First Impressions
A starting point to our sixteen day cycling trip in Northern Vietnam was a few days in Hanoi. This was an opportunity to revisit a city first experienced in 1999 soon after the country was opened up to tourism. Was the young woman riding the bicycle laden with plastic souvenirs the daughter of the woman riding the streets then with similar wares for sale? Some things didn’t seem to have changed. There were many more motor scooters weaving and dodging and clogging the narrow roads of the Old Quarter and more night life, but the impression is that the lives of people has changed very little. They still cook meals on the street and crouch on small plastic chairs to eat them, peddle mass produced goods, fruit, vegetables and flowers from carts and bicycles and ferry enormous and unwieldy loads on ancient bicycles.
A Taste of History and Culture
A self-guided walking tour of the Old Quarter of Hanoi and beyond gave us a superficial glimpse of the history and culture. Maison Centrale was a French prison built to incarcerate Vietnamese political prisoners. Conditions were brutal: prisoners shackled to hard wooden benches or kept in dark isolation cells. Later it was used by the Viet Cong as a prison for captured American pilots. Their treatment was better. They could move about more freely and were given more comforts. We later visited Son La Prison in Son La Province where the French also imprisoned Vietnamese Communists. Cruel treatment didn’t stop the inmates from disseminating Communist philosophy.
We also visited the Temple of Literature built in 1070 at the time of Emperor Ly Thanh Tong. This place of peace and contemplation is in stark contrast to The purpose of Maison Centrale. It is one of several temples in Vietnam dedicated to Confucius, sages and scholars. Other places in Hanoi also offer peaceful retreats from the chaos of the city streets: small temples, museums, galleries and a stroll around the central lake.
Dining out
Culinary adventures are part of the travel experience. ‘Do you like frog?’ asked the Vietnamese waitress after we’d boldly ordered the set banquet written, unlike other parts of the menu, completely in Vietnamese. I remembered frogs’ legs as an entree at a long ago French restaurant in Melbourne and said, ‘Yes.’ The others nodded. We were fine with a bite of frog. When the multiple dishes arrived, we got what we’d asked for: deep fried frog, frog in chilli sauce, raw frog to be cooked in the hot pot simmering on the table, frog in the vermicelli salad and deep fried battered frog. It was an extravaganza of frog and we devoured it all! (Unfortunately, no photo).
Other meals were tasty and varied. We particularly enjoyed making our own rice paper rolls with a Vietnamese omelette as the main ingredient. Salads, seafood, stir fried tofu, noodles and, of course, rice, so much rice.
Wandering the streets, dodging the traffic, strolling around the lake were all enjoyable ways to experience Hanoi. Our time in the city, after our bike ride, was brief. A final meal and a drink in a rooftop bar and it was goodbye to Hanoi and Vietnam.
Beverley Lello 