Ha Noi City Tour

Today we joined a small group for a city tour of Hanoi.  Among our stops were the Buddhist Tran Quoc and Chua Mot Cot Pagodas, Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum and residences in Hanoi, Temple of Literature, Women's Museum, Hanoi Hilton Prison and another lacquer factory.  We had lunch at a small restaurant on a narrow side street before taking in a performance at the Water Puppet Theater.  We finished our tour with a cyclo ride back to our hotel. We were all very tired.  Dwayne took a nap before dinner.  Around 7 p.m. we left the hotel looking for a beer at a place Brian read about and wanted to check out.  We never found the place and returned to our hotel for dinner.  We plan to sleep in tomorrow and decide what we will do for the day at breakfast.

Tran Quoc Pagoda

The Tran Quoc Pagoda is the oldest Buddhist pagoda in Hanoi.  It is over 1450 years old.  Ashes of important monks are buried at the pagoda.  A Bodhi tree taken as a cutting from the the original tree under which the Buddha sat and attained enlightenment was planted in the garden when the President of India visited the temple in 1959.  Shrines of the female Buddhas or Mothers make this pagoda particularly important as women come here to pray they become pregnant with a boy child.

One Pillar Pagoda

The  Chua Mot Cot or One Pillar Pagoda was over 1,000 years old before it was destroyed by the French when they withdrew from Vietnam in 1954.  The Vietnamese rebuilt this replica.  The original pagoda was built in 1049 at the order of the Vietnamese emperor based on a dream he had in which he met the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara and envisioned this pagoda.  It is unique in that it is built on a single pillar over water.  It was built in gratitude for his having a son.

We made a short stop at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum to view the exterior and his residences while leading the Vietnamese to independence.  The Vietnamese Parliament Building is across the square from the mausoleum.  Ho Chi Minh died in 1969 and the mausoleum was built in 1973 after the US pulled out of Vietnam.  His body is preserved and on display in a manner similar to Lenin and Mao.

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

Vietnamese Parliament Building

During his presidency, Ho Chi Minh did not live in the Presidental Palace which was built by the French for the Governor-General of French Indochina.  Ho did use it to for matters of state such as receiving foreign dignitaries but lived in residential quarters nearby.  He first lived in a modest house a short distance from the palace; however, he felt the house ill-suited due to its feng shui.  As a result, he had a second house built in the style of a traditional Vietnamese stilt house which was properly laid out base on feng shui theory and proved to be more comfortable, particularly in hot weather.  Both residences were very modest which fit with the image Ho wished to portray to the world.

Presidental Palace

Ho Chi Minh's Initial Residence as President

Ho Chi Minh's Stilt House Residence

The Temple of Literature is a Confucius Temple and site of Vietnam's first university, the Imperial Academy, founded in 1076.  At the time, the Chinese ruled over what is today Vietnam and the best Viet students studied there and took the administrative examinations which determined their place in the administrative government.  A new Imperial Academy was established in Hue when it became the capital city.  The bell and drum towers are much smaller than those in Bejing but are still impressive.  Numerous stelae listing the names of the doctors of the academy ride upon the backs of stone turtles in the same manner as in China.   

Crane and Turtle at the Temple of Literature

We spent about an hour at the Maison Centrale a.k.a. the Hanoi Hilton Prison which held American POWs.  The prison was established by the French in 1886 and expanded, remodeled over the years.  Today, only a small portion of the Hanoi Hilton remains as most of the prison was demolished to make way for development projects.  The prison's horrific history began with the imprisonment of political dissidents and revolutionaries and ended with its use as a POW prison.  Cells have been put on display with pictures from various periods in the prison's history.  A prominent artifact is a French guillotine.  Hatred of the French is quite evident.  Americans are depicted as less villainous.

Entrance to the Hanoi Hilton

The Women's Museum is dedicated to the Vietnamese women.  The life of women and the role of women in Vietnamese society are on display.  Vietnam is made up of numerous Viet ethnic groups.  The traditions and costumes of these groups are highlighted.  It was an interesting museum with English text on exhibits and subtitles on videos which went a long way to improve our understanding of what was on display.  Carla was the last one out of the museum.  The tour guide had to make a special effort to search the museum to find her so we could leave for the water puppet show.

Ethnic Costumes

We arrived just in time to enter the theater for the Water Puppet Show.  We had great seats to view the musicians and puppets in this unusual theatrical performance which dates back to the 11th Century.  There was a brief introduction in English.  The performance was in Vietnamese.  The music was played on Vietnamese instruments which were very foreign to us.  It was particularly interesting to observe which instruments produced which sounds.  The puppeteers were particularly talented and numerous.  The performance was a series of short skits and needed little more than the title to follow.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_puppetry

Our day tour ended with a cyclo ride back to our hotel.  It felt odd riding in the front of a rickshaw bike weaving in and out of the very busy Hanoi traffic.  We did get some good video of life on the streets.  The guys peddling these bikes earn every dong for their effort.

Brian and Janet - Cyclo Ride