Longevity, one hundred ways

I woke up to the sounds of Hanoi at about 6:30 this morning, turned over and slept until about 9:00 am. I was refreshed when I got up; sleep deprivation before flying 24 hours is definitely the key to fighting jet lag! By the time I was ready for breakfast it was nearly 10:30 and the restaurant was serving lunch. I was the only guest there.

Since I'm trying to be vegetarian I had a breakfast of sauteed vegetables and delicious Vietnamese coffee at the hotel restaurant. Everything that I've read says that it's possible to be vegetarian here but so far I'm finding it rather challenging. I'm compromising and eating fish but most of the seafood I've come across so far is of the shellfish variety so it's not very filling and will probably give me high cholestorol if I continue.


This evening I was told by a friendly Australian woman that the hotel breakfast was 'not good' and that I should go to KOTO which is around the corner from the Van Mieu Hotel. I think my Australian friend is probably right about the hotel's breakfast and as it turns out, I am supposed to eat at KOTO tomorrow morning. KOTO is raved about in Lonely Planet. The restaurant is staffed by former street kids and people who are physically handicapped. The owners' aim is to train and give them work experience in the service industry. I'm looking forward to having breakfast there though I'll miss Huy who was my waiter this morning. He was very friendly. He asked me all kinds of questions about Canada and helped me with my Vietnamese pronunciation. He seemed pleased that I was trying to speak Vietnamese.

Appart from the time needed to memorize vocabulary and structure, intonation is my biggest challenge. This afternoon I met a university student at the Museum of Vietnamese History whose name is Bao Chau and whose major is English. She told me that if the last part of her name is mis-pronounced, it means 'buffalo'. Apparently it was the in-thing to do in grade school to mis-pronounce her name. I'm pretty sure that I called her buffalo about ten times before getting it right: buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo, but in Vietnamese.

Bao Chau's English is excellent. She's 19 and has been studying it for 7 years. Her goal is to become an English teacher here. She'd like to do a university exchange to an English speaking country but she doesn't think she'll be able to afford it. She works several jobs to pay rent, eat, and send money back to her family who lives in the country. She bikes 20km to get to work at the museum.

More than anything else, what I saw at the Museum of Vietnamese History makes it apparent to me that Vietnam is still a tourism toddler. I saw excellently curated exhibits about the Cham people, the Neolithic and Late Neolithic eras, the Dong Son people, and the Viet victory against the Mongols' 400 ship navy in 1288. There were some spectacular artificats, including 8 foot high statues of parrots on the backs of tortoises and an enormous soapstone epitaph to Le Loi, the warlord and nobleman who pushed out the Chinese, unified the Viet people and consequently, became their first Emperor in the 15th century. Unfortunately, 95% of the curation was in Vietnamese. Fortunately, some things, like a tapestry titled 'Longevity written 100 ways' don't need a lot of explanation. Longevitiy is sought-after by the Vietnamese and the tortoise is a favourite Vietnamese symbol because it is a long-lived creature.

I think it's worth noting that in addition to seeing the Ngoc Son Temple (Jade Temple) which is in part dedicated to physicians, I did try to see tortoises near Hoan Kiem Lake but had no luck. They seem to be hiding. It could be the heat - it was very hot today but not out of Ottawa's league. Ottawa definitely gives Vietnam a run for its money in the heat department. There isn't a huge differene in temperature or humidity. There is however, a difference in rain fall.

I had dinner at a very good restaurant called Brothers Cafe that has jacked up its prices since it's been listed in Lonely Planet. It's a beautiful spot and locals with money, and Japanese investors, go there to see and be seen. They serve a great buffet where I ate seafood kebob, eel soup, seafood cari, squid pate, and yummy desserts. It started to rain just as I was finishing dinner. It was what I would call a monsoon. I tried waiting it out but finally gave in, put on my rain poncho, and waded out into what was left of the street. I opted to take a taxi although the hotel isn't all that far from the restaurant. My taxi had to stop at the end of Pho (street) Van Mieu and Quac Gam Giam (street) because the water was too high. When I hopped out, I realized that the water had gotten up to my knees. I waded in the water the rest of the way to the hotel. The rain stopped an hour and a half after it began and the street that I am now looking at is empty of water though it has again started to rain. My Australian acquaintance told me that this is the first time in her month-long adventure that it has rained like this and that the locals don't think of this as their true rainy season.

Vietnam really is a country of contrasts and a country that is moving forward: I bought silk pants (at a store where a girl had a cat on a leash.. perhaps hunting for rats..) and a silk shawl today and saw Hoa Lo Prison, previously known as the Maison Centrale, and later known as the Hanoi Hilton. It's a prison complex that was built in 1886 by the French and used by them until their departure in 1954. The Vietnamese used the prison as a detention facility for POWs during the Vietnam War - what they call the American War. I'll write more about that visit tomorrow morning. It deserves its own post.