Hue

After such a late night, Dai (aka David) our guide, allowed us to sleep in a bit. We were wide awake before 7 a.m. anyway. The hotel elevator was so slow that we finally gave up and walked up five floors by the stairway to get to breakfast, which was another large buffet. The dining room had a nice view of the city -- the first we'd seen of it since we came in by night. Hue (pronounce "way" with a slight breath before it, or "hway") appears to be somewhat cleaner and less chaotic than Hanoi, with much more green space.

Hue was the capital of Vietnam from 1805, when the emperor moved from Hanoi to a more central location. After the abdication of the last emperor in 1945, Ho Chi Minh moved the capital back to Hanoi, but the partition of the country came soon after. Thus, Saigon became the capital of the south while Hanoi remained capital of the north. Hue was just south of the partition, the DMZ.

The bus trip to the old citadel was a short one, just across the river, but the heavy traffic would have made it a dangerous walk. As it was, we were buzzed by honking scooters and vans just walking from the bus to the main gate.

The outermost wall has fortifications that reflect 19th century French military technology. The next ring has a gate that reflects a much greater Chinese influence. Our guide gave a lengthy lecture on the organization of the Vietnamese emperor's court, with heavy emphasis on the roles of eunuchs and concubines. This held the group's interest, but was not new information to any who have read about the parallels in the Chinese Forbidden City.

Portions of the citadel are well preserved, but other portions were heavily damaged or destroyed during the Japanese invasion in World War II, and the French and American Indochina wars. There was considerable damage during the Tet Offensive in 1968. Restoration work has been done recently.

The tour was shortened by some group members who insisted on taking too much time in a souvenir shop (even after our guide had warned that there would be no bargains here and it would be better to wait for shopping until tomorrow).

More time was wasted when some of these same group members wandered off and did not find their way back to the meeting point until the guide went searching for them. We lost nearly and hour, and I was livid! Had I been leading a student group, there would have been people left behind, with severe consequences later on. However, our guide can neither give failing grades, nor afford to offend those he depends upon for a tip.

Lunch was at a Buddhist convent. A large and delicious vegetarian meal was prepared by one of the nuns. After we ate, she sat with us for some time for a Q&A session about her life. Our guide translated and we learned interesting details of the religious life in this country. There are vast differences in practice in Vietnam compared to that in Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Tibet, and other cultures.

From lunch we were taken by bus to the river for a dragon boat cruise. The river is pretty, with park land and trees almost continuously along both banks. It was quite pleasant on the boat on a day with temperatures in the 80s and humidity almost 100%, but the boat was really a floating souvenir shop. Some people seem compelled to buy junk everywhere they go, so they did business with our group.

The boat dropped us at the Thien Mu Pagoda along the river bank. Built in 1601, it is the oldest surviving pagoda in Hue, and is staffed by monks. The bell tower is the most distinctive feature, but our guide wanted us to know the more recent history of 1963, when the monastery became a political center of dissent against the corrupt Diem regime of South Vietnam.

The "venerable" (or abbot) of this monastery drove his blue Austin to Saigon, got a gas can out of the trunk, sat down in the middle of a major intersection and immolated himself. In the months that followed, a number of other monks followed his example in protest until Diem was removed in a military coup d'etat.

On the way out of the pagoda, our guide stopped at a fruit stand to buy a bag of purple mangosteens. These were quite unusual -- sort of a cross between a clementine and a banana -- and something we'd not encountered before. Very tasty!

After a break, we met in the hotel lobby to walk to dinner at a nearby restaurant. This was yet another excellent meal of many small courses (the only really large course is the rice course) of various vegetables, shrimp, fish, chicken, and a banana-nut dessert. Taking our time getting back to the hotel we stopped in at a number of small shops, just to browse, not to buy. We were back at the hotel by 8 p.m. to get ready for an early departure in the morning.

Ha Long Bay

We checked out of the hotel in Hanoi and were on the bus immediately after breakfast. Although we were hoping for an end to the constant overcast, instead we got rain and fog for the journey.

The first stop was our guide’s family apartment in the Hanoi suburbs. Dai (aka David) brought the whole group to meet his wife and daughter and to see his home. This was a first for us on an OAT trip.

The apartment is small. One enters to a sitting room with a couple of chairs, a TV, and a small family altar “dedicated to the spirit of the building.” A nice but compact kitchen is to the right, and the main bedroom to the left. A second bedroom is just beyond the first, and a bathroom/laundry is just beyond the kitchen. There is no table or eating area. The family spreads a straw mat on the floor of the main room and sits on the floor to eat.

The three year old was shy at first, and overwhelmed by so many strangers. She cried for the first few minutes, but ended up showing off. Ahn, Dai’s wife, looked less than thrilled to have 14 people tromping through her home, poking noses in the bathroom and kitchen. She did, however, have fruits purchased and laid out for our arrival. She had delayed taking the child to day care and going in to her bank job in order to greet us.

It appeared to be a comfortable, if compact, living arrangement. The building is new and everything is quite modern.

Back on the road, this time for nearly two hours. Dai talked almost the entire time. It wasn’t too bad until people began asking questions. This became somewhat tedious.

The bathroom break was at a shop that makes and sells lots of craft junk. Prices were high. We walked through, then kept on walking, just to get some exercise and stretch our legs.

After another hour and a half we arrived at Ha Long. We knew we were to board a boat here. We did not realize how many boats would be here. It was like a Hanoi traffic jam, but on water. A small launch ferried us from the shore to our “junk.” The junk is also comfortable but compact, with a single dining room on the main deck, state rooms below, and an open observation platform above.

The boat was under way almost from the moment we were aboard, joining a queue of tourist junks all leaving the harbor at once. We sailed with other boats in close proximity, but gradually got farther apart.

Ha Long Bay is famous for limestone karst outcroppings that make up thousands of rough, irregular, small islands. It’s been the scene of a number of movies, including a relatively recent James Bond episode. The clear, green water and the brush and trees on the islands, would have been pretty in sunshine, but the fog and mist lent a feeling of mystery.

A wonderful, ten-course lunch was served by the crew, then most of us went to the upper deck to take in the view as we sailed on for another couple hours. Eventually we reached a place nearly as crowded with boats at anchor as the harbor had been. They transferred us to the launch once again (which had been towed behind our boat), and ferried us to one of the larger islands.

We climbed up about 100 steps and entered a cave that was mildly interesting, but then found more stairs and climbed to another room which was a huge cavern. Like the first room, the entire area was accented with various colored lights. A smooth, paved walkway led us on a circuitous route around the stalagmites.

Upon exit, we were treated to a panoramic view before descending another 100+ stairs on the outside. It wasn’t the best cave we’ve ever visited, but it was larger and more interesting than we had expected.

We had another large meal on the boat, and would have enjoyed relaxing on deck if it hadn’t been raining. We retired to room, and after reading awhile, had an early night. There was virtually no wave motion, so we may as well have been sleeping on land.

In the morning we were served a breakfast that did not match the quality of the previous day’s meals on board. But after breakfast the chef came to the dining room to demonstrate how some of the decorative garnishes are made that had highlighted our previous meals. He is very talented with sharp knives!

The rain had ceased, so we enjoyed time on deck during the cruise back to port. The bus picked us up and drove us back to Hanoi. On the way, rain resumed, this time much more heavily. It was fortunate that our itinerary placed us on a travel day when the rain came, rather than a touring day. We were taken directly to the airport for our flight to Hue. Thus, it wasn’t a very exciting afternoon, but we were at least dry.

The excitement came after we were aboard the nice, new Vietnamese Airlines Airbus 321 jet. We were all buckled in, had had the preflight demonstration of seat belts and life vests, and were all ready to go, when the pilot (with distinctly British accent) announced that we would be delayed 20 minutes due to weather conditions.

The 20 minutes turned into an hour and a half. At that time, we were told to gather all our carry-ons and to disembark the aircraft. We crowded onto buses to be shuttled back to the gate, where we stood in line to be issued “reboarding passes.” After some standing around, our guide suggested we get ourselves something to eat. The only options were a bad looking hot dog or a bowl of “instant pho” (Pho is traditional Vietnamese chicken noodle soup).

The pho wasn’t too bad for instant, but just as it was served, we were called to re-board, so we gulped it down. We got back onto the same plane, but it took us to Da Nang, instead of to Hue (we never really got an explanation as to why). At Da Nang, OAT had a bus and driver waiting to take us to Hue. Per our guide’s instructions, the driver had picked up fresh baguette sandwiches, snacks, fruit, and even cold beer! It helped make up for the instant pho.

By the time we got to Hue, checked into the hotel, and into our beds, it was past 1:30 a.m. and we were very tired. Wherever one goes in the world, flying can still be an adventure.

Confucius Says...

The breakfast room was crowded this morning, as there are at least four OAT groups in the hotel, plus some other tour groups speaking French and German. Vietnam has great coffee, but the rest of breakfast is pretty average. Not bad, just not very exciting.

We were off to the bus by 8:30 a.m. and on our way to another village just outside the city. As the village yesterday specialized in rice paper, this village specializes in pottery. Just about everyone who lives here makes his/her living in some way connected to ceramics.

The bus unloaded us at the scene of yet another wedding. Apparently Monday was also an auspicious day, though unlike Sunday, a work day for most people.

Our first stop was a Buddhist pagoda for a lesson on religions of Vietnam. Our guide tried valiantly to get across the concept that Buddhism from India, and Taoism from China, had both come to Vietnam at roughly the same time, about 1800 years ago. These had fused with native animism to create a highly syncretized religious practice, strongly influenced by Confucianism. The questions from the group indicated less than complete understanding.

We walked on through winding, narrow streets until we were welcomed into the shop of a potter. This man's main contract is to produce bottles for a Russian vodka. He uses a mold process to turn out about 4,000 identical glazed ceramic bottles every month. This process was demonstrated for us, start to finish, and it is quite labor-intensive.

Next, our host demonstrated his skill at the potter's wheel, showing us how eight generations of potters before him had plied their trade. He made it look very easy. But when he set each of us in front of a wheel and gave each a lump of clay... well, let's just say that Mary and I were better at rice paper (though Mary actually turned out something that didn't still look like a lump of clay).

The group took turns washing up, though some wore clay splatters on their clothing the rest of the day. Then we moved on down the street to a grand house in French style occupied by Mr. & Mrs. Duc, a charming retired couple in their 70s. The dominant feature of the first room of the house is a huge shrine to their ancestors, ornately decorated.

After some initial pleasantries, we were ushered through to a courtyard which offered a better perspective on the architecture of the house. It was a fusion between traditional Chinese and a grand French maison. Though beautiful, it could have used a coat of paint, and the doors and window frames were showing considerable wear.

We were moved back inside to a parlor furnished with exquisite antique Chinese lacquered, carved woodwork with gorgeous inlaid mother-of-pearl, where we were served tea. Mr. Duc spoke (with our guide translating) of the "land reform" of 1954, when Ho Chi Minh's government seized this house and much land from his parents. He had been sent to live with an uncle, while his father was imprisoned. The house had later been returned to the family, though they received only about $100 in compensation for the land.

Mrs. Duc proudly told of the awards she has won for her cooking, and also provided an account of their arranged marriage. As our guide pointed out, the Duc's are examples of the fundamental optimism of the Vietnamese people. After all their family suffered, they continue to count their blessings and look forward.

Front gate to the Temple of Literature

After a significantly non-Vietnamese lunch, we visited the "Temple of Literature" -- Hanoi's first university. Dedicated to Confucius, and built in Chinese style, the university trained bureaucrats to serve the emperors of Vietnam from 1070 until the capital was moved to Hue in 1805.

Returning to the hotel, we opted for an evening of relaxation and packing for our departure from Hanoi tomorrow morning.

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.

Hanoi

Our first evening in Hanoi involved a walking tour of the neighborhood surrounding the hotel. There were plenty of things to see. Hanoi is similar to many Asian cities we've visited: streets crowded with motor bikes, sidewalks cluttered with people selling their goods or sitting to chat with neighbors, plenty of dirt, plenty of smells.

A unique item was the bamboo water pipe used for smoking tobacco (and presumably other noxious weeds). Many people have these, and for a few Dong (the local currency -- 22,000 to the dollar!) some will rent the use of theirs to passers by. Our guide demonstrated, and offered the rest of us a hit. There were no takers.

Sidewalks, while wider than those in Malta, are even more likely to be rough. Electrical wiring is on par with that in India and Thailand. Our welcome dinner, however, was excellent. It began with this artfully served pumpkin soup, and got better from there.

Our first morning in country, Saturday, began with a visit to the tomb of Ho Chi Minh. Uncle Ho is laid out in Communist splendor, like Lenin and Mao before him. The guards strictly enforced rules against talking, hats, cameras, or cynical smirks from tourists. But our lack of seriousness was offset by the reverence displayed by the hordes of Vietnamese, of all ages, who came to pay their respects. Even with our guide helping us to cut in line, we stood in the queue for more than half an hour.

After viewing Ho, we had opportunity to walk around the gardens, which included the French colonial mansion and more humble dwellings in which the great man lived and worked. These, too, were very crowded with Vietnamese, many school groups, who were invariably friendly and anxious to wave "hello."

We paid a brief visit to the "single pillar pagoda," a famous Buddhist shrine in the same complex. Despite official Communist atheism, there were many burning incense at this shrine.

Next stop was the Museum of Ethnology, dedicated to the minority groups within the Vietnamese population, such as the Hmong and other hill tribes. Most of the collection involved textiles, but the grounds outside included houses in the designs used by various tribes.

Of particular interest was a "tomb house" in which up to 30 villagers were to enjoy the afterlife -- apparently in ways involving a lot of sex, at least judging from the exterior decor.

After a bit of down time, we were taken by bus as far as possible before the streets got too narrow, then walked to the home of a couple whose life is devoted to Vietnam's famed water puppets. Water puppet shows are big business all over Hanoi, but we got to meet the guy who actually makes the puppets.

He's the seventh generation of his family to do so, and is training his son to be generation #8. We got the show as a bonus, along with a chance to drink tea in his living room and chat with him in his workshop. All very cool.

The food has been phenomenal, and we are eating exceptionally well.

"Day Two"

We left on Wednesday. The itinerary says this is "day two," but the calendar indicates that today is Friday. Our body clocks are totally confused. A sixteen hour flight across the International Dateline has placed us on the other side of the world, in Vietnam, at a time that is out of sync with our personal calendars.

This was sort of a last minute trip. We had explored it earlier, but when the pre-trip extension to the Vietnamese highlands was unavailable during January, we decided to wait. Then we got the email about the "Black Friday" Special. The offer was too good to pass up, so we barely had time to send our passports off for visas and get them back again before departure.

This is not our first time in Vietnam. We visited the south, in and near Ho Chi Minh City, very briefly a couple of years ago. We enjoyed the energy of this emerging nation, which while very old in history has a population that is overwhelmingly young. The CIA world database says that 85% of all Vietnamese are under the age of 55. About 40% are under age 25.

After an evening of beer and pizza with Katherine & Matt, we spent Wednesday morning at the special Luther exhibit at Minneapolis Institute of Art. Then Katherine dropped us at the airport so that United Airlines could take us to Chicago. The long flight was on EVA, a Taiwanese airline we'd not heard of. EVA took us from Chicago to Taipei, and then from Taipei on to Hanoi. The seats were cramped, but the service and the food were quite good.

At the MIA Luther exhibit

Coming from below zero temperatures in Iowa and Minnesota, Vietnam is downright tropical. While the normally expected temperatures here at this time of year would still be comfortable, the highs are running up to 20 degrees Fahrenheit above normal -- highs in the mid-80s. We could hardly ask for better!

The cold I thought I had conquered prior to departure came back on me, but the running nose and cough are being controlled by medication. Jet lag has us thrown for now, but we're coming back quite swiftly.

Hanoi seems spread out, with patches of agricultural land interspersed with housing and businesses. The buildings maintain something of their communist past, lacking bright colors. We had a brief walking orientation tour of the neighborhood, followed by a welcome meal. On first meeting, our group appears to be a good one, with many well-traveled folks. We look forward to what the days ahead will bring.