The following day we were sightseeing in Hanoi. First stop on our way was the Literature Temple. I really wanted to see that. That’s a complex of buildings in a garden dated back around XI century where lessons on Confucianism and literature were held. It was like being to a really old university. And as we both (I mean me and my new friend) teach at universities I guess that was an interesting experience for both of us. We’ve also been to the one pillar pagoda. One of the landmarks of Hanoi. Built at the beginning of XI century. A lot of tourists. Worth seeing though. ***
We wanted to see the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. Well, turns out they move his body every now and then to Russia to maintain the corpse and so, the mausoleum was closed. We went to Ho Chi Minh Museum instead. What have I learned over there thanks to my new friend who spotted this on one of the pictures? That HChM wore socks to his sandals! :D ***
One of mysteries in Vietnam are... playing cards. We found them in rather strange places, in a hotel room on the floor, a lot of them on strewn in the streets of Ha Long and Cat Ba town. Even stuck on a wire in Hanoi. I saw a man throwing cards away, in different directions, so they landed all over a small street. Why? I tried to find an answer online, but didn’t really manage. Found out though that during the Vietnam cards were used as psychological weapon. In particular one card – the ace of spades cause it was (is?) believed to be related to bad fortune and death. I must say when I saw the cards flying around ;) I had the feeling that it was not just litter, it’s kind of Vietnamese voodoo. But maybe not. I tried to ask some local people about it, they didn’t understand me though. Real mystery...***
In the streets of Hanoi there are plenty of small restaurants with tiny plastic chairs. We wanted to grab a beer there. I ordered two beers. What did we get? Beer you think? Not exactly - we got food, plenty of food (soup, noodles, vegetables and some mystery meat ;) Guess I have to work on my Vietnamese pronunciation ;) ***
We walked for the whole day. Getting lost in the myriad of streets. Houses there are very narrow (because of the expensive ground as we were told). The architecture of some of them is really impressive though, some buildings reminded me of Brussels or Paris. Once they must have been really beautiful, nowadays they look like they were about to fall apart. Between houses there are narrow corridors (like tunnels, so narrow that two people walking side by side could not get there). If you go into one of those corridors though you arrive eventually at kind of a yard with entrances to apartments. In the front of most of the buildings shops are located, so people live mostly above the shops.
We ended our walk at the Hoan Kiem Lake sitting, talking and drinking HaNoi beer. A very tasty beer, btw. We decided to go the following day to Ha Long City - on a local bus.
My new friend was smart, had a great sense of humor and lots of interesting stories to tell. I asked him what kind of music he liked (and you know guys how much I appreciate good music ;) He didn't answer, but passed his iPod. I took a look and it could have been my playlist - he got a lot of good tunes there (Frusciante, Eddie Vedder, RHCP, Johnny Cash, some blues, some rock). He also got some bands I haven’t heard of before like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – really worth listening to, check this out:
OK, that’s kind of depressive though. Hence, to conclude this part of my Vietnam story – here come the good old Ramones:
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