are a ridiculous number of tribes or groups of different people throughout Vietnam. I guess it makes sense because there are so many regions and the country is so long and spread out. I guess even when I was trekking we would be in one village, and 15 minutes later when we arrived in the next village they had a different native language! The museum was interesting. Outside they had different buildings that represented the different peoples. The weirdest thing was this structure that had statues of pregnant women and people having sex all around it. I was quite shocked, especially since there were hundreds of school children running around them. I guess they represented prosperity and fertility, but it still seemed quite odd and inappropriate for the kids to be climbing on…

I spent the entire next day making a full circle around the whole city, catching museums, temples and parks along the way. The temples were laden with red and gold, all with incense burning and piles of fruits and flowers everywhere. I went to a Prison Museum, which was a functioning prison for both Vietnamese nationals who opposed communism and captured American pilots during the war. It was referred to as the “Hanoi Hilton.” Walking through it was kind of creepy, as they still had the stockades and the guillotine.
That evening I went to the “night market.” For 3-4 hours every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, one street is completely shut down and venders come in. It seemed like everyone in Hanoi came out to it. Open air markets are my favorite because they aren’t touristy at all. They didn’t have any of the normal things that all the souvenir shops have, and I didn’t see many tourists.
My final day in Hanoi I went to see Ho Chi Mihn’s mausoleum. I figured he was a pretty important person in their history, and I had never seen a preserved dead embalmed guy before, so I should probably go to see. There is a huge complex that has Ho Chi Mihn’s palace, mausoleum, a museum, temple and large park in it. It is only open in the mornings, and I went on a Saturday so it was really crowded. There was a huge line to get into the complex because you had to go through security. That took about a half hour, then you had to get in another line to get into the mausoleum, which was at least 500 meters long. You weren’t allowed to bring a camera, or any liquids in. As you started getting closer to the entrance, there were guards everywhere. You had to keep your hands down at your side, stay in two single file lines, you couldn’t talk, and they kept pushing us to keep moving faster. In the room with his body alone there were 8 armed guards. I don’t quite get the whole preserving someone’s body for eternity thing. It really kind of creeped me out. I get that he was really influential to the country, but I much prefer the monuments and buildings that we build in America
to honor our founders.
The last thing I saw in Hanoi was the Vietnamese water puppets. I had heard of them, but didn’t really know what they were. It was in a small theater that held only a few hundred people. The stage was a giant pool. All of the puppeteers were behind a bamboo curtain, and somehow they controlled all of the puppets from back there. I spent most of the time trying to figure out how the heck they worked. The whole thing was in Vietnamese, but there was an English program that told you the basics about each scene.
The next morning I caught my flight back to Korea. I wish I had had time to travel south and get down to Ho Chi Minh City, but I guess that will have to wait for another trip.

Oh, here are a couple more pictures that represent Vietnam in my mind. First is a very typical street. When you want to cross, you just step out into the middle of this mess and start walking. I got used to it after a while. At first I would just stand there waiting for some sort of a lull, but an old lady grabbed me and showed me how to do it. As long as you walk slowly, everyone adjusts to go around you. I have a crazy video that I wish I could show you that I took of walking across the street with bikes, cars and busses zooming by within a foot of me. Yikes!

This picture of the buildings was one of the first things that I saw when I was going from the airport into town. I was really confused as to why they had such tall skinny buildings. As I got closer to town, there were a lot more of them squished together and I understood more. When the street is full of them it looks normal. It’s just where it’s not built up as much that they look silly standing all by themselves.
Now I have 2 months left of school before I get to go home for the summer! I’m really excited about being able to be home for such a long time.