Greetings from the Other Side of the World, Day 5: History Rushing Past in Hanoi
Last evening, the ship's tour director gently prepared Orion guests for what they might encounter on excursions into Hanoi and its environs. She reminded us that the guides are not native English speakers; some are more fluent with the language than others. The pace of life in Hanoi is as frenetic as you may have seen on TV. It's not only hot, but humid. At the end, I felt like she did a nice job of managing expectations, with an undercurrent of not sure why you people came on this cruise, Egypt is much nicer.
With that in mind...
The ship pulled in Ha Long Bay early in the morning, a beautiful way to greet the day. It is based on a legend that dragons sent by the gods helped protect Vietnam from invaders by dropping jewels and jade into the sea, forming the islands. Dragons loom large in the history of Vietnam.
On the drive into Hanoi, our tour guide provided an overview of Viet Nam's history, which, I've decided, is an appropriate college major. It is long and layered, stretching from ancient kingdoms through centuries of Chinese domination, French colonization, wars for independence, and rapid modern development. Viet Nam was ruled by many Chinese dynasties, which reminded me that China is only a short drive away. The Portugese came in during Europe's colonization phase, bringing with them the English alphabet so the Vietnamese language utilizes the 26 letters of the English alphabet rather than symbols. The Portugese were followed by the French, whose influence is still seen in some architecture in Hanoi. Next Ho Chi Minh formed the Indochinese Communist Party and the resistance movement began. The North Vietnamese overthrew the French, leaving it yet another Communist country near China, North Korea and in close proximity to Communist Russia.
This is the part of Vietnamese history familiar to me. I remember the 'domino theory' proscribing that if one country in southeast Asia fell to Communism, the remainder would fall like dominos and then where would we (America on the other side of the word) be? Well, in a mess, as it turns out, because this was (yet again) another major miscalculation on the part of the Western world that Eastern cultures only really wanted to be JUST LIKE US when nothing could be further from the truth. A couple paragraphs here cannot even begin to scratch the surface of this country and I am not going to try because to tell you the truth, as we drove home l last night, I found myself feeling like I am in over my head here, attempting to absorb a culture so dramatically different from my own lived experience. Which, in truth, was what I was hoping to find on this trip, but still. Reality often overtakes expectations.
On the drive to the city, we passed rice paddies, banana and lychee trees and these interesting cemeteries, marked by small shrines. Our guide told us that Vietnamese bury their dead for a couple years, then dig them up. My Friend Jeanie ™ and I missed the part about what happens to the bodies after; we think they're cremated and ashes kept by loved ones. The graves are then used again. Economy of space.
Then we hit the city itself. The scooter traffic is like nothing I've experienced anywhere. I'm not sure how to describe it--maybe if you converted 9/10 of the cars driving through Manhattan to scooters, then said, "Have at it!" that might be close. As in Hong Kong, the bus driver deserves a medal for navigating this chaos because it is not organized chaos, it is just chaos, plain and simple.
We did go to a three historic sites, the Temple of Literature, which honors Confucious and education and the Tran Quoc Pagoda, which is nearly 1500 years old. It honors the enduring strength of Vietnamese Buddhism and the belief that spiritual stability is as vital as political or economic power. Perhaps one of the many reasons Yankee Imperialism failed so badly in the Other Side of the World. In my opinion, we don't get the core beliefs that comprise Buddhism--and make no mistake, neither do I, but seeing them honored and lived is, was, for me, a bit staggering. On the walls at the Temple were posted 4 aspects of Karma: the law of cause and effect; intention matters; karma and rebirth; creating good karma. The posters showed a variety of each situations involving each aspect and I only got a cursory view, which is too bad because I could have spent a couple hours reading through them.
The third historic site we visited was the Mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh. From what I can discern, he is greatly revered in the north. Viet Nam is a communist country. Flags fly throughout the city, some with both the Communist sickle and others with the one star symbol of modern Viet Nam. From what our tour guide explained, this is a complicated system. No kidding.
Perhaps the most exciting event of the day was crossing a Hanoi street, then walking down a narrow alley like street where the scooters buzzed through, pedestrians be damned. More than once people in our tour group were pulling each other out of the way of a scooter driver demonstrated no awareness that s/he/they (often multiple people on the scooter) were about to run an American who functions under the belief that pedestrians have the right away. In Hanoi, not true.
Our tour guide explained that residents of Hanoi like to live on the streets, not in the manner of homeless people, but simply as a way of life. This felt quite remarkable to me. Everywhere on the sidewalks, in front of businesses and residences, you would see: 1) scooters, parked, some haphazardly, others in quite an orderly fashion. It appeared as if drivers bought a parking spot, much like paying for parking in a ramp, but could be making that up. 2) small plastic stools, not unlike those used as a step stool or in early childhood classrooms. People either sit solo on the stools or gather them around to socialize and eat. Cooking over a propane or wood fired stove is not uncommon. Eating on the street with families or friends is the norm. It creates a sense of community. They just have to dodge the scooters.
The buildings are extremely narrow, maybe three to four stories tall, abutting each other up and down the streets. There was an interesting juxtaposition of what appeared to be abandoned, demolished stores intermixed with what I might call Mom and Pop enterprises (this solidified by the proprietors sitting on their small plastic stool in front of the store) as well as more established, higher end restaurants and retail. Fronted, of course, by small plastic stools (predominantly blue) and scooters. Lots and lots of scooters.
It made me wish we had more time here. After the overview yesterday, I would love to get back into the city and wander, moving to the side streets away to perhaps get a better glimpse into what life is really like. Because what we saw yesterday, it's an interesting amalgam of fast pace (traffic) and laid back (sitting on the sidewalk, watching the world go by, checking in with the neighbors).
Tomorrow we're taking a boat voyage through Ha Long Bay.
Comments
Post a Comment