In an uncommon turn of events, I think it’s been a week since I’ve written anything. That’s just because it’s been a busy week. New group; lots of moving around; lots of things to do and things to see. Let’s start with the train ride from Sapa. After almost two days away from the group, we met back up to take a bus to Lao Cai. From that point, we took an overnight train from Lao Cai to Hanoi.
The overnight train to Hanoi wasn’t too bad. I brought four cans of beer with me and downed those pretty quickly after we got on board. They helped me go to sleep, but they also woke me up early. I slept in the middle cot and it was so tiny that I literally felt like I was sleeping in a coffin that was missing the side panel. (The Vietnamese trains are significantly different from the Chinese trains, but I’ll write more than that in a “passing thoughts” post.) We were awoken by a woman knocking on the doors at 5:30 am telling us that we had reached Hanoi. It was pretty surprising since it was the first time that one of our trains actually arrived early – about 90 minutes early, in fact. We got to the hotel around 6:00 am and we were ready to check into the hotel early. This was great because I was exhausted.
At the hotel, I slept for a couple hours and then the group got together and we went to a place called Koto for lunch. Koto stands for “Know One, Teach One.” It’s an interesting restaurant. The employees were poor children who were pulled together and trained to work in the tourist industry. After a few years of training, they start working at Koto for experience. After gaining experience, they go on to work at other restaurants and hotels in Vietnam. Added to the good work, the food and coffee both are excellent. If you’re ever in Hanoi, I highly recommend Koto.
Afterwards, a few of us like-minded people walked over to the Old Quarter. The first place on the agenda was Hoa Lo prison. The Hoa Lo prison is better known to the world as the Hanoi Hilton. It was a place for Vietnamese political prisoners to be held during the time when France controlled Vietnam. Of course, people from my side of the pond know it as the place where American pilot prisoners of war were held during the Vietnam War. Also, it is known as a former home of John McCain.
The Hanoi Hilton was very interesting. Not much of the original facility is left. Much of what is left focuses on the time when it was used to house Vietnamese political prisoners. With respect to its history as an American POW camp, all you see is propaganda about how well the American POWs were treated. After watching the film, seeing the pictures, and reading the information boards, I became convinced that the American pilots weren’t captured – it was much more likely that they ditched their planes on purpose because the quality of life at the Hanoi Hilton was so fantastical that they wanted to live there at any cost. In any event, that’s how the Vietnamese portray it.
After leaving the Hanoi Hilton, we walked to the lake in the middle of the Hanoi Old Quarter. I don’t remember the name of the lake, but it was pretty and it was involved in an Arthuresque story about an emperor and a sword and a turtle. Okay, the turtle part was new to me, but the rest was pretty familiar.
We also walked around the markets in the Hanoi Old Quarter. They were pretty typical for city markets, with each street seeming to focus on a different item. We walked around for a while and then went to a bad restaurant for some bad Vietnamese food while we watched the traffic below. The traffic is fun to watch in Vietnam, but that’s also a story for a different time. For now, however, it’s time to move on to another entry.
No comments:
Post a Comment