Hanoi, Vietnam

Last night we flew into a brand new Hanoi airport and came to our hotel in the downtown area via a brand new superhighway - so infrastructure spending is happening in Vietnam.

Today was a busy day. 

Our first stop was the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" from the American war in Vietnam.  585 American pilots, including John McCain, were imprisoned during that time.  But the place had a darker history going back to the French colonial days when it was built in 1896 for the French to deal with non compliant natives in a pretty brutish fashion.
Our next visit was to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum where we got a mini history lesson about Uncle Ho and the eventual creation of a unified Vietnam.  Understandably, the Vietnamese are very proud of their history and refer to their victories in both the French and American wars.

Trust the French to name a prison this way

Vietnamese prisioners awaiting the guillotine in 1911

This is how Vietnamese prisoners were shackled after the prison opened in 1896

The Soviet influence in Hanoi was apparent as we passed a statue of Lenin before coming to the Stalinist architecture of Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum.  His embalmed body remains in Russia for what reason we weren't sure.  The grounds around the mausoleum are the place for their annual independence day celebration.  There is a gleaming new parliament with 505 members - 500 are from the ruling Communist party.  In a country of 92M, there are 2M party members.  Having said that, there is an entrepreneurial energy in Vietnam that you feel everywhere.

The Ho Chi Minh Mauseleum

Vietnamese parliament - 505 members, 500 are communist

After lunch, rickshaw tours were organized and we got a ground level induction into the always moving traffic situation involving cars, trucks, motor scooters, rickshaws, bicycles and pedestrians - listed in the order of "importance".  All this to say, look out if you're a pedestrian!  Because it's slow moving, a predictable weaving and horn honking offers some modicum of civility, just barely!

The motor scooter era is only 10 years old but already there are 6M of them in a city of 8M.  Starting with crappy Chinese models, they've moved on to nice Hondas, some of them built in Vietnam.  Every day in Hanoi, 700 new motor scooters are registered!

During our rickshaw trip, we passed through narrow streets, the sidewalks given over to parked motor scooters.  Every shop imaginable was present.  Between some of the store fronts were long alleys that gave access to less desirable living spaces behind.  The current Vietnamese tradition is for 3 or 4 generations to live together, irrespective of the state of the housing.  Newly married couples move in the the husband's family, bringing new meaning to the term "mother-in-law".

All ready for some excitement

Off we go to the market

Overtaken by many motor scooters

They come at you in waves

And more waves of scooters

The scooter as beast of burden

Later in the afternoon we went to a theatre and saw a water puppet show.  The origins of water puppetry came from the rice paddies and developed into a distinctive Vietnamese art form.  The puppets and their movements are accompanied by  Vietnamese singers and instruments and tell the stories of life in rural Vietnam.

And finally, after a long day it was dinner at Ly Club - a unique Vietnamese cuisine featuring a tasting menu of about 10 different dishes, all good.

Early start the next day - a four hour bus ride to Halong Bay in the Gulf of Tonkin.