No Uncle Ho
Hanoi, Vietnam
May 08, 2009
We arrived in Hanoi at 4:30 am. We looked around for our driver that is going to pick us up at both exits and all around the parking lot, but we do not see one.
So, we hired a taxi and he brought us to Hang Hanh Street which looks like a completely deserted alley at 5:00 am. The driver stopped by Golden Lake and motioned to us that we were here. We do not see our hotel and Bill got out of the cab and started walking down the street. Finally, the driver asks the bell hop next door who tells him to ring the door bell. The security garage door opens and reveals our hotel, the Golden Sun III.
We were checked in to the hotel by a sleepy guy in his undershirt. We are on the 5th floor and there is no elevator.
We went back to sleep until after 8:00. There was a thunderstorm and the satellite has been knocked out for the TV. We went downstairs and were taken to the Golden Sun II next door for breakfast. The street looks much livelier at 8:00 and looks like a street instead of an alley.
I had a ham omelette with a large loaf of bread and tea. Bill had scrambled eggs with a large loaf of bread and tea. We used the internet at the hotel after breakfast because it is raining really hard.
We decided to head out into the rain when it slowed down. The hotel loaned two umbrellas to us. I had to step into a puddle to get off the sidewalk and onto the street (motorbikes are parked on the sidewalk, so I can not walk there). My foot was wet for the rest of the day.
We went to the train station and Bill did not see anyone getting served, nor any information about China.
I wanted to stop for a snack, but Bill wanted to continue on until we reached the botanical gardens. He thought it would make a nice spot to have lunch. So, we passed by a bunch of cafes and arrived at the gardens which took much longer than Bill anticipated. I am sure you can guess that there is one cafe with drinks only and no other restaurants. We headed down a street that ran along side the park. We were almost at the end when we discovered that we could not exit the street, so we had to walk all the way back and around the other 3 sides of the park.
We finally found an expensive restaurant beside the Ho Chi Minh Museum (our destination). We had fried crab rolls that were good and breaded and fried veggie rolls that had mayo in them (not good at all). Bill had a couple of draft beers and did not touch the veggie rolls. Lunch came to 126,000 dong.
We went to the museum and found out that it (and all of the other Ho Chi Minh aka Uncle Ho places of interest are closed on Friday. Ugh!
We went to the Fine Arts museum which is located in an old colonial building. The displays are organized chronologically from prehistoric to modern. There are some works about: religion, politics and daily life.
There is a large collection of stone, bronze, wood and lacquer paintings and sculptures on the first floor.
On the second floor there were a large number of lacquer paintings.
On the third floor there were some water colours and oil paintings. The paintings were good, but do not compared to to European artwork that they are drawing inspiration from. There were some central highland carvings, ethnic clothing.
We did see some good, unique Buddhist sculptures and there were a few water colours and a few lacquer paintings that I liked.
We visited Hoa La Prison which was built by the French in 1896. It was mostly used for political prisoners. It is well known for holding American pilots, such as John McCain, during the American War. It was known by the French as Maison Centrale and the sign is still there today.
Most of the displays focus on the period of the French control. We walked through the cells and saw some instruments of torture. We also saw parts of the sewer system through which 100 prisoners escaped in August of 1945. There is two memorial rooms for the political prisoners.
The museum showed how poorly political Vietnamese prisoners were treated by the French and how well American pilots were treated when they were held captive.
There is a display with John McCain's flight suit and pictures of him as a prisoner and when he returned in 2000 for a visit.
We went to Ambassador's Pagoda next. It is the center for Mahayana Buddhism in Hanoi. It was built in 1942 and has images of the past, present and future Buddhas. We even saw the Disco Buddha. The temple was very modern and very busy. Many people were there presenting offerings and burning incense.
We walked to a much quieter place of worship - St Joseph's Cathedral, Nha Tho. It was built in 1886 in neo-Gothic style. It has stained glass windows with images of the saints. In front of the cathedral there was a statue of Mary holding baby Jesus. Along the side of the building there was a statue of Jesus with children. Behind the cathedral there is a bas-relief of the Three Kings. It is similar to cathedrals in Europe, but not nearly as beautiful.
We went to Cafe Moca. I had mango juice and a salad with grilled eggplant and zucchini as well as tomatoes and goat cheese. Bill had Bai Ha Noi Beer and calamari.
We decided to look for the restaurants that host cooking classes - Hwy 4 at 5 Hang Tre and Hidden Hanoi at 137 Nghi Tam (near Sofitel). We had no problem finding Hwy 4, but they do not have anyone signed up for a class and it would cost $50/person for only 2 participants. We thought that the Hidden Hanoi was nearby at the Sofitel and starting walking there. It began to rain hard again. I had my sweatshirt, but we did not have our jackets or umbrellas. We stopped a couple of times when it was really coming down hard, but we ended up getting quite wet. We finally made it to Sofitel and could not find the street or restaurant. I asked the bell hop and he told me it would take 15 minutes by cab??? (we found out later that there is more than one Sofitel)
We walked back to our hotel and Bill changed his shirt. We tried to find a restaurant, Cyclo, that was recommended in the Lonely Planet, but it is closed. We wandered up to a dozen more restaurants and we either did not like the menu or the prices in every case. Finally we stopped at Little Hanoi. Bill ordered smoked beef on a croissant (with sauce on the side) and a Tiger draft. I ordered a bacon cheese burger with Vietnamese vodka and soda. Bill's sandwich arrived on a bun with mayo on it (close, but no cigar) and the beer was 40,000 dong (normally around 15,000 dong). My burger was good though...
After our frustrating and wet night, we went back to the hotel and went to bed.