A Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh Christmas

After 3 days on Ha Long Bay we were back in Hanoi.  Hanoi is so different that Ho Chi Minh City, especially the Old Quarter with its narrow streets filled with cars, cycles, walkers, and bikes.  This time we had three rooms right next to each other, each with a balcony facing the street four floors down.  Sitting on them watching the world go by was a great way to spend 10 minutes or 2 hours.

My favorite was watching the small store across the way.  There were always scooters coming and going.  First one guy would drop off ten cases of beer. They would be dutifully logged and taken into the back.  Next a scooter would come up and they would load a dozen large boxes onto the back then time them down with rope and sometimes some packing tape. There might be another box placed in the foot area for good measure.  Scooters are a way of life in Vietnam which has the highest per capita motorcycle ownership of anywhere in the world.

Christmas Eve dinner was spent at the rooftop restaurant in our hotel.  The had reached out in advance asking if we wanted a reservation for Christmas (and by Christmas we realized they meant Christmas Eve) and we readily agreed.  It was a little cool up there, but everyone had a Christmas vibe going on and they were pouring Christmas cocktails.  A memorable Christmas for sure.

But there were other things to do.  We took 2 Grab cars from our hotel and headed out to the Hanoi Botanical Gardens.  While not nearly as big, varied, or polished as Singapore’s Botanical Gardens, we enjoyed our time there.  After paying our 40,000 Vietnamese Dong, the first thing that we saw was a pair of peacocks in a large enclosure.  Also with them was a rat eating the same bird seed they were, a reminder that we were in a third world country.

We stumbled across an exhibit of bonsai trees that were old and gnarled.  Some of these had to be 50+ years old.  Many had small ceramic temples incorporated into their bases that just added to their aesthetic.  There were probably about a hundred of these trees, each on a stand that placed them waist high.  Some had blooms, maybe bougainvillea?  One even had small fruit on its trunk resembling tiny apples.

From there we ended up at the Ho Chi Minh Museum.   It was in the middle of a large park and has a definite Soviet style architecture.  Brutalistic may be a better term.  Two long flights of marble steps lead up to a large statue of Uncle Ho.  The exhibitions inside were hard to describe.  You entered one through a large tent flap and it was like you were inside a large red tent with a brick floor and not much else.  Some were a little more typical like gifts given to the leader, but they were in cases low to the ground.  And the exit was the complete opposite of the grand entrance-- you walked down 3 flights of stairs like a high school built in the fifties. 

From there we walked passed the mausoleum knowing that we would come back for it.  And here was when we made our mistake.  We decided to take two taxis rather than wait for a Grab.  Perhaps it was because we were tired, perhaps it was because we have lived in Singapore too long, but we didn’t negotiate the rate in advance.  We know better.

I showed the hotel card to the driver and Julie did the same in another car.  And off we went.  (Our car did pass a statue of Lenin that was pretty cool.)  Patrick, Christopher and I were dropped off about ½ block from our hotel, but that was OK since it was a one-way street and going around would have been a problem.  The meter read “654.”  So I assumed at first it would be a little less than 7,000 VND which seemed too low.  I then thought about 65,000 VND which was a little higher than our Grab fare to the gardens.  But no, it was 654,000 VND which pretty much wiped Patrick and I out of cash.  Julie and Sarah got taken as well for about 500.000 VND (they didn’t have that much, but the driver let them out anyway).  Not a big deal as we are talking a total of somewhere around $50 USD for both, but still….

In the morning we arranged a FREE tour through the hotel.  There is an organization that coordinates college students to lead tours.  For the kids (yup, when you are my age they are kids) they get a chance to practice their English.  We met Phuc and Chi in our hotel lobby promptly at 9 am.  We showed them where we were interested in going on a hotel map and off we headed.

First stop was Hoan Kiem Lake, about a 10-minute walk away.  Chi shared with us the story of the lake with its sacred turtles, the last of which died in 2016.  There is a famous red bridge that goes over to a temple on a small island.  Much of the temple is under renovation, but they do have the last sacred turtle under glass.  It turns out that this was the last of this species, or so was though until very recently.

Saint Joseph’s Cathedral was the next stop.  On our way there we saw our first of what would become somewhat frequent sightings of sidewalk barbershops.  A chair, a mirror hanging on a fence, and a pair of scissors seems to be all it takes.  The overhead is low, that’s for sure.  The cathedral popped out to us with its twin towers and aged patina showing through.  Inside was typical.  What stood out to me was the iron work on the windows that appear to have been inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright.  There were definite Prairie School elements in them, a little discordant in Hanoi.

We liked the neighborhood around the cathedral and decided we needed to come back at night.  Two places stood out to us.  The first was a coffee place called Eden that was above the square in front of the cathedral.  We figured the view at night would be special.  The second was Pasteur Street Brewing Company that was behind the cathedral.  This HCMC-based brewer has some tasty beers, some we get in Singapore.

Chi and Phuc then took us to Hoa Lo Prison, also known as “The Hanoi Hilton”.  As we were walking to it our first hint that we were there was the walls topped with broken glass and electrical wires.  This prison was originally built in 1886 by the French.  Anyone who has seen the movie Papillon about Devil’s Island knows the French could be brutal when it came to prisons.  And by the displays we saw, this one was no exception.

 

Most of the displays were on the French years and the way the Vietnamese patriots handled prison life with communism study groups, despite being shackled to their bunks.  In some cases they were shackled with their head lower than their feet.  My favorite story was how over 100 prisoners (out of 500) escaped one night in 1944.  I can imagine what prisoner count was like the next morning.

There were a few displays on the period of this prison that I was familiar with, acting as a prison for US pilots shot down, including John McCain (later a US Senator) and Douglas Patterson (later US Ambassador to Vietnam).  In war, the victors get to tell the story that they want and that was certainly the case here.

By this time we were hungry and tired and we ended up at a wonderful, large Vietnamese restaurant called Quan An Ngon.  It was beautiful and reminded us of a restaurant we went to Tlaquepaque near Guadalajara Mexico.  This was a French colonial building with a large courtyard that was covered.  We were directed upstairs to a smaller room with beautiful tile floors.  Ordering of the shared plates was a joint affair, and there was plenty to choose from.  And the quality was as good as the selection.  We loved everything.  At this point we were done and left Chi and Phuc, but only after they ordered us two Grabs (see, they don’t use taxis either).  

We headed back to our hotel with some detours to hit an ATM (do you know how rich you feel when you withdraw 2,000,000 dong?) and a little shopping.  Some shopping was practical like Nike t-shirts (5 for less than $20USD) to replace ones that have been worn put in Singapore.  Other shopping was more cultural, like a carved wooden stamp of Buddha from a small husband and wife owned shop.  He did his carvings right on the floor of the shop.  For about $15USD it is a great memory of Hanoi.

Later that night was a walk back to Saint Joseph’s for dinner at the brewpub.  In the “It’s a small world” department, Patrick ran into a coworker from when he worked in our Congresswoman’s office in DC during college.   A flight of beers, a steak banh mi, and we were done for the night.  While everyone else waited for a Grab I walked back to the hotel.  Walking alone is much faster than walking as a group of 5—and I beat everyone back to the hotel.

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