Vietnam is a Beautiful Country — Upon entering Vietnam, you are struck by the overwhelming beauty and lushness of its countryside. Every inch of agrarian land is used, and rich green rice paddies stretch as far as the eye can see, and run right up to the houses and roads — nothing seems wasted. Vietnam grows rice well — up to three crops a year in some areas…but it grows lots of other fruits and vegetables as well.

It’s people are beautiful – sometimes glamorous – and friendly as well.

Vietnamese seem to enjoy life – and they light everything up at night with brilliant colors: Hanoi’s Hoan Kiem Lake, Hue’s bridges and riverside boulevard, Hoi An’s Chinese-lanterned streets, boats floating in the river, and bridges, and Ho Chi Minh City’s streets.

And Vietnamese food is as good as it gets!! It’s essence is noodles — we know Pho (pronounced “fuh”), but there are lots of other kinds to discover, including Mi Quang and Cao Lao, the smoky thick yellow noodles. Then there is fish — Cha Ca, the fabulous sautéed turmeric catfish dish with noodles, greens and herbs that we had in Hanoi, and the coconut red snapper covered in herbs and wrapped in banana leaves in Hoi An. We can’t forget a good Banh Mi like the one from Banh Mi Phouang in Hoi An (recommended by Anthony Bourdain) – with lots of veggies and spices and super-fresh French bread… or the spring rolls in rice paper stuffed with fresh vegetables and herbs and dipped in fish sauce.

Vietnamese food just tastes fresh! What makes the food so special is the tricks to making a great Pho broth or fresh rice noodles; and the fresh, whole-plant herbs you throw in the bowl or wrap in rice paper.

Chinese influence — Vietnamese may not like or trust their northern next-door neighbor, but Chinese influence on Vietnamese culture is strong, particularly in Vietnam’s north. China ruled Vietnam for a thousand years until the 10th century, and there were always Chinese traders and merchants – with a strong presence in ports

Chinese influence can be seen in the number of old Confusion temples, Chinese-style architecture and furnishings, and the practice of Mahayana Buddhism (Vietnam’s neighbors in SE Asia all practice Theravada Buddhism which was brought to them from Sri Lanka and Nepal).

Another influence was writing in Chinese characters. Vietnamese was written with Chinese characters until a Portuguese missionary in the 17th century introduced a way to write Vietnamese in the Roman alphabet. The conversion to the Roman alphabet in the 20th century eliminated the need to memorize Chinese characters in order to read and increased literacy rates significantly.

Uniquely Vietnamese — Ancestor Worship – Also adopted from the Chinese is the Confucian practice of ancestor worship. Vietnamese venerate their ancestors, keeping a shrine in their home, and annually celebrating their immediate ancestors on the days of their deaths. Confucianism underlies much of Vietnamese custom and belief, regardless of religion.

Burial Practices — While other SE Asian nations cremate their dead and put their ashes in a stupa in a graveyard or near their home, Vietnam tradition is to bury the dead in above-ground coffins for two to three years, until the body is adequately de-composed, and then open the coffin, wash the bones to remove any flesh, and consolidate the bones to be reburied with other relatives in the family mausoleum.

Rural Vietnamese have typically buried their recently-deceased relatives in the middle of the rice fields to overlook the rice harvest. The government has been discouraging this practice and urging people to use community burial grounds or cremate their relatives. The practice is shifting to cremation, particularly with urban and younger generations.

Vietnam’s Population is Ethnically Homogenous — Unlike its western neighbor, Laos, Vietnam is not ethnically diverse. While Vietnam recognizes 54 different ethnic groups, 86 percent of the population is one ethnic group – Viet. All of the other groups have small numbers and live in Vietnam’s mountain regions.

Vietnam’s Population is Religiously Diverse — While 60 percent of the population identifies itself as Buddhist, an almost equally large group claim to follow a “folk religion.” As with Hindi mythology, folk religion practices may coexist with Buddhism. Christians are prominent in Vietnam, particularly in the South, but only 6 percent of the total population identifies itself as Christian – almost all Roman Catholic. However, increasingly, younger generations are shying away from organized religion.

Communism is Not a Substitute — The government of Vietnam is communist – a single-party state with a belief system that seeks to substitute for organized religion. The majority of the population are not engaged in politics — only 2 percent of Vietnamese are members of the communist party, and, therefore, eligible to hold office. National leadership is chosen by the Party, elections decide on who will fill local offices, but candidates must be party members. Younger people pay very little attention to politics.

Vietnam Knows War but Wants Peace and Prosperity — Over the last 2,000 years of its history, Vietnam has been at peace only 500 years. It has lived through occupations by the Chinese and French, civil wars, and has been an independent nation encompassing both south, central, and north for relatively short periods — during the Le Dynasty in the 15th and 16th centuries, and during the Nguyen dynasty in the 19th century before the French took over.

China ruled Vietnam for a thousand years until the 10th century when Vietnam took advantage of the collapse of the Tang dynasty to fight China for their independence. The Chinese seized control of Vietnam again in the early 15th century, but were beaten back by a Vietnamese liberator who established a Vietnamese Le Dynasty. Vietnam was divided between North and South for much of 17th and 18th centuries, until the Nguyen Dynasty was established at the beginning of the 19th century, bringing North and South together for a period that lasted through the end of World War II.

During this period, the French attacked Vietnam on a pretense in the 1850s and establish colonial rule that lasted until World War II when the Japanese occupied Indochina with French collaboration. As the war wound down, famine fueled by Japanese rice requisitions in this period contributed to the rise of the Viet Minh under Ho Chi Minh, which fought a war of independence against the French and halted their return to colonial rule with a military victory in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu.

A Geneva Conference negotiated new boundaries – dividing Vietnam into two separate nations at the 17th parallel. Ironically, in a country where roughly 60 percent of the population was Buddhist, the North was communist and the South was placed in the hands of the Catholic minority. Civil war broke out in the South as the local communists – the Viet Cong – backed by (and supplied by) the North – went to war with the U.S.-backed government. The U.S. escalated its presence until it became the American war, but by the early 70s pressure was on at home to negotiate a withdrawal, which the U.S. did in 1973, leaving the field open for the North to invade the South and re-unify the country under communism in 1975.

By 1979, Vietnam was at it again — invading Cambodia to protect its people from the ravages of its Mao-ist communist regime gone mad (more on this when we get to Cambodia). That caused China to attack Vietnam in a misguided effort to protect their ally the Cambodian regime. A Cambodian settlement was negotiated and Vietnam began a withdrawal in 1989. Finally, peace arrived with signing of the Paris Accords of 1991.

Post-War Hardship — The period after the communists re-unified Vietnam was a period of international isolation and significant hardship for the Vietnamese people. The American war had taken a huge toll on the population, disrupted the economy, destroyed a lot of the infrastructure, defoliated the forests, and left behind unexploded ordinance all over the country.

The communist rule was austere and harsh. South Vietnamese who had fought or worked on the government side or aided the Americans were sent off to re-education camps and had their property confiscated. Large numbers of them escaped and became refuges in other countries.

Those who were not punished by the government suffered through a long period of poverty. The communists set up farm communes that resulted in low rice yields. Nationalized factories that were dependent on Russia and the Eastern Europe for trade and foreign assistance suffered when Perestroika and the break up of the Soviet Union brought an end to Soviet commerce and aid, and brought Vietnam face-to-face with a potential economic disaster.

Peace, Prosperity, and Hope for the Future — In the 1990s, as peace returned, the Vietnamese government loosened its grip and sought to rejoin the community of nations. It relaxed investment restrictions and began to seek outside capital, it appeased the US and got their embargo removed and it joined the World Trade Organization in 2006. It has joined China and Laos as a communist nation with a freer-market economy, and has experienced a period of sustained economic growth with low unemployment.

Today, it exports machinery, computers, footwear, clothing, fish, coffee and tea, and rice. It has become the second-leading coffee producer in the world, producing both robusta and arabica beans, and, of course, its famous “weasel coffee,” made by feeding beans to weasels and recovering the beans from their poop to clean, roast, and make a great cup of coffee (I kid you not!)

On to Cambodia — Join us as we round out our tour of SE Asia in our fifth and last country, with stops in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap (Angkor Wat).

The Mekong Delta is an lush agricultural area laced with rivers that was once part of the Khmer Empire (Cambodia), but was put under Vietnamese administration and unified with Vietnam in the early 18th century by the Nyugen emperors. When the French colonized Indochina in the 19th century, the Delta was recognized as part of Vietnam. The population of over 17 million in the area is a mix of Viet and Khmer people. Cambodia has not forgotten its one-time ownership of the region.

My Tho – we arrive in the town of My Tho on the Song Thein (Thein River) in the Mekong Delta about an hour and a half drive southwest of Ho Chi Minh City. My Tho is the origination point for a day tour of the culture, economy, and local products of the Delta region.

The Delta is a spider web of rivers and canals dotted with islands. The rivers are broad and tidal with fresh water in the monsoon season and brackish water when the river flows ebb and the tidal flows from the ocean dominate. The tides at My Tho are five meters – leaving boats high and dry at low tide and lapping the dock tops 6 hours later. To make matters worse, this has been a very dry winter and the water levels are lower than normal.

Thoi Son Island — We head first to Cu Lao Thoi Son (“Unicorn Island”) to visit a fruit farm growing a wide array of fruits and to be entertained with a selection of local music.

In addition to sampling the SE Asian fruit we know (pineapple, banana, dragon fruit, and papaya) we discover two new fruits: sapopilla and longan fruit (a relative of lycee). Sapopilla is soft like a ripe melon and very sweet. Longan fruit is a small round fruit that you peel to reveal a gelatinous round ball with a large seed in the middle. We also learn that sweet fruits (e.g., pineapple) taste better when lightly dipped in a mix of salt and chili powder.

Walking around the fruit farm, we see a couple of other new fruits: rose apple, milk fruit, palmello (grapefruit-like), and huge jack fruit that grow out of the base of the tree. The irrigation system is extensive.

A small group of Delta musicians and singers entertain us with regional favorites for the fruit exploration. The Dan Bau is a single-string, zither-like Vietnamese instrument with a tall flexible stick that is manipulated to create a slide transition between notes. It produces a sound that is uniquely Asian. The ensemble includes other string instruments that are played like a violin and a banjo — plus a guitar.

Bee-Z Bee Farm – We move on to the Bee-Z bee farm to learn about Royal Jelly and other products derived from bee culture and bee hives. Royal Jelly is special food created by worker bees to be fed exclusively to the Queen. It is believed to contribute to the Queen’s longer life expectancy.

Ouy Island — Cu Lao Ouy (“Turtle Island”) is next on our itinerary. A short boat ride takes us to the chocolate farm, where we see cocoa beans roasting and hear about chocolate making.

We move on to the coconut farm where we learn about making coconut candy. The coconut flesh is grated and pressed to make coconut milk and coconut cream. This is mixed with malt syrup and malt sugar and heated and stirred until it gets to a taffy-like consistency, It is then cut into small pieces and wrapped in edible rice paper and then that is wrapped in greased paper.

We also get to taste the snake wine made from alcohol infused with cobras and other little reptiles. What does it taste like? Alcohol. I’m not sure what the snake adds to it (other than a little sensation).

A Late Lunch — We finish a late lunch and boat down the canal to the boat landing to get our boat back to My Tho and the bus to Ho Chi Minh City.

The Delta specialty is whole deep-fried elephant-ear fish (Giant Gourami) with coconut. I am not ready to devour a whole fish for lunch, so I opt for the spicy chicken curry.

Next Up — Some Observations on Vietnam.

Renamed Ho Chi Minh City in 1975, Saigon was the capital of South Vietnam in the days of the Vietnam civil war. It is Vietnam’s largest and most bustling city (although Hanoi is bustling enough) – with a population of 8.4 million in the city. The city is sprawled along the banks of the Saigon River.

Downtown — The city is a commercial and finance center for Vietnam. The amount of new investment and economic growth in the country is reflected here in some new and dramatic skyscrapers. The center of downtown is a beautiful mall known as “Times Square” – surrounded by City Hall at one end and a row of commercial buildings on both sides — all of which are lit at night. The city is on the move into the future — its major new activity underway (with construction everywhere) is the creation, with Japanese help, of a new subway.

Overall, I feel that Ho Chi Minh City has all of the urban intensity, good eating, and pace of Hanoi, without Hanoi’s charm. It feels like a city that isn’t sure of its character. The renaming of everything in communist “people-speak” is an intentional break with Saigon’s rowdy and American-influenced past. It makes it clear what it isn’t, but it seems to leave the city unsure of exactly what it is.

Surrounding the downtown center is a wild array of small streets that stay busy all day – with limited sidewalk space. There is a constant contest on the streets between pedestrians and motor bikes — but unlike other cities, the motorbikes here don’t willingly slow down or stop – they weave around you. The city overall is large and gritty but lacks the charm that comes through in the older sections of Hanoi.

Reunification Palace — The current Vietnamese government has kept the old President’s residence (Independence Palace in Saigon days and Reunification Palace today). This is the rooftop from which American helicopters lifted off the last Americans and some of their Vietnamese helpers as the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army flowed into the city in 1975.

War Remnants Museum — The government also maintains a few museums on aspects of the war and the American involvement. We go to see the War Remnants Museum, which combines an outdoor display of US weaponry (including tanks, small jets, and big guns), and indoor exhibits on American war crimes, the lasting effects on people of wide-spread defoliation with Agent Orange, photos by international journalists killed in the war, and a few other topics. While the selection of topics reflects a bias, the content of the exhibits is drawn from news reports at the time and is straightforward and factual.

Cu Chi Tunnels — About 70 km northwest of downtown Ho Chi Minh City are the complex system of tunnels created between 1960 and 1975 by the Viet Cong as their principle base of operation in the capital region. The tunnels were the base for launching the Tet Offensive in the South in 1968.

The complex of 121 km of tunnels sits on the Cambodian border. They housed an underground operations center on three levels that included underground kitchens with clever venting systems to hide the smoke from stoves, meeting rooms, and manufacturing centers for converting scrap military metal to weapons.

Life in the tunnels was hard. Passages were extremely small. Almost all of the VC soldiers in them suffered from malaria and intestinal disease. They stayed in the tunnels during the day to avoid detection and came out at night in black clothing to tend fields and get water. Ventilation was challenging and depended on a variety of carefully disguised vents and false vents to avoid detection.

The US military knew of the existence of the tunnels and designated the area a “kill-free zone” – meaning that any living thing in the area was a target. The area was subject to heavy bombing from B-52s, and a few ground campaigns to penetrate and destroy the tunnel complex. The tunnels and the area around them were rigged with elaborate booby traps and camouflaged ambush shafts, though, that were hazardous to anyone who entered the area on foot. None of the US missions succeeded in reducing the effectiveness of the tunnel complex.

Streetlife — Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) is traditional street life in a modern world. The mix can be dizzying.

In Hanoi, restaurants were serving meals on small tables and chairs on the sidewalk. In Ho Chi Minh City, people are actually serving family meals on the street.

It’s a motorbike culture — everything can be done on a motorbike, from giving Grandma a ride to delivering a refrigerator. Motorbikes are everywhere and moving all the time (red light or no) and avoiding but not yielding to pedestrians.

There are even separated lanes on the highway for motorbikes — for safety. They aren’t always that safe, though.

Some street scenes evoke the narrow, crowded, and vibrant city streets of old Saigon. Others are more peaceful and elegant. Everywhere you look in Ho Chi Minh City is a mix — clusters of trash amidst glamour.

Nightlife — The nightlife in Ho Chi Minh City is pretty active. We go to check out the scene on Bui Vien. These pictures are selected for their “G” rating.

Next Up: A trip to the Mekong Delta

Hoi An is also a culinary center, and we take the opportunity to learn a lot about the regional food.

In search of ingredients

Learning about noodles — Northern Vietnamese cooking takes noodles and noodle-making to the next level. To understand more about this art form, we participate in a noodle class sponsored by a non-profit organization – Streets International (founded by a fellow Heller School grad and Board colleague) — that trains kids from the streets in the hospitality and restaurant business. Planeterra, the GAdventures foundation, supports the work of Streets International and has arranged for us to take this class presented by the students at Oodles of Noodles.

There are five main types of noodles used in Hoi An cuisine. The Cao Lau noodles in particular are unique to Hoi An – the rice noodlesd are soaked in ash water from a particular tree on Cham Island off the coast of Hoi An. This treatment gives them their dark orange color and a very earthy or smokey flavor.

My Quang noodles are made by cutting strips from a rice pancake.

My Quang is a regional specialty noodle dish with these noodles plus shrimp, pork, a handful of fresh greens and herbs, and quails eggs. Very fresh tasty and even better enhanced with hot peppers and chili paste. The presentation at Oodles of Noodles is perfect!

Cooking Hoi An Style

As we continue developing our culinary talents, we enroll in a class on cooking Hoi An style. We have a brilliant and fun-loving instructor – “Pineapple” – and 5 dishes to prepare.

The menu of items (which we will consume at the end) is: vegetable spring rolls, banana-blossom chicken salad, Pho-Bo, smoked shrimp in banana leaf, mango sticky rice.

Good Vietnamese cooking is a high art form!! We learn how much we don’t know about the fine points of cooking a really flavorful meal. We are keeping our notes and will see how well we can reproduce these dishes for friends back home.

Driving from Hue to Hoi An — The road from Hue to Hoi An is Route 1 running parallel to the coast and making a mountain climb midway that affords a great view of the coastal beaches. We make a stop for the view of the coast and a look through the remains of an American lookout post.

Da Nang – Famous during the war with America as the home for a major American Air Force base that at its peak was the busiest airport in the world. Today Da Nang is a rapidly growing magnet for the beach and resort crowd. New resorts under construction along the beaches south of the city include prominent American chains: Hyatt, Intercontinental, Sheraton, Marriott, and Raddison.

Hoi An – History — Hoi An is an old coastal port that was founded at the beginning of the 17th century and came to be considered by Chinese and Japanese traders in the 18th century the best trading port in all of Indochina. By the 19th century, trading had moved up the coast to Da Nang and Hoi An became a forgotten city. As the world passed it by, the old city was frozen in time. A Polish architect – Kazimierz Kwiatkowski – was sent by UNESCO to Hoi An in 1980 and subsequently played a major role in saving and restoring the old town. In 1999, it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is today a major tourist attraction in Vietnam.

Hoi An – Today – The major attraction in Hoi An is the old city and the ample supply of 17th and 18th century timber buildings — homes, shops, and temples – beautifully restored and preserved and lining the streets. Today, these old buildings house handicraft and curio sellers, restaurants, tea and coffee houses, and a variety of clothing merchants, tailoring shops, and other enterprises. Hoi An is a tourist paradise for shopper’s, foodie’s and photographer’s.

The old quarter has street after street of beautifully preserved 17th and 18th century homes, shops, and temples — providing each street with a scenic, historical vista. UNESCO regulates heights, styles, and paint colors of renovations or new buildings to assure that the overall character of the area does not change. The old quarter is closed to traffic other than pedestrians or bicycles between 9 and 11 am and between 6 to 9 pm.

Hoi An By Night — At night the old quarter of Hoi An turns into a light festival with Chinese lanterns hung everywhere including the tourist boats in the river. The effect is stunning.

Japanese Bridge — The bridge was built in the early 17th century by Japanese merchants to link them with the Chinese quarters on the other side of the canal. More recently, Vietnamese and Chinese residents added a small temple to the God “Bac De Tran Vo” (Emperor of the North) to the bridge (it may be the only bridge in the world with its own temple).

Quang Thieu Assembly Hall – This assembly hall was built by Cantonese merchants in 1786. The main alter is dedicated to Quán Cong – a military general of the Three Kingdoms period in China (around 200 AD) who was revered for his acts of kindness to people in need. The tile murals tell his story. The dragon mosaic statue is the main attraction.

Tan Ky House — This house is occupied today by the seventh generation of the Vietnamese family that built it in the early 19th century. The house combines Chinese and Japanese architectural features from the period.

Part 2 to come — culinary experiences in Hoi An

Train from Hanoi to Hue — We ride the overnight train from Hanoi arriving early morning in Hue. Our first class accommodations are clean and comfortable (if not roomy) in a new sleeper car. The tracks are jolting, but the train is fast and gets us in right on time. I love sleeping on a train, but my sleep-deprived compartment companions don’t share my enthusiasm.

Hue: A Little History — After a period in the 17th and 18th centuries wracked by civil war, Nguyen Anh declared himself Emperor Gia Long in 1802 and brought unity to Vietnam, thus launching the Nguyen Dynasty – with its new capital in Hue.

The Emperor started the construction of the Imperial City in 1804 and it was finished in 1833. The Vietnam Empire during this period was strong and expansionist. But in 1847, France attacked Da Nang in an effort to protect Catholic missionaries from suppression under Emperor Thieu Tri. The French seized Saigon in 1859 and in 1872 signed a treaty with Emperor Tu Duc making Vietnam a protectorate of France.

After that, the Nguyen Dynasty continued as a puppet regime through the French colonization until the end of World War II when Ho Chi Minh declared independence for Vietnam with Hanoi as the capital.

The Imperial City — The city of Hue is located on the banks of the Song Hoang (Perfume River) just below its junction with the Song Nhung. The centerpiece of Hue (and its star attraction) is the Citadel — a vast moated and walled enclosure that surrounds the Imperial Enclosure, modeled after the Forbidden City in Beijing.

Like a great Russian doll, it is a city within a city within a city. The outermost square is the Citadel, a fortress whose exterior walls and moat surround the Imperial City and blocks of surrounding cityscape. The Imperial City is ringed by another moat and set of walls – within which lies the Forbidden Purple City, the actual home of the Emperor and his immediate family and closest advisors, and is off limits to everyone else. To round out this seemingly imprenetrable fortress, the entire citadel complex sits within a much larger square of canals surrounding the old city of Hue. Hue’s new city rises up on the opposite bank of the Perfume River.

In its heyday, the Imperial City contained 147 separate buildings surrounded by exquisite gardens. Many of the buildings outside the Forbidden Purple City were administrative offices for the Empire. The Nguyen Dynasty followed a Chinese model with a rigid hierarchy of civil and military officials flowing down from the Emperor. Only the top five in each category (civil and military) were allowed within the Forbidden Purple City.

The Citadel was heavily damaged first by the French during the conflict with the Viet Minh in 1947 and later in the month-long fighting and bombing following the Tet Offensive that destroyed much of Hue in January 1968. Today, after substantial restoration, only 20 buildings and some of the gardens remain – just enough to get a sense of the grandeur that was once the Imperial Enclosure.

Thien Mu Pagoda — We stop at the Thien Mu temple to witness the monks’ evening prayers. At the entrance is a spectacular, seven-tiered tower constructed by Emperor Thieu Tri in 1844. On the grounds are a great bell donated to the temple in 1710 and recognized as a national treasure in 2013.

Tomb of Emperor Tu Duc – Emperors of the Nguyen Dynasty were buried in elaborate temple and tomb complexes set in locations along the Perfume River south of the Imperial City. Tu Duc designed his own temple, determining its location between the river and a mountain with feng shui, and used it before his death. The complex was constructed in 1864 using forced labor. A portion of it was destroyed in intense fighting during the Battle of Hue in the Vietnam War. The tombs for the Emperor and Queen were cleverly hidden in a hill behind the temple complex and have never been located.

New Hue — Across the Perfume River is the new part of Hue, with a Le Loi Boulevard running parallel to the River and a beautiful Park and promenade along the river’s edge. Le Loi Boulevard – the equivalent of “Main Street” in Vietnamese cities – is named after a national hero Le Loi who led a popular uprising in the 15th century that reversed a Chinese invasion, and who then became Emperor Le Thai To, the first of the powerful Le Dynasty.

At night, the boulevard, the park, and the bridge across the river to the old city are lit up with colored lights and a show that changes colors on the bridge.

Boulevard Le Loi at night.

Ha Long Bay — The Bay is in the Gulf of Tonkin in the South China Sea – about 110 miles east of Hanoi and 100 miles south of the China border. Filed with over 2,000 karst islands, it is an incredible and unique visual experience — a UNESCO World Heritage Site and recently selected as one of the “New 7 Wonders of Nature.”

A karst is a limestone formation that was once compacted sea bottom that became limestone that was exposed when the seas receded and was carved over millions of years by winds and water currents into a tower. The results can be visually dramatic.

A Junk Cruise — Taking an overnight cruise in Ha Long Bay is by far the best way to enjoy the beauty of this place. Our vessel is a “Junk” (notice the outline of the Chinese Junk hull, the round portholes and the position of the three “masts”). Our accommodations are first rate, and the food and care we receive on board is superb.

The Spectacular Karsts — As we cruised into the midst of the karsts, every turn provided a new visual treat of rock outcroppings in smooth emerald waters.

Food on the Cruise — We were served a wide range of imaginatively-presented seafood dishes by our very talented on-board chef.

Sunset on Ha Long Bay — As the light starts to fade, we climb a path to the top of one of the karsts for a stunning few of the Bay and the pastel colors of the evening sunset.

Kayaking — Along the way we had a chance for a little kayaking and some monkey business around the base of the karsts.

The “Surprising Cave” — we climbed up a path to the entrance to Sung Sot Cave — known as the “Surprising” or “Amazing” Cave —for the surprise that await the first discoverers, and the amazing array of visual treats around every corner. The cave is the largest we have ever been in. It is well lit and has an easy pathway laid out across the rugged cave floor.

Oyster Farming — A major industry in the Ha Long Bay Area is farming oysters for cultured pearls (and to eat as a by-product). Making cultured pearls starts with the planting of a seed (a piece of shell from another oyster) in the oyster’s reproductive organ. The seed irritates the oyster and causes it to secrete additional shell-forming material to coat the invader as a defense.

Once seeded, the oyster is placed in special netting and lowered under water in the oyster beds. Over 2 to 3 years, the oyster covers the intruder with layer after layer of “nacre” (also known as mother-of-pearl) until it forms a pearl.

The colors of the pearls vary depending on the type of oyster and the color of their mantle. Tahitian black oysters produce black or gray pearls, South Sea oysters produce cream-colored pearls, and Akoya oysters produce white pearls.

Once the oyster has sat underwater long enough in the farm, it is brought back to the tables to be opened by a trained technician and the pearl extracted and sorted according to color, shape, and quality. Only about a third of the oysters that are implanted actually produce a pearl, and many of the pearls that are harvested are irregular in shape or have other defects. Only 10 percent of the implants yield a gem-quality pearl. Once opened, the oysters are cooked and eaten.

Next Stop: Hue – the Ancient Capital of Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh and the Mausoleum – No introduction to Hanoi can take place without a review of the life of Ho Chi Minh (affectionately called “Uncle Ho”) and the role that he played in the birth of the new Vietnam nation after World War II.

Uncle Ho was first and foremost a freedom fighter for Vietnamese independence. Born Nguyen Sinh Cung in Central Vietnam in 1890, Uncle Ho learned Chinese from his father, an imperial magistrate and Confucian scholar, and later attended French school in Hue. In 1911, he left Vietnam and, for the next 30 years, traveled widely, living in several different cities including: Paris, Moscow, Bangkok, Canton, New York, and Boston. During that time, he became fluent in several languages and became active in the communist movement – enamored particularly with Russian communism. He returned to Vietnam in 1941 to lead the Viet Minh independence movement – taking advantage of the opportunity to organize resistance to the Japanese occupation. During this period, he and the Viet Minh had support from the precursor to the CIA (the OSS).

After the Japanese surrender in August, 1945, Ho Chi Minh declared independence in September (with OSS officers at his side). However, the French moved to reassert themselves in their colonial role, which led to armed conflict with the Viet Minh, the eventual surrender of the French at the battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, and the division of Vietnam by the Geneva Conference into two states at the 17th parallel.

Ho Chi Minh led North Vietnam during the civil war that erupted between the two states, and afterwards when the U. S. entered the struggle to protect the catholic minority in South Vietnam. “Uncle Ho” died in 1969 with the civil war still in progress. Victory for the Viet Minh and reunification of Vietnam did not happen until 1975.

Party leadership, seeking to deify Uncle Ho, sent his body to Moscow for the unique soviet embalming treatment, against his expressed wishes to be cremated. His embalmed body sits today for viewing in a huge mausoleum in Hanoi on the grounds of the French-built Presidential Palace and the small wood home that Uncle Ho built as his own residence and died in.

Temple of Literature – In 1070, the Vietnamese emperor built this Confucian temple to honor Vietnam’s writers and intellectual elites. Shortly after, it became Vietnam’s first university. It is preserved today as a beautiful example of Chinese-influenced Vietnamese architecture. Students come here today to celebrate their graduation.

Hoa Lao Prison – The French built this large prison complex in the 1896 to house Vietnamese political prisoners fighting against French rule. After its gruesome period in this capacity, part of it was used to house pilots shot down during the war with America. The prison, dubbed by American’s the “Hanoi Hilton”, was home to John McCain for six years.

Most of the prison was demolished in 1993 for development, but a section was preserved as a museum. It is largely dedicated to telling the stories of Vietnamese revolutionary patriots who were housed here. There is a section covering the American prisoners and an large exhibit on the conflict with America, that provides a fairly straightforward and respectful treatment of this time from the North Vietnamese perspective.

Water Puppet Show — This is a unique Vietnamese form of entertainment that originated in villages of the Red River delta in the 11th Century. The puppets perform to traditional music in a waist deep pool of water, manipulated by bamboo poles worked underwater by puppeteers who are behind the backdrop. The stories are folk tales from rural Vietnam. Puppetry is a favorite form of entertainment in SE Asia – this Vietnamese water-borne version is a clever and captivating variant on that.

Ancient Quarter – The “36 Guild Streets” Area — In the 11th Century, after the Citadel was built as a center for royal authority, the area between the Citadel and the Red River was laid out in a pattern of 36 streets, each named after a particular craft or commodity of the guild that was based on the street. There was a cotton street (Hang Bong), a copper street (Hang Dong), a chicken street (Hang Ga), a fish sauce street (Hang Mam), a conical hat street (Hang Non), and so on.

The original streets have a few houses and temples hundreds of years old that have been restored and preserved and are open for visitors. These gorgeous buildings display the elegant crafting and fine furnishings that reflect the prosperity of those times when Hanoi was an active trading center on Vietnam’s second largest river.

The typical houses for this time were “tube houses.” They were narrow on the streetside (3 to 4 meters) (to keep the taxes assessed on frontage low) and long (up to 120 meters) — and typically two stories high. The house would have a ground-floor room in the front (which might serve as the shop or storefront). That would followed by an atrium open to the sky to get air into the center of the house. Then a kitchen and bedrooms in the back. The second floor in the front might be set up as a shrine.

Preservation is going forward on other old buildings in the Ancient Quarter. The temples are Confucian and demonstrate the heavy Chinese influence, particularly in the Northern part of Vietnam.

The Ancient Quarter is characterized by narrow streets, small buildings with storefronts that spill out onto the sidewalks, restaurants that serve customers sitting on small plastic chairs

Over the centuries, more streets have been added (now 76), and the guilds have moved around. There are still many streets where all the merchants sell the same items. But now streets specialize in electrical appliances, hardware, and other accoutrements of modern life.

1000 year mural — Hanoi celebrated the 1,000th Anniversary of its founding as the capital city by Emperor Ly Thai To in 2010. As part of the celebration, artists created a very colorful ceramic mosaic mural along the main highway out of Hanoi. The mural is 6 kms long and took 3 years to build. It may hold the title for the longest mosaic mural in the world.

Lights around the lake at night – We leave Hanoi with a final nighttime walk around Hoan Kiem Lake. The lake is colorfully lit in the evenings, creating a great venue for an evening stroll and the weather is perfect.

Next Stop — Ha Long Bay – We head next to Ha Long Bay on the South China Sea – A UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature. It is a 2 to 3 hour drive due east from Hanoi.

The cultural leap from Vientiane, Laos to Hanoi, Vietnam is greater than would be expected with a short one-hour plane ride. The drive into the city from the airport brings us face-to-face with one overriding reality of life in Hanoi: the ubiquity of the motorcycle.

The pace in Hanoi is hectic and intense, made more-so by the uncoreographed meshing of competing flows of motorcycles at intersections. Negotiating traffic is an intensely personal exercise: they (the motorcycles) go and you (the street crosser) go at cross purposes, but miraculously without incident. It takes a combination of courage and recklessness.

Hanoi is a city of 8 million people (equal to the entire population of Laos) in a nation of 97 million. Hanoi’s old city is old! It had its 1000th birthday ten years ago. [More on Vietnam culture in a future post].

Underlying this modern rush of humanity is a centuries-old, heavily-
Chinese-influenced, style of life that is elegant and artistically sophisticated – and precisely tuned to the finer things — silks, cuisine, architecture, music, painting.

And layered on that, the activities of daily living in a simpler world that time has past by.

Dinner with friends — Our first night in Hanoi we are treated to dinner at a Cha Ca restaurant by friends from the YTri program now living and working in Hanoi.

Ch ca is fish (catfish in this case) sautéed in turmeric sauce, with dill and spring onion and noodles – a Hanoi specialty!! A wonderful introduction to Hanoi cuisine for our first night in the city.