The weather is definitely on our side. It’s cloudy and cool – but it is not raining – and we are ecstatic. Breakfast is a meal fit for a king – they have so much. I go with Pho – Ed with the egg, ham and bacon sandwich. Both are so good – and so huge! Both of us can’t finish the Pho bowl.
We slept so well in the comfy bed last night, that we actually slept a little later than normal. This means that the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum is off our tour map for today. They say you need to get there at 7:30 am to line up to go inside, or you’ll stand in line for 2 or more hours. We’re way past that, and while we really want to go, people do say that his body looks like a fake – so we ditch the idea of a 2 hour line for a wax dummy (for real or not). I also really wanted to see the One Pillar Pagoda next to the mausoleum, but the whole area is a cab ride away, and we decide to just walk today and hit the museums we can visit by foot power.
So, first up, the Traditional House, which is right around the corner from us. As the name states – this is a ‘traditional’ Hanoi Old Town architecture – built at the end of the 19th Century and occupied over time by various families who ran a shop in the front area and lived in the upstairs. It is what was known as a “tube” house, because of it’s very narrow facade – and then a succession of buildings and courtyards running lengthwise behind the front.
It is still organized in that fashion today – gift shop with traditional Vietnamese gifts downstairs in the front room and then the kitchen set up in the courtyard in the back. There is a traditional bathroom on display as well – OMG – it is a cement platform with a hole. Stairs go up the side of the wall the platform – and then – well – you get the drift!
Upstairs is the living room and Ancestors altar, as well as the bedroom. They’ve sort of combined the altar room and bedroom to make room for more gifts in the back bedroom off the courtyard balcony – but it’s still really cool to see the layout and how they lived in these 5 little rooms!
(And interesting little aside – the house next door has a rooftop garden or something, and they obviously were using umbrellas as a shade/awning. They umbrellas have all pretty much disintegrated at this point, but we thought it was quite the clever idea.)
As we mentioned there are lots of traditional Vietnamese gifts here, some of them Dong Ho paintings, which dates back to the beginning of the Vietnamese civilization. These paintings come from wood blocks, each separate block a separate color. They depict traditional Vietnamese scenes of life,are quite colorful and printed on handcrafted Do paper (produced from the bark of the Do Tree). We pick up a few Do paper notepads with Dong Ho paintings. They are very hard to resist, and we figure we are helping the Heritage Foundation keep up with the Traditional House.
Next we wind our way through Old Town, to the lake, our intended destination….The Hanoi Hilton (or more properly Hoa Lo Prison). On the way, though, we go right by the little cafe Pamela told us about with the great view of the lake – and the egg coffee! Yep, egg coffee! They mix a raw egg into cream, sort of like a soft meringue, and then place on top of the coffee, cappuccino style. They say it tastes like Tiramisu – and I’m all in for that! Plus there is a great view of the lake. The problem? This place is really hard to find!
We have the name, and the address from Allie’s guidebook, and we find the address easily enough. We are extremely fortunate that Pamela told us exactly how to get to the cafe, because otherwise we’d never have gone in there. We took pictures so you can follow the progress in the album below. First, you walk through a silk souvenir shop to a little dark alley. Follow the alley until it opens up on a Chinese garden courtyard. Here is where the menu is, and you have to order. We follow Pamela and Allie’s suggestion and get the egg coffee. Then up we go – through the archway up a straight flight of steps to the first landing, then look at the altar, and climb an iron spiral staircase to the first balcony level.
There you are rewarded with a fabulous view of the lake – high above the hustle and bustle of the traffic. It’s wonderful here – and there is even another balcony level above this one. Fun!
The coffee comes and it is as good as advertised! Wow! Could have been a little hotter, but as it is, it is warm and sweet and a little gooey. Perfect mid-morning treat!
Now we’ve got our sugar high going, so we’re ready to walk the city. We navigate our way through the “regular”side of the city to the Hoa Lo Prison – or known in our vernacular – the Hanoi Hilton. The thing that strikes us as we walk along is the melding of old and new. Old: lots and lots of ladies carrying produce on their shoulders with the bamboo rod and baskets. New: regular electronics shops, traditional stores, people in business suits. It all just sort of goes together somehow.
As we head to the prison, one of the weirdest things we’ve ever seen: a man smoking 4 cigarettes. They are all lined up, almost like they are tied together somehow in a flat line, and he’s got them all lit and smoking away. Bizarre!
On to the prison!
It doesn’t get very good reviews on tripadvisor, but I really want to see it, and honestly, once we’re done, it’s really not all that bad. So they’ve town down most of the prison and replaced it with some swanky high rise tower. Ok – well, heck, the Embassy in Saigon where the last flight out took off isn’t there anymore at all. At least here they’ve managed to save a portion of the actual prison that you can walk through and read about the how there was a tribe of local traders there who the French basically threw out so they can appropriate the land and build the prison. And of course how the French used it to imprison Vietnamese revolutionaries. There are some very life like displays of prisoners in ankle irons, as well as some pretty creepy death cells.
Oh, and also some very creepy and dramatic music piped in every room. Really sets the stage!
It’s all pretty anti-French, not even so much Anti-American at all. As a matter of fact, they portray their use of the prison for American POWs as almost a “camp”. Will have to do some research to really see if all this is propaganda (you think? No, not propaganda!) or for real. Interesting.
What we find really interesting is that they display what they call the “actual” flight suit of John McCain. As well as a photo of McCain being rescued. Pretty prescient if you ask me!
But all in all, it’s really very interesting – and in our minds a must see if you are interested in that part of Vietnamese, and our, history.
We spend over an hour at the prison museum, then head over the History museum for a quick visit. We cross the city on what apparently was the Electronics street. Every store had either small electronics (tablets, phones, computers) or larger items (TVs, appliances). It’s all very orderly if you know where you are going! As we walked, we saw the old and new co-existing again – the photo shot we couldn’t get: 8 professional businessmen and women, in very nice suits, sitting on the little short stools on the street eating Pho. How I wish I would have had the gumption to take that pix! But I felt it was too much of an intrusion. So it’s the indelible memory we’ll keep – if not the actual digital image.
We finally reach the museum, after one wrong turn. The streets are all signed beautifully here – you always know where you are – except for the one darn street we need to get to the museum! Sheesh, so we turn around, find our unmarked street and get to the museum in no time. It’s very cheap – only $1US entry fee. We have to have 2 tickets though because apparently the price has gone up (used to be $0.50cents) and they’ve not reprinted the tickets each. Funny.
So, a nice way to spend an hour or so learning about ancient Vietnamese history, the dynasties, the wars, the agriculture and the crafts. It’s all very interesting and there are some beautiful statues and wood carvings. I’m particularly fond of the goofy looking lion-dog – with flappy sort of ears. There is also a spectacular mahogany bronze wood carving of Naga – I think its called Naga – the deity with the many hands all around it.
We’re right across the street from the Revolutionary museum, now called the National History Museum, but unfortunately they are closed for lunch. So we grab a snack of potato chips and water, and head to a little park outside the museum to sit and wait for the re-opening. It’s a nice little rest, and the weather couldn’t be better for sitting outside. Nice and blissfully cool!
The National History Museum is pretty big, encompassing 2 floors and over 30 rooms of memorabilia from Vietnam history. They’ve got tons of documents, photos, diaries, accessories, military items, clothing….just loads of stuff that walk you through more recent revolutionary eras. Obviously tons of Ho Chi Minh memorabilia, from all his stages (and names) of life. And of course the other important people in the country’s history. It’s a pretty cool way to spend and hour or two soaking up the violent and subjugatory past of Vietnam. And admission here is still $0.50cents!
Done with our educational tour, we head back to the hotel, then out to the corner where there are Bia Hoi stores. Bia Hoi is the local beer that is brewed and delivered to Bia Hoi establishments daily. It’s not pasteurized, so it has to be consumed the day it is delivered or it is not any good. There are a lot of these places around, there is even on corner where there are Bia Hoi stores on each corner – we didn’t find that – but our corner does have 2.
Only one is open at the moment, the other setting up, so we grab our miniature chairs and table and sit on the street corner with our Bia Hoi!
This is fun! And the beer is suprisingly good. Low in alcohol content, so we can drink lots and not get too buzzed. And very reasonably priced! 5000 Dong each – that’s $0.25 cents US. Kid you not! Of course being on the street has it’s own hazards- not the least of which are the scooters and the bikes whizzing by you really close. But it’s fun to hang out here, drinking beer, getting hit up by street vendors. We succumb to these little donut hole looking things which have some sort of filling and are crunchy. Not as good as they look and way over priced (each little donut hole costs as much as the darn beer!). We also grab a popcorn bag, which turns out to be caramel popcorn. Ah well…street life….
Heading back to the hotel, we pass the frog lady. Well, that’s what I call her. Every day, sitting there roasting her little marinated frogs. Frogs are big here! But we’re not eating them – especially these little boogers that are flattened (like a brick chicken) and grilled. Too many little bones…too … oh I don’t know…just too something …
Back in the room, we hang out for a while, blogging (big surprise because you all can see how far behind we are!), and doing emails. We’re just sitting there when we hear this ruckus. Its sounds like….well…Angry Birds. High pitched jibber jabber growing in intensity. We open the window and down in the courtyard below us there is a full blown Viet woman fight going on. Three of them yelling at each other and pushing and shoving. Wow! They are going at it! All the neighbors are just standing around watching. It’s sort of funny and of course we don’t have a clue as to what they are arguing about. But argue they do - they keep it up for quite awhile, and we now call it the Angry Birds fight!
After that excitement, we freshen up and hit the streets for dinner. We don’t feel much like Viet food, so we’ve chosen to go to the “Real” Kangaroo Cafe. It’s a little storefront that is also a travel agency, and if you don’t look close you’d never know it’s a restaurant. The one on our side of town is actually the 2nd location. The first location a little further away by the lake is the original. But the reason why it’s the “Real” Kangaroo cafe, is that everyone steals the name. The owner is an Aussie who’s lived here for something like 20 years. And quite outspoken too. Seems here in Vietnam a good idea is worth stealing, so there are a lot of Kangaroo cafes around. As a matter of fact, the original location was at 18 Bao Khanh street, and he recently moved 2 doors down to 22 Bao Khanh. But the owner of 18 decided to jus keep the Kangaroo Cafe name! So that’s why the “Real” name is important! The coasters at the restaurant all say “Beware of any FAKE Kangaroo Cares, they’ll ROB you for sure!
The place is very small, but very clean. There is a large poster board with all sorts of announcements and tour information, plus information on the owner, Max. The menu is pretty extensive, western and Asian, plus there are rules: If you are rude to the staff, you will be thrown out; English is the staff’s 2nd language, they do try hard, but please be patient; pay in cash only, watch your credit cards at the other fake cafes! Pretty wild!
Ed orders a burger, and I order ham and cheese stuffed pancakes. An Aussie specialty? Don’t know but they are oddly good. Ed says the burger is the best burger he has ever had! So that’s now 3 of the top 5 burgers he has ever eaten have been in SE Asia. That’s bizarre!
We pig out (as you can see from the size of that burger!!) and watch the world go by outside the windows. Oh – what they put on those bikes….
Sadly, it’s time to go back to the hotel for our last night in Hanoi. Next up – the heat and humidity of Siem Reap.
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