Hanoi

After Sapa I returned to Hanoi to actually see the city. I was staying in the old quarter, near Hoam Kiem lake, in quite a damp dingy room in a hotel. I spent 2 days seeing Hanoi, leaving on a 630 overnight bus on the second. I saw the museum of Ethnology and the Prison Museum. The Prison has been known as the Hanoi Hilton during the American war and it was where John McCain was taken after he was captured, they had pictures of him being dragged from a lake after he was shot down and they had the flight suit he was wearing. The displays made it look like the Americans had a not bad time there, with pictures of them celebrating Christmas and playing Basketball. On the other hand at an earlier time the prison was used by the French to hold Vietnamese and they definitely had a bad time of it. As well as a guillotine, there were items with minimalist labelling such as "Petrol Can used to torture male prisoners" and "Glass bottle used to torture female prisoners". Most of the old prison has been knocked down to make way for a flash high rise building.

The next day I went in the morning to see Ho Chi Minh in his mausoleum. Thus I completed the set of pickled communists, having already seen Mao and Lenin. HCM was fairly dignified compared to Mao. After the Mausoleum there was a house he had lived in as well as his used car collection (how exciting). Then there was the Ho Chi Minh museum, which had interesting abstract displays representing various concepts. I hadn't been expecting such a personality cult here, but his picture is everywhere. Of course the museum made him out to be a very nice and enlightened guy!

In the afternoon I also say the Womens museum and the History museum, which were quite interesting, but the history museum didn't have much labeling in English.

After India Vietnam was such easy going, and I liked Hanoi, though people I have met said they preferred the South. The old quarter has some character, and a noticeable difference from India is that the shops have quality goods, like you buy in the west, not just cheap, badly made tat! And the beer is cheaper and freely available! The tourist route is some well traveled and there is such competition that taking trips is cheaper than doing it yourself.

Photos now:


The island in Hong Kiem lake.


In the temple of literature.


Outside the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum.