Friday, November 3
A full day of tours today starting at 8:30 am for a welcome briefing where I got to meet the other individuals on the tour. Go figure, the couple that sat next to me are from Green Bay, WI. There is also a couple from Houston and he worked in Milwaukee for a time at First Wisconsin bank. There is also a couple from LA. And a family of 5 from Puerto Rico. After the briefing, the first visit was to Ho Chi Minh’s Stilted house. We were told that a scarf would be fine, but when we got there, we needed a shirt or jacket. The tour director then ended up getting me and one other person white t-shirts to put on which was funny and not much of a fashion statement. The house is located in the garden of the Presidential Palace. To get there, we walked past Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum which is located in the middle of Ba Dinh Square, where President Ho Chi Minh used to preside over rallies. It was similar to Tiananmen Square in China as there is a long mall that people walk down past the monument.
The house was built in 1958 and was made to resemble the traditional house of minority ethnics in Viet Bac. Ho Chi Minh lived there until his death in 1969.
Next was the One Pillar Pagoda where we were able to remove our white shirts thankfully as it was getting a bit hot out. The pagoda is a historic Buddhist temple and sits on one pillar. The original pagoda was built in 1049, had some additions and was finished in 1105. It was then restored and rebuilt in 1840-1850 and in 1922. The pagoda was dynamited in 1954 by a Vietnamese Lieutenant of the French Army. And in 1955, the Ministry of Culture of Democratic Republic of Vietnam restored the pagoda.
We then headed over to the Temple of Literature. Although a more accurate name should be Temple of Confucius. The temple was built in 1070, and it hosted the Imperial Academy, Vietnam’s first national university, from 1076 to 1779. There were a number of stones with turtles (one of the 4 sacred animals in Vietnamese culture) at the base. On the stones were the names and birth places of the top scholars from that time. You couldn’t really see them as the stones were so old.
Next was lunch and then to Hanoi Hilton, the real name is Hỏa Lò Prison. The prison was originally used by the French colonists in Indochina for political prisoners, and later by North Vietnam for U.S. prisoners of war during the Vietnam War and became known to American POWs as the “Hanoi Hilton”. The prison was demolished during the 1990s, so the museum we walked through was its gatehouse that still stands. Most of it was dedicated to the French prisoners, but there were a few rooms that talked about the American POWs.
After the prison we were taken on a rickshaw ride around the area. It was a bit crazy as they biked us around, motor, scooters, and cars zipped around us.
We then headed back to the hotel to freshen up before we went to the Thang Long Water puppet show. Water puppetry seems to be unique to Vietnam and depicts daily life of Vietnamese farmers (cultivating, tending buffalo, catching fish), local entertainment (swimming contest, dragon dancing), and historical legends (Le Loi returns precious sword). I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was pretty interesting. About 10 puppeteers stand behind a curtain in the water and maneuver the various puppets via long sticks while people played various instruments and sang. We were given headsets that told us each story before it was preformed which was very helpful otherwise we would have had no idea what was happening.
After the show we headed back to the hotel for a cocktail reception where a US war veteran spoke and then dinner, which I really didn’t need although the food is really good. The war vet told his story from the war and his efforts since then to come back and help the Vietnamese people. About 15 years ago he joined an organization called Renew which stands for Restoring the Environment and Neutralizing the Effects of the war. Basically their mission is to deactivate or safely set off remaining bombs from the war to protect villagers. When they started about 80 people a year were dying from accidental encounters with bombs and around 70 were injured. Now in the last 5 years they had 1 person die and 1 injured. They educate the people on what to look for and then call when they find something. The group then sends someone out within an hour. He said they may get up to 5 calls a day. Everyone was pretty surprised at how many calls there were.
It has been pretty warm with temps in the upper 80’s. No rain yet, but we may encounter some tomorrow as we head over to Ha Long Bay.
Photos
Additional photos coming