HANOI – sights and more

Such an amazing city, especially in comparison to Jakarta, my residence. The total population of Greater Hanoi, that is the administrative region, was 7.1m in 2014, or 2.9m for the urban part and the remainder spread out over "rural" Hanoi. Nearly three million people, a great many cars and even more motorcycles and scooters in the city proper, and yet no traffic jams. And development appears to take place at an astonishing speed—the new Noi Bai airport and a new six-lane highway connecting it to Hanoi; new roads inside the town and flyovers being constructed; new high-rise offices, shopping centres, hotels, apartments. Exactly four years ago I was here on a project-assignment, the hotel I stayed (in the old town) was at six floors the largest building in the narrow street, now it is dwarfed by a fancy recent addition to the Hanoi hotel-world. And in contrast to Jakarta, the developmental activities appear to work as intended and are completed on time—the new highway, for example, is of superb quality and includes a magnificent bridge across the Red River.

Located on the right bank of the Red River, Hanoi marked its one-thousand years as a city in October 2010. It had been inhabited long before, since somewhere around 3000 BC in fact, but it was Emperor Ly Thai To who in 1010 moved his capital there. He renamed it Thang Long (Soaring Dragon) as he claimed to have seen a dragon rising from the Red River. In 1802 the capital was moved to Hué by Emperor Gia Long, founder of the Nguyen dynasty. In 1831 Thang Long was named Hanoi, and from 1902 to 1953 it served as the capital of French Indochina. And finally, after 30 years of war, Hanoi became the capital of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1976.

Sights worth a visit.

The nearly four kilometres long Ceramic Road, based on the idea of journalist Nguyen Thu Thuy to transform the dyke system around Hanoi into a ceramic mosaic in celebration of 1000-years-Hanoi, was officially entered into the Guinness Book of World Records on 5 October 2010 as the largest mosaic in the world. It could even be called an international cooperative effort as foreign contributions can also be identified—see for instance the Spanish mosaic with its bottle of Rioja 2010 and the text Vamos a la Playa; and a bit further down Dutch windmills and tulips can also be identified. Definitely worth a visit.

In my previous blog I already mentioned that a stroll through the Old Town is highly enjoyable. Its 36 streets, some wide and others very narrow, are full of life. In the past these streets were arranged by trade—textiles, silverwork, shoes and sandals, and the like. Nowadays less so, but the exiting and intoxicating atmosphere and beautifully organised chaos is still strikingly evident.

The Ho Chi Minh Museum, as the name implies, is dedicated to a single person: Ho Chi Minh. Born Nguyen That Thanh, he adopted the name Ho Chi Minh, meaning the Bringer of Light, when he founded the Viet Minh, a communist-dominated independence movement, to fight the Japanese. Ho Chi Minh was the leader of the Vietnamese nationalist movement and the President of North Vietnam from 1954 till his death in 1969.

The museum is dedicated to his many contributions in the fields of culture, education and the arts, and his devotion to the national liberation of the Vietnamese people, and contributing to the common struggle of peoples for peace, national independence, democracy and social progress.[1]

The interesting aspect of the museum is that a wider and more multivariegated view than the politically correct version of UNESCO, is presented.

A bewildering assemblage of objects and images is shown. What to make, for instance, of these photos (shown below) reproduced on glass and accessible from both sides.

  

The interpretation of the ones below seems clear: …common struggle of peoples for peace, national independence, democracy and social progress.

Definitely worth a visit, and if the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum is open, I do recommend you join the silent queue of people filing past his tomb.

I also recommend a visit to the Temple of Literature. Within the temple the first university of Vietnam, the Imperial Academy, was established to educate the nobles, royalty, bureaucrats and other members of the elite. Founded in 1070 by Emperor Ly Thanh Tong, the temple, one of Hanoi's finest historical and cultural sites, is dedicated to Confucius.

Main entrance

 

 Serene tranquility inside the compound

 

Confucius

Hoa Lo Prison main gate

For those of us who remember Jane Fonda as an anti-war protester, a visit to the Hoa Lo Prison, or the Hanoi Hilton as it was called by the American prisoners of war, a visit would be interesting.

It is a bit simple in its portrayal of "how well we treated the American POWs" compared to "how badly the French treated our independence fighters", but worth a visit anyway.

---

[1] UNESCO, Records of the General Conference, 24^th Session, Paris 1987

Welcome to HANOI and its delicious food

Em ỏi… very likely the first words in Vietnamese one hears upon landing. The curl on top of the "o" makes the sound veer towards "eu", but not too much. When I first heard it and had understood that it was to call someone's attention, I thought it was an informal way of doing so. Something like Hey you! But it is not, not informal, that is. It is the proper way to address a man or woman younger than oneself. An older woman is addressed as Chi ỏi and an older man as Anh ỏi. At my age I don't have to memorise those two as age-wise I'm in the top five percent of the population.

Hoan Kiem lake area at night

Old town 1 and 2

I've been in Hanoi now for slightly more than a week and enjoy every minute of it. For logistical reasons I'm staying in a hotel in Dong Da district bordering Hoan Kiem district on the west, which to me is the main tourist centre of Hanoi, as Hoan Kiem Lake and the old town are located within it. The lake, during the day, is a most enjoyable place to stroll and relax on one of the many benches nicely shaded by the trees. And evenings it is teeming with life, young couples and families unwinding after a day at work, while groups of elderly are doing calisthenics. The old town is a beautifully chaotic treasure of old houses and gnarled trees, shops and eateries spilling out on the sidewalks, motorcycles, scooters, cars, blaring horns and people, especially people. Fairly small, the old town consists of some 36 streets only. Originally, specialised merchants and trades were concentrated in a particular street. To some extent that can still be observed although in a watered down form.

From the number of eateries and the number of customers one could easily conclude that one half of the population is serving food to the other half. And what lovely food it is.

My favourites follow below:

Phở, the ubiquitous noodle soup with a rich, clear broth made from a long boiling of different meats.

Bún chả is a dish of grilled pork and noodle, which is thought to have originated from Hanoi. Bun cha is served with grilled fatty pork over a plate of white rice noodle and lots of green herbs with a side dish of dipping sauce.

Bánh cuốn is made from a thin, wide sheet of steamed fermented rice batter filled with seasoned ground pork, minced wood ear mushrooms. The dipping sauce is called nurac cham.

The rice sheet of bánh cuốn is extremely thin and delicate. It is made by steaming a slightly fermented rice batter on a cloth which is stretched over a pot of boiling water.

Bánh cuốn

Making of bánh cuốn sheet

Bánh my, a term for a type of bread that is derived from the French baguette. Typical fillings are roast pork belly, pork sausage, pork liver pâté, fried egg, to which is added fresh cucumber slices, cilantro, sliced chilies, spicy chili sauce and mayonnaise.

Papaya salad, made from shredded young papaya, herbs, various meats, such as slices of pork, pork liver or jerky, herbs, and with a vinegar based dressing.

Banh xeo, a flat pancake made of rice flour with turmeric and filled with shrimp, fatty pork, sliced onions, and button mushrooms. It is eaten with lettuce and various local herbs and dipped in nurac cham. Rice papers can be used as wrappers for the banh xeo and the accompanying vegetables. 

Nem cuon, fresh spring rolls, and nem ran, crispy deep fried spring rolls.

Lẩu is a Vietnamese rendition of steam boat with assorted vegetables, meats, seafood, and spicy herbs.

In my personal opinion, the best place to enjoy the full variety of Vietnamese cuisine is Quan An Ngon. In its four restaurants in Hanoi more than 300 local and street food dishes will give you an unforgettable experience.

Quan An Ngon, addresses in Hanoi:

1.       18 Phan Boi Chau

2.       34 Phan Ding Phung

3.       R4-B2 Vincom Royal City

4.       25T2 Trung Hoa Nhan Chinh

GENERATIONS

My great-grandfather was born 200 years ago… two hundred, that's correct! What a year that was! Napoleon met his Waterloo and Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies—now Indonesia—blew its top in the biggest explosive eruption in recorder history. Louis XVIII was brought back as King of France, and in Prussia Otto von Bismarck was born on April 1^st. And Saartjie Baartman died on 29 December. She was famous for her very large buttocks[1] and was displayed in freak shows in Europe under the name of Hottentot Venus.[2] The modern version of a freak show is reality TV such as Keeping Up with the Kardashians, and incidentally, Kim K's buttocks, although not of Saartjie's size, are quite ample, too.

Quite a colourful list of happenings. And maybe this did contribute to my great-grandfather's extra­ordinary life. But just imagine, two hundred years. A statistically-normal age gap of four generations is around 90 years. In my case the four-generation gap is 125 years, a whole "generation" was thus added without any visible bodies to show for it.

Saartjie Baartman, the Hottentot Venus

Great-grandfather, as recounted by my grandmother, was an excellent swimmer and an outstanding horseman. His third marriage, of which I'm a descendant, was to the artistic daughter of the then famous author, Karl Gutzkow. She, a penniless painter and 35 years his junior, instantly earned the contempt of her family. You have sold your soul, they scornfully told her. But the real reason, according to my grandmother, their only child, was that the family had hoped to be included in the will of the rich uncle—his sister's son had married the older Gutzkow daughter Clara.

Anyway, it hadn't gotten as far as a will yet. Great-grandfather, Jean Doré Wunderly, but called Père by his wife and daughter, was far from dead and produced a daughter, my grandmother Dora. A very lively and strong-willed lady who likely took after her father. He had made a name for himself by diving off the Rhine bridge in Mainz; later when managing the tropical products import firm in Amsterdam he became the talk of the town when he rode his horse up the stairs of the Gentlemen's Club. He had inherited the firm in Amsterdam from an uncle and it became the source of his great wealth. Born a German, he was a pre-European as he acquired the Dutch nationality for tax and administrative reasons, and when he foresaw a decline in the tropical oils and fats prospects, he sold out and left for Paris where he became a French national.

During the French-Prussian war of 1870 he did, however, discover that he could not stand the French aggressively patriotic view of themselves and their fellow Europeans, and built himself a house in Bühlen, Switzerland. It is there that he met his to-be third wife, and where eventually my grandmother was born.

My grandmother who is the source of this information said that he was rather difficult and very strict in enforcing his wishes on those around him, but also interesting, and intellectually and physically alert. A nice epitaph, I think. 

---

[1] Called steatopygiam a large accumulation of fat in and around the buttocks.

[2] Hottentot was then the name of the Khoikhoi people of southern Africa; now it is considered an offensive name.