#hoa lo

[meinoceania]

Tage 24 und 25 - 3./4.8.22

Hanoi

Am Flughafen in Hanoi gleich der erste Schock - meine DKB-Karte ist gleich im ATM hängen geblieben - na das war ja was. Glücklicherweise saßen da vier Soldaten, die mir sagten, dass an dem anderen Ende des Flughafens ein Schalter genau dieser Bank ist. So klärte sich das auch relativ schnell auf. Eine junge Frau machte den Automaten auf und hat eine Handvoll Kreditkarten in der Hand. Scheint also ein schon länger existierendes Problem zu sein.

Ich habe dann auch gleich direkt einen Bus in die Innenstadt bekommen - sehr günstig ungefähr zwei Euro. Von da bin ich dann etwa 1 km zu meinem Hotel gelaufen. Das nannte sich Delica. 

Nach einer Dusche habe ich dann noch einen kleinen Spaziergang gemacht. Erst war ich etwas essen, dann bin ich einmal um den See gelaufen und habe die älteren Damen beim Tanzen beobachtet - das war sehr lustig. Dann bin ich noch in die Train Street und habe dort ein Bier getrunken da habe ich ein Pärchen aus Italien kennengelernt, die waren sehr nett. Haben sogar heimlich mein Bier bezahlt Dankeschön noch mal.

Am nächsten Tag dann eine längere Tour durch die Altstadt u.a. mit dem schockierenden Besuch des ehemaligen Gefängnisses Hoa Lo, auch liebevoll „Hanoi Hilton“ genannt. Tja, unsere französischen Freunde waren in ihrem Umgang mit vermeintlichen Feinden recht drastisch.

Einige Tempel standen natürlich auch auf dem Programm - da komme ich immer so schwer vorbei. Und auch die Kathedrale als Hinterlassenschaft der Franzosen durfte nicht fehlen. Ich habe mich dann entschlossen, meine weiter Vietnam-Tour als tatsächliche Tour zu buchen, und brauchte mich ab da um nix mehr kümmern. Man kommt hier in Vietnam als Backpacker kaum wesentlich günstiger auf eigene Faust als wenn man eine Tour bucht. Das kenne ich so nur von Vietnam. Das ist uns ( mit Jens aus Ortrand 2006) schon früher aufgefallen, auch wenn sich die Preise gewaltig verändert haben. Aber eben nicht nur die Preise - auch die Infrastruktur, die Qualität der Busse und Hotels etc..

Und wie habe ich das vietnamesische Straßenleben in Korea vermisst! Einfach draußen sitzen, ein Bierchen trinken und Leute kieken. Herrlich.

Hier also ein paar Impressionen aus der vietnamesischen Hauptstadt, die mit rund 8,3 Mio. Einwohnern die zweitgrößte Stadt des Landes nach Ho-Chi-Minh-City ist.

Vokabel des Tages: Guten Tag - ngày tốt

Es regnet - Straßenecke in der Altstadt

[cchpmn-blog]

Hoa Lo Prison, Hanoi.

Used by the French colonists in Vietnam to hold political prisoners. Later, during the Vietnam War, American Prisoners of War were held here by the Vietnamese.

C. Chapman, 2016

[routist]

Around Hanoi

If you visit Hanoi, get in touch with the 'Hanoi Kids' club and arrange a (free) tour. We had lots of fun with our student guides. They were well informed about the sites and spoke excellent English, plus they were just interesting people.

[matt-mcintosh-blog-blog]

A few pics of Hanoi.

[matt-mcintosh-blog-blog]

Hanoi so far...

My immediate thoughts of Hanoi was that it was just another Saigon - busy, polluted and loud. And yeh it pretty much is those things. But I've noticed that Hanoi does seem to have some kind of secret charm to it.

I'm staying in the Old Quarter, and every street name has a different meaning. Gia Ngu street is 'underwear street', Lang Ong street translates to 'lazy old man' who was named after someone who specialized in traditional medicine and Hang Quat is 'fan-making'.  I was walking back from the Hoa Lo POW Museum through these streets and it was so weird that every time you turned the corner or crossed the road, the street was lined with completely stuff. It was kind of like an organised city car-boot sale.

The POW Museum was maybe one of the best museums i've been to. It was built in the 1930s by the French and eventually was used to hold American soldiers during the Vietnam War. Although it was really interesting to look around, it was just the same as other museums in Vietnam - it was totally geared in favour towards Vietnam. There are huge areas dedicated to showing how poorly the Vietnamese were treated by the French, with manakins chained up and a model guillotine on show. But as you moved through the prison/museum. There are posters naming countries that were against America invading Vietnam - like England, Australia, France. As if to emphasise America as the bad guy. And then soon there are descriptions of how well the Americans were treated by the Vietnamese in the prison, including photos of the prisoner's decorating Christmas trees.

It's bizarre to see tourist attractions like museums in the countries i've visited as they're so bias when they should be objective. 

Counting down the days until Japan now!

[thelookingglasshalffull]

Hanoi

We spent three days in Hanoi. As Francesca wrote to us, "it is a city of lakes," and very beautiful. Overlaid over graceful old colonial architecture is an incessant flow of traffic, street vendors, and tourists. The street corners are rife with 50 cent beers, $1 bowls of pho, and Vietnamese coffee cafes. Hordes of motorbikes carrying whole families, businessmen, and delivery boys imperil the lives of pedestrians. Despite the bustle, however, Hanoi still manages to feel laidback. During the heat of the day, we commonly saw shop owners sprawled on the ground for a mid-afternoon nap. We ourselves felt pretty worn out by the constant humidity.

Hoan Kiem Lake

Street vendor

Hanoi traffic

West Lake

Flower vendor

While we missed the chance to visit Ho Chi Minh's embalmed body, we did observe his influence. Everywhere. Propaganda billboards, museum exhibits, and art were all infused with communist imagery. Every morning in the Old Quarter (where we stayed), announcements set to musak were piped in via loudspeakers attached to the lampposts. A little research online told us that such topics as the weather, news, and the importance of exercise were included in the day's recap.

Billboard in the center of town

Reliefs at the Hoa Lo Prison museum

We did a lot of street wandering in Hanoi, soaking up the city's energy and verve. In addition, we also visited some excellent museums, including the outstanding Women's Museum, the Hoa Lo prison (John McCain was held there), and the Museum of Fine Arts. Then it was a quick goodbye to this lovely city and on the overnight train south to Hue...more to come soon.

Lanterns

Schoolkids at art class, outdoors

At the Women's Museum

At the Temple of Literature

Offerings to the Mother Goddess

Calligrapher outside the Temple of Literature 

[socialreligion]

[247news-blog]