Captivating Hanoi

We expected a gritty city and arrived with neutral feelings about this center of Vietnamese ancient culture. 

For some reason our hearts warmed to this city. It felt young and vibrant. 

 Typical daytime street scenes. 

The four to six story narrow buildings one sees everywhere are referred to as ‘tube’ buildings.

This gallery has four floors, long and narrow, with a view from the top. 

Culural acrobatic performance and traditional band at the Opera House.

Our free day-long walking tour (just us, our guide, and a young Dutch girl we met as we meandered) took us to some of the  capital’s key attractions and helped us get oriented.

  Top: a visit to Uncle Ho at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum; and, Hoan Kiem lake with tiny island on which sits Ngoc Son (“jade mountain”) Temple.

Above: Commerce thrives on the streets.

Left: Hoa Lo Prison; Right: unrenovated buildings often have contact info for trades people keen for business.

Hanoi has several war museum; the Women’s Prison was most interesting. Hoa Lo Prison, known by the U.S. prisoners as Hanoi Hilton was home for their pilots from 1964 to 1973. The exhibits make it look like their POW had it pretty good …until you see the restraint cages.

Modern so called ‘tube’ housing intermixed with th old. 

Museum of Ethnology. Left: Khmer junk 26.5 meters long (one piece); Right: boys giggle at exaggerated? carved bodies of the servants of the dead.

This museum was particularly fascinating not only for its contents but also for its visitors. We saw many groups of ethnic people touring through it. A few times they grinningly pointed to ethnocultural group displays and then to themselves. Such a special moment of connection.