Vietnam - An Education

After the marathon of crossing China for five weeks, I had decided to make my arrival in Hanoi as painless as possible. My arrival time was a humane 3.30pm, I had sorted a decent, yet inexpensive hotel for 2 nights and my transport from the airport was booked in advance. I didn't regret it.

My driver spoke great English and I grilled him about Vietnamese language, currency, the roads and the key sites to visit in Hanoi and the rest of the country. I discussed my plan to buy a second hand motorbike to ride south to Ho Chi Minh City and after a little incredulity on his part, he then did his best to counsel me about what I should look for, a reasonable price to pay, distances to travel and garages in case of a breakdown (he taught me my first Vietnamese - Xe May - pronounced Say Mai, meaning scooter.)

I learned that Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, has a population in excess of 7,000,000 people and over 4,500,000 motorcycles on the city roads. I also learned that Vietnamese pedestrians crossing the road, often do so with their eyes closed without stopping. Helmets are compulsory for motorcycle riders, though not for their passengers, though the definition of helmet ranges from a baseball cap facing backwards to a builder's hard hat and includes riding and cycle helmets. Many choose not to wear them.

  

Determined to buy a second hand motorbike and see the main attractions of the city at the same time, I got up early on my first day and started exploring the old town and French quarter. That is when I met Vinh (pronounced Vinny). He spotted I was English a mile away (perhaps it was the socks and sandals - only joking!) and he approached me with his bicycle rickshaw. "Do you speak English? Where are you from? I speak a little English, but I do not go to school. I did not learn how to write English well. I no write the letters. Can I take you for a trip and then we go for a cup of tea and then you perhaps write some letters for me?" I asked what letters he wanted writing and he explained that he had some Christmas cards to send to people in other countries and he could not write Happy Christmas or Happy New Year. I said he could take me for a quick tour of Hanoi's old quarter and then I would write his cards. He said "you no pay, you just help me when we stop for tea." I said that if his tour was good I would pay and I would write his cards anyway.

   

                                     Vinh piloting our cycle rickshaw through the city streets

We chatted as he cycled and I learned a lot about Hanoi, Vinh's family and the political history of Vietnam. I told him about my plan to buy a second hand motorcycle and he said he could help me look. After an hour we stopped at a locals bar in the area known as the 'dog market' where street vendors were selling cooked dogs - a local, expensive delicacy - I looked, but I did not eat! Vinh got out a tattered address book and some beautiful, handmade Christmas cards. We discussed what he wanted me to write and he told me about each recipient. "Mary, she come to Vietnam three times. She good friend. She meet my family. She send money so my daughters can go to school. Her husband Alan is not well. He is in hospital." I wrote a suitable message of thanks, best wishes and hopes that Alan got well soon and Vinh signed the card. I then addressed the envelope with care. I did a few more and Vinh started to put the remaining cards away. I said, let's keep going - we'll do some more. He was worried it was taking too much of my precious time, not realising that his company and the stories about each recipient were the precious content of my day. We continued and I learned about Shelley in Vegas, Barbara and Patrick in New South Wales and two couples in France and Spain to name but a few.

Eventually we finished all the cards and he was tearful with thanks and appreciation. I thought nothing of it - I usually write 50+ Christmas cards every year and won't be doing so this year, so his few were easy and quite a pleasure. I wanted to visit the cathedral before he dropped me off and he had said he was a catholic in the course of our conversation, so I invited him to come in with me so he could say a prayer for the people we had written cards for and for Alan specifically, whilst I toured the building itself. He then suggested I visited the water puppet theatre as a 'must see' and took me to the ticket office. He was not wrong, it was remarkable and is totally unique to Vietnam. I think it is based on traditional folk entertainment from the rice fields.

We parted company and after he had ensured I knew the way to walk back to my hotel we agreed he would pick me up at 9.00am the following morning so we could visit the main museums and he would then help me look for a motorcycle. I paid him 300,000 Vietnamese Dong (about £9.00) and thanked him for the tour. He tried to refuse the money, but I insisted.

True to his word, when I exited my hotel at 8.55 the next morning to wait for Vinh, I found him already parked up outside. "Today, very lucky day. Ho Chi Minh's tomb is open today after being closed  three months. It not open again this week. We go there first and then to the War Museum and then to the prison (you hear of Hanoi Hilton?) and then we go for lunch and then we go to the Buddha temple and West Lake and then we look for motorbikes." I was breathless with his list, but readily agreed. "When we stop for lunch I buy you road map of Vietnam for you and we look at where you stay each day as you ride." 

Now I had already learned a great deal about Vietnam's troubled past from my first driver and from Vinh, but nothing prepared me for the places we were about to visit. Ho Chi Minh, rather like Chairman Mao in Beijing, is lying in state in a glass coffin, surrounded by an honor guard of soldiers and is visited by streams of nationals who see him as the father of Vietnamese freedom. Vinh and I joined the queues to enter his Mausoleum in a silent procession. He died in 1969 - the year I was born.

                 

     Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum and museum is visited by millions of Vietnamese every year

The War Museum covers conflict in the region and Vietnam's seemingly continuous fight for independence over the centuries. Whether it was the Chinese (until AD939), the Portuguese, the French (from 1859) or the Americans in the 60's & early 70's, the people of Vietnam seem to have been perpetually embroiled in a fight for their independence. Their links with the Soviets is significant and statues of Lenin grace Hanoi parks and hammer and sickle flags fly alongside the single gold star emblem of Vietnam. Unsurprisingly, the war museum is a shrine to conflict. Weapons of all shapes and sizes are creatively displayed and the grounds to the front and rear are covered with planes, tanks, missiles and helicopters. I toured silently, with the majority of Western tourists, but for many Vietnamese visitors, it was a place to climb tanks and planes, talk with exuberance, pose for photographs and celebrate Vietnamese victory. I did wonder what they thought of me, particularly as I was wearing an American baseball cap at the time. 

    

This sombre monolith celebrates the strength of the Vietnamese resistance to US air supremacy and is made up of dozens of US aircraft engines and assorted wreckage around an iconic image of a Vietnamese girl dragging a piece of downed American hardware through the fields. 

    

I'm sure everyone has heard of the 'Hanoi Hilton', (Hỏa Lò Prison) but I did not know that it was actually a French prison built specifically to stamp out Vietnamese insurgence during their period of rule across French Indochina. Prisoners were executed by guillotine, those who broke the rules were placed in tiny cells for enforced periods of solitary confinement and conditions generally were very grim. The Vietnamese used it to detain American prisoners of war during the conflict, though if photographic evidence is to be believed, it looks as though they treated their captives with a degree more care and respect than the French. This is contradicted fully by American POW's, who state that they were tortured repeatedly in efforts to make them denounce the US government. Again, it is a sombre place and one which has visitors touring the rooms and exhibits in silence. I could not help thinking about how bad man can be to his fellow man.

                  

                               'Hanoi Hilton' and the Flag Tower at the War Museum

    

        The bridge to the Buddhist temple on Hoan Kiem Lake: meaning "Lake of the Sword" 

                      and beautiful European architecture at the French built Opera House.

    

 

Once we had explored Hanoi, with it's amazing mix of French colonial architecture, communist parks, statues and squares and Buddhist shrines and temples, Vinh took me to see some motorcycles. He knew that cheaper bikes, often bought by Westerners dong the same thing I was planning, can be found near backpacker hostels and hotels. We looked at a few and even went to a backstreet garage, but Vinh assured me not to buy anything yet, but to look again when I returned to Hanoi from Ha Long Bay. He said he would keep an eye open in the meantime whilst he worked. He agreed that I should be able to get a bike for around $300US and that an old-fashioned Honda would be a good choice.

We arranged to meet up again for a third time, specifically to hunt bikes on the Monday after my long weekend sailing. We succeeded (something I shall blog about soon.) If you find yourself in Hanoi and require an honest, English speaking guide, I recommend you call Vinh (Vinnie) on his cell phone 09060 89524 and say 'Mr Paul' said to call him. He is a gentleman and became a friend in the few days I knew him.