I wrote a blogpost on our time in Hanoi 4 days ago and when I went to post it, it had disappeared! Now we have been 3 days in Malaysia (and have already posted on Facebook from here) but am finally getting back to the Hanoi part :)
We loved our 5 days in Hanoi, which included an over night excursion to Halong Bay. I shared in a Facebook post that we were especially fond of the small street where our hotel was located in the old quarter where we had our nightly favorite cocktail at the Polite Pub and after dinner take-away dessert from the French bakery.
We were especially impressed and moved by the Women's Resistance Museum which chronicled almost a 100 years of Vietnamese women's leadership in the struggles for independence and human rights. To mention a couple women - Madame Binh, still active at 90, who led the PRG delegation at the Paris Peace Talks in the late 60's and early 70's; Ngo Ba Thanh, a leading lawyer activist in the South during the war; and the Buddhist nuns who chained themselves together (with the threat of self-immolation) to demand the release of political prisoners promised with the Paris Peace Agreement. I was struck by story after story of particular Vietnamese women and their courage, creativity, and persistance in their struggle - an inspiration for us in thinking about our own commitments to the work that is needed in the US today.
On another day we visited the Temple of Literature, begun over thousand years ago as a Confucian university. While I was walking around, Ron sat down and was soon engaged in a lively discussion with about a dozen Vietnamese high school students on a wide range of topics from protest to Trump to music. About a half hour later, their group leader came to collect them. The Museum of Fine Arts was conveniently located across the street. We particularly enjoyed the contemporary art, including some paintings addressing issues such as environmental degradation. There were many pieces that portrayed dimensions of war in Vietnam from WW II through the American war.
We also saw a performance of one of Hanoi's reknown water puppet theater groups. Lots of humerous folk tales acompanied ny traditional music. Fun! We did not make it into the mausoleum of an embalmed Ho Chi Minh (against his wishes when he was alive) though we did see it from the outside and saw the house where he spent some time.
Midway through our time in the North, we spent a delightful, 24 hours on Ha Long Bay about a 3 hour drive northest of Hanoi. Ha Long Bay is an extraordinary, UNESCO World Heritage Site with 1,969 islands - limestone, tree covered outcroppings, small mountains.
There is a major tourist industry taking people out for 24 or 48 hours on boats fitted out with several dozen staterooms. You get 4, 5 course meals, kayaking, swimming, and a spectacular cave tour, all while cruising among all these islands. There are many of these boats. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and our guide Qui. We were sad to have it end.
Back in Hanoi, as in Ho Chi Minh City, part of our time was spent in meetings with representatives of various groups including the Vietnam Peace Committee, the Vietnam-USA Society and the Foundation for Peace and Development. These appointments were a time of reconnection for Ron and some of the Vietnamese we met as well an opportunity for the Vietnamese to reiterate their gratitude for the American peace movement (which we heard again and again and found hard to accept ). But they were also a time to talk about current US politics and to assure the Vietnamese there is much resistance to the Trump agenda. One of the people we met, Vu Xyan Hong, is a member of the National Assembly of Vietnam. Another, 89 year old Pham Khac Lam, told us some great stories about General Giap and about Ho Chi Minh.
In a future post, I will share some brief impressions of contemporary Vietnam, based on our experiences and reading (limited as they are).
I will also post more pics from Hanoi snd Halong Bay on Facebook.
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