The last couple days in Hanoi have been very busy! Friday was spent exploring the Old Quarter, walking around Hoam Kiem lake, seeing the Hoa Lo prison (the "Hanoi Hilton"), and eating a lot of good food.
Touring the Hanoi Hilton was incredibly interesting. It has been largely torn down, but what remains has been preserved as a museum. Most of the museum is devoted to the period of time when the French used the prison to house Vietnamese revolutionaries, though there are also two rooms devoted to the American POWs kept there during the Vietnam War. The propaganda is laid on pretty thick - first with the discussion of the noble patriots kept there by the oppressive, brutal French, contrasted with the display on the American POWs, which claimed that the prisoners were kept "under best possible conditions despite economic difficulties in Vietnam." (Yeah, right.) This was accompanied by photos of pilots receiving medical treatment and playing basketball and volleyball - they made life look pretty good. I guess that's their story and they're sticking to it - no matter what! They made no mention of torture or abuses. They did have a flight suit on display that they claimed was John McCain's along with a photograph of him being pulled out of his downed plane. (McCain returned and visited the prison in 2000.)
On a much happier note, everyone in present-day Hanoi has been quite friendly and we've had some great food! My favorite thus far has been "bun cha". The guidebook described this as "pork served with rice noodles and mint" but the place we went for it was much more exciting than this. The bun cha restaurant looked full from the outside, but the waitress waved us in and gestured towards a narrow, steep flight of stairs in the corner. We climbed those stairs and found another totally packed floor of the restaurant! The waitress there indicated that we should keep climbing, so we went up another flight and finally were seated on the third floor! Then food just began appearing! This bun cha restaurant ONLY serves bun cha - which, in this case, was basically a "create your own soup" project. We were presented with bowls of pork meatballs in broth, a large plate of vermicelli noodles which were dramatically chopped up with scissors, a plate heaping with various fresh herbs (I could only recognize mint and basil), and a variety of small bowls - garlic, chili, water chestnuts. Also a big plate of spring rolls. We dug in, trying to follow the lead of the Vietnamese sitting next to us. Eventually this turned into just tossing ingredients into the bowl - delicious!
Other good food has included pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) and steamed pork buns purchased from a lady on the street for 8000 dong - about $0.45. Delicious!
Yesterday we went to the very excellent Museum of Ethnology, which I'll try to get pictures from posted soon. Today - an exciting round of temples INCLUDING the "Temple of Literature". Woo hoo!
Touring the Hanoi Hilton was incredibly interesting. It has been largely torn down, but what remains has been preserved as a museum. Most of the museum is devoted to the period of time when the French used the prison to house Vietnamese revolutionaries, though there are also two rooms devoted to the American POWs kept there during the Vietnam War. The propaganda is laid on pretty thick - first with the discussion of the noble patriots kept there by the oppressive, brutal French, contrasted with the display on the American POWs, which claimed that the prisoners were kept "under best possible conditions despite economic difficulties in Vietnam." (Yeah, right.) This was accompanied by photos of pilots receiving medical treatment and playing basketball and volleyball - they made life look pretty good. I guess that's their story and they're sticking to it - no matter what! They made no mention of torture or abuses. They did have a flight suit on display that they claimed was John McCain's along with a photograph of him being pulled out of his downed plane. (McCain returned and visited the prison in 2000.)
On a much happier note, everyone in present-day Hanoi has been quite friendly and we've had some great food! My favorite thus far has been "bun cha". The guidebook described this as "pork served with rice noodles and mint" but the place we went for it was much more exciting than this. The bun cha restaurant looked full from the outside, but the waitress waved us in and gestured towards a narrow, steep flight of stairs in the corner. We climbed those stairs and found another totally packed floor of the restaurant! The waitress there indicated that we should keep climbing, so we went up another flight and finally were seated on the third floor! Then food just began appearing! This bun cha restaurant ONLY serves bun cha - which, in this case, was basically a "create your own soup" project. We were presented with bowls of pork meatballs in broth, a large plate of vermicelli noodles which were dramatically chopped up with scissors, a plate heaping with various fresh herbs (I could only recognize mint and basil), and a variety of small bowls - garlic, chili, water chestnuts. Also a big plate of spring rolls. We dug in, trying to follow the lead of the Vietnamese sitting next to us. Eventually this turned into just tossing ingredients into the bowl - delicious!
Other good food has included pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) and steamed pork buns purchased from a lady on the street for 8000 dong - about $0.45. Delicious!
Yesterday we went to the very excellent Museum of Ethnology, which I'll try to get pictures from posted soon. Today - an exciting round of temples INCLUDING the "Temple of Literature". Woo hoo!
Is this to be your final post?
ReplyDeleteI want my north shore Chicago blog entry!!!
ReplyDelete