INDOCHINA/ Hanoi, Viet Nam/ Ba Dinh Square, Ho Chi Minh Mausolerum, Presidential Palace, Teak House, Hao Lo Prison, Water Puppets

Hanoi, Vietnam/ Ba Dinh Square, Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, Presidential Palace, Teak house on stilts, Hao Lo Prison (Hanoi Hilton), Water Puppet Show

It's just a few days before the Chinese New Year, the most important holiday of Asia.  The streets are being decorated with colored lights and brightly colored flower.  The New Year is the celebration of renewal or rebirth.

  Baker selling French baguettes; (Vietnam had been
a French colony for many years and the people
became experts at the art of bread making).

January 30, 2018: our first day on the tour which began with a buggy ride from the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi in the early morning to see the city of 1.4 million souls waking up to a noisy and bustling street market place.  We were told that most of the residents here enjoy a communal breakfast in open cafes with their friends. 

The traffic in the large cities of Vietnam rivals that of India and, in my opinion is just as lethal.  95% of vehicles are motor bikes and most are driven by young people who have no fear of impending death.  There is an art to learning to maneuver through traffic that is evocative of a gigantic roller skating rink filled with thousands of frenzied skaters oblivious to lines on the highway or rules of any kind.  Intersections are "every man" (or boy) to himself and offer few if any traffic signs or lights.  Although they are required to wear helmets, these are not up to safety standards.  Most wear face masks for protection against the air pollution and the sun.  Apparently, no one wants the darker skin caused by the sun because dark skin is associated with lower classes and laborers!  In 2010, there were 15, 464 traffic deaths in Vietnam, most involving motor bikes!

Street scene in Hanoi

We disembarked from our buggies at the Ba Dinh Square which is the former Botanical Garden and proceeded to Ho Chi Minh's final resting place in the Mausoleum.  We were told that it is a requirement by the Communist ruling government that tourists pay homage to Ho Chi Minh's glass encased embalmed body by: wearing proper clothing that covers knees and shoulders, putting hands together as in prayer OR placing hands down by our sides, lowering our heads and generally affecting a demeanor of sorrow.  Woe be unto the errant tourist who violates these rules because who knows what the pubescent guards will do?

Ho Chi Minh died in September 1969 at the height of what the communists refer to as the "American War," but he gets a makeover once a year when his body is sent to Moscow for a fresh embalming!  There are 5 bodies of socialist dictators who receive this same treatment, including Vladimir Lenin, Hugo Chavez, and Eva Peron.

Ho Chi Minh lived near the Presidential Palace in this rather humble
traditional Vietnamese house on stilts
 

Presidential Palace originally built by the French during their colonization

Next stop is the infamous Hoa Lo Prison, more commonly referred to by Americans as the "Hanoi Hilton".  The prison was built around 1886 during French colonial times as a prison for Vietnamese revolutionaries and was later ultimately used by the North Vietnamese as a prison for American prisoners of war.  The name Hoa Lo means "fiery furnace."  Although it had a capacity for 600 prisoners, by 1954 there were at least 2,000 Vietnamese rebels housed there in subhuman conditions. 

I had always envisioned this prison as an outpost in the jungle, but it is located in the heart of the city where street peddlers often passed outside messages in through the jail's windows as well as tobacco and opium over the prison walls.

The French were ousted from Hanoi in 1954 and the prison came under the authority of the new Democratic Republic of Vietnam where it was used as a place to indoctrinate revolutionary ideas.

During the Vietnam War, around 1967 as the US began ground combat and air combat, it was used to house American POW'S as well as torture and place them into solitary confinement in conditions not in accordance with the Geneva Convention. 

One of the cells where American POW's were kept

Guillotine used by French against Vietnamese revolutionaries

Scale model of prison prior to its destruction

The next stop on our busy touring day was The Temple of Literature, one of the most beautiful temples in Hanoi.  It was built almost 1,000 years ago by Emperor Ly Thanh Tong and is dedicated to the Chinese philosopher Confucius.  The university was founded about six years later, where the children of the royal family were taught as well as selected students and aristocracy.  There they worked as teachers and proponents of Confucian teachings.

The final treat for the day was the Water Puppet Show!  Modern water puppetry is performed in a pool of water evocative of the ancient water puppet shows performed in flooded rice paddies.  The puppeteers stand behind a screen and control the puppets with underwater rods.  The orchestra of Asian instruments (drums, wooden bells, cymbals, horns, Dan bau monochord, gongs, and bamboo flutes) performs to one side, and the chorus performs from the opposite side.  I absolutely enjoyed the puppet show which was a scene depicting fighting dragons and innocent maidens. 

Two Water Puppet Dragons in battle