Hanoi is a seriously beautiful and fascinating city. French colonial architecture mixed in with all the jumble and noise that the historic city offers. Powerful history, some of which is true. Incredible food, a mix of traditional Vietnamese with a overlay of French. People smiling everywhere. We fell in love with Hanoi when we first came in 2001 and while there have certainly been changes, we still love it.

Where to start? We spent five days here, and during the entire time it was overcast, cool, typically misting, sweater and even jacket weather. I’m a sun worshipper at heart, but even I loved the atmosphere created by the gloomy weather. We stayed just a quick block from Hoan Kiem Lake, the scenic lake that is essentially the focal point of the city. Early mornings I’d go running around the lake along with untold numbers of Vietnamese walking, jogging, playing badminton, practicing tai chi, doing line dancing. The rest of the day there were always photographers out catching the eerie beauty of the lake.

Part of our love affair with the city was based on staying at the Metropole Hotel, the place to stay in Hanoi since it was built in 1901. Everyone from Bill Clinton to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have stayed here, and yes, it was home to Jane Fonda during her notorious visit in 1972. It remains a beauty, a colonial masterpiece, with it’s own interesting history. Just a couple years ago, during a partial renovation, they discovered the old bomb shelter that was built in the early 1960s and used many times, particularly during the Christmas bombing campaign in 1968. A fun little opportunity is offered to hotel guests to tour the bomb shelters so Mark & I headed down there one night. Let’s just say I wouldn’t have wanted to spend much time down there.

Another piece of history worth exploring was the Hoa Lo Prison, known to American POWs as the “Hanoi Hilton.” Long before John McCain ended up there, it had been built by the French in the late 19th century to control the Vietnamese, and most of the museum is built to document the mistreatment and horrendous conditions Vietnamese patriots were subjected to; a guillotine displayed prominently makes the case pretty vividly.

On the other hand, one section is dedicated to the compassionate, humane treatment afforded to the American POWs once the French were dislodged and the Vietnamese took control of the prison. As they explain in introducing some of the photos, “the Vietnamese government created the best living conditions that they could for the
US pilots,” given the economic conditions they faced. There are pictures of POWs (including a young John McCain) receiving medical care, watching movies, playing chess, and just generally having a great time.

My memory from stories that came out when the POWs came home wasn’t quite so benign, so I figured I’d look at what he had to say about it. According to Wikipedia, “Although McCain was badly wounded, his captors refused to treat his injuries, beating and interrogating him to get information; he was given medical care only when the North Vietnamese discovered that his father was a top admiral.” As McCain himself said after he was released, explaining the anti-American statement he’d ultimately agreed to make, “I had learned what we all learned over there: Every man has his breaking point. I had reached mine.” Not quite the picnic the museum puts forward.

Another highlight in Hanoi is the Temple of Literature. Established in 1070 AD, it is dedicated to Confucius and honors Vietnam’s finest scholars and men (sic) of literary accomplishment. The country’s first university was founded there in 1076, and the site remains an island of calm in a boisterous city. Of course, it’s hard to imagine a major site honoring scholars and literary giants in the U.S., but it works in Vietnam.

Otherwise our time in Hanoi was the typical blend of long walks, great food, and just drinking in all the flavors and smells and sounds that the city has to offer.

It’s hard to leave, but this is our last stop in Vietnam. We’d expected to go to Halong Bay, and perhaps north to Sapa to do some hiking. Between the cool, still-wintery weather (for Vietnam), though, and problems with Mark’s knee, we decided instead to head up to Hong Kong. For now, then, we’re done with Vietnam but I suspect we’ll be back in a couple years when the weather is pleasant here in the north to renew our love affair with the country.

We spent a quick two days in Danang as we work our way north through Central Vietnam. As Lonely Planet points out, though its port makes it a major economic center for the country, it isn’t much of a tourist destination; there’s just not much in terms of sights and activities and all that. Still, we wanted to stop by at least, since it had a highly rated Novitel hotel at a good price and just to see this place that was such a hub of activity during the American War.

And we got pretty much what we expected. The hotel is a 36-floor high-rise right on the Han River with spectacular views. The most memorable thing about the city, for us anyway, was the way the city has designed and decorated the bridges across the river. One of them is made up like a huge sea serpent, while they’re all brightly lit at night with shifting colors. Made for a beautiful view, at night at least.

Otherwise there wasn’t a lot. There’s a huge beach we walked to – goes on for well over a mile – but the day we were there was quite overcast and so it was pretty much empty. Not much of a food scene though we did find a good Italian restaurant where the Italian chef came out to chat a bit.

Then it was time to leave. In some ways that was the most interesting part of the stop. We decided on the three-hour-ish public bus to go from Danang to Hue, which can always be both something of a mystery and an adventure. In this case it was a surprisingly long taxi ride to the bus station – we were pretty certain there’d been a misunderstanding and was taking us somewhere else since a bus station is rarely that far from the center of the city – and then, once we were at the bus station, a total mystery of how to find a bus to Hue. It’s not like there’s a central hall where you buy tickets; instead there were dozens and dozens of windows in smaller buildings and everyone trying to grab your bag to get you into their bus.

Eventually we found a small 30-seat bus that was leaving in 10 minutes and paid our $3.35 each (I know, that tells you what kind of service it’s going to be) for the trip. The bus pulls out on schedule and with a bunch of empty seats; we’d assumed it would stay there until all the seats were filled. Instead it pulls out and then just crawls along – like two or three miles per hour – trying to fill up those seats. For nearly an hour. You try to convince yourself this is an adventure, this is how things work in Vietnam. The problem is that you have no idea how long this is going to take and there is no one to ask. Everyone else on the bus knows what’s going on, but they’re Vietnamese and no one speaks enough English to explain. So you sit there. Wondering.

Finally, the seats are nearly all full and we take off. Now it’s a lovely ride – open windows, pleasant breeze, beautiful rice fields and lakes and big hills. And we’re off to Hue. More on that soon.