Auspicious Day

Most of our group set out this morning for an "optional tour" on what would otherwise have been a free day. After navigating morning traffic, we made our way out of Hanoi and into the suburbs. First stop was a fruit stand where some guys were selling some odd produce out of the back of a truck. Durian fruit has spines on the outside, and had an unpleasant smell inside, but the pasty fruit actually tasted a bit like cream with egg yokes.

We walked a short distance to a cemetery. This was a fascinating little side tour! We learned that, at least in the northern parts of Vietnam, it is traditional to have not one, but two burials for the deceased.

The first is an earth burial immediately following the death death. However, after three years, when the body has decayed, there is an elaborate ceremony in which the bones are unearthed, cleaned, and arranged in a much smaller ceramic casket. This casket is then carefully buried in a direction aligned with the feng shui called for by the birth zodiac sign of the deceased. Thus, not all graves are aligned in the same direction.

We also visited an adjacent military cemetery containing the graves of hundreds of North Vietnamese soldiers who died in the "Second Indo-China War" or "Great Civil War" (what we in the U.S. would call the Vietnam War).

We moved on to a village that couldn't be reached by bus. We had to disembark and take a very rickety ferry boat across a river. In the village on the other side, the primary industry is the making of rice paper. Rice paper isn't for writing, it's for wrapping up spring rolls. We walked for blocks through the village, passing thousands of bamboo drying racks on which the super-thin rice paper was drying. We noted that there was little effort to protect the wet rice paper from street dirt, passing dogs, over-flying birds, etc.

At one point in our walk through the narrow streets we passed a window into a room where a wedding reception was taking place. This was only the first of several weddings we would come across in the course of the day, as our guide explained that today was a "very auspicious day" for weddings in the Chinese lunar calendar.

Some of the guys among the wedding guests greeted us heartily through the window. Then they began passing little shot glasses of "white lightning" out to us. Another joined us on the street, and wasn't happy until each of us had had at least several shots in toast to the happy couple (whom we never saw). Shots of clear liquor before 10:30 in the morning are not customary for Westerners!

We finally arrived at the home of a couple who make their living making old fashioned rice paper. Most of the village has switched to rolling out their rice paper by machine, but rice paper made the old way commands twice the price. Their customers are generally top restaurants in Hanoi.

We were each given a chance to make a sheet of rice paper. It's not as easy as it looks, and there were many failures. However, Mary and I both managed to produce a reasonable product when our turns came.

After our rice paper lesson, the family invited us to their living room for, yes, another shot of white liquor. This was followed by a Q&A about their life, their family, the rice paper business, etc. Finally, the gentleman and his son favored us with some music played on traditional instruments. The warmth and graciousness with which they welcomed us to their home were phenomenal.

Back across the river, we returned to the bus and were driven back to Hanoi, to a restaurant for lunch. A special aspect of lunch was that we were given rice paper, fish, ginger, and vegetables, and then were invited to roll our own spring rolls. (It's easier than making the rice paper.)

After lunch was free time. Some went back to the hotel, but on the way, the bus dropped some of us off at the remains of the Hoa Lo Prison -- known to American POWs during the war as the "Hanoi Hilton." Most of the prison has been torn down, but the portion remaining is a museum, mostly devoted to memorializing the political prisoners held and/or executed here by the French colonialists.

A mannequin demonstrates how the French shackled political prisoners at the "Hanoi Hilton."

The portion of the prison museum devoted to the American POWs is pure propaganda, about how well the pilots were treated, and how graciously the people of Vietnam treated those who came to bomb them. The part about the torture and starvation of men, such as future Senator John McCain, was completely left out.

After the museum, Mary and I walked a few blocks to Hoan Kiem Lake and the beautiful park that surrounds it. On weekends, streets running along the park are blocked to traffic, and thousands of residents come to let children run, to walk, or otherwise enjoy the area.

Hoan Kiem Lake at night with the Night Market in the distance at left.

As we sat on a bench, we were approached by a couple of university students who asked if they could have their photo taken with us. Wary that this was some sort of scam, we agreed. It turned out that they simply wanted to practice their English. Soon we were surrounded by 8 or 10 students, and we chatted for nearly 45 minutes. It was actually a great experience.

We returned to the hotel for awhile for some R&R, then walked back to Hoan Kiem (about a mile from our hotel) to see the "Night Market" that springs up in the area on weekend evenings. It was what one might expect -- lots of junk and knock-offs -- with too many people and lots of hustle and bustle.

A fascinating sight was on the sidewalk just outside some of the posh, high-fashion department stores. We counted no fewer than six couples in tuxes and wedding gowns getting their wedding photos taken, with the stores as backdrop. Apparently it makes the wedding chic if surrounded by merchandise they can't afford! It's a testament to capitalism in this Communist country. And besides, it was an auspicious day for weddings.