Viet-Cam tour – Final leg
Hanoi
which was the capital of North Vietnam is now the capital of unified
Vietnam. We can see here a blend of
tradition and modernism what with the tiny plastic chairs and stools scattered
at the roadside stalls and tall narrow Vietnamese houses along with French
colonial buildings and skyscrapers in the Old quarter. Our first visit here was to the Temple of
Literature, one of the temples of Confucius, and home of the nation’s first
university. The temple was built in 1070
and was reconstructed during the subsequent dynasties and major restorations
have taken place as late as in 2000. The
temple is also featured on the 100,000 dong note. It was here, in the
medieval era, that the philosophy of Confucianism and literature was taught,
and we can see the names of all scholars who studied here and got doctorate,
etched into a series of stone tablets.
After years of study, students were allowed to take the first-degree
examinations held once every three years. Those who qualified in this
exam were named bachelors. A year later, they would travel to the capital to
take part in a further set of examinations. Those who qualified here were
awarded a doctorate. As a Ph.D., a
scholar was then eligible to join the ranks of the mandarins. We have in the
temple tablets of Doctors from 1442 palace exam. The temple
From
the Temple of Literature we went to Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, a tall pillared marble
building modelled after Lenin’s crypt in Moscow. Here the embalmed body is on display in
plexiglass casing, and a dress code of long sleeves and pants is required to
visit. The mausoleum was closed for a
couple months, a regular feature every year when the body goes to Russia for
maintenance and opened only day before, our guide said. In the
We next visited Hoa Lo Prison Museum. This prison was originally built by the
French to house Vietnamese political prisoners and later used for American POWs
who sarcastically called it the Hanoi Hilton.
Major part of the prison was later torn down to make way for the residential
building and the rest was turned into a museum. The museum grounds contain the communal jail
cells, solitary cells, and the
guillotine used by the French and there is also a lot of information on
Vietnam's long battle against France's colonial rule.
After lunch we went on a
cycle-rickshaw ride touring the old quarter of Hanoi for an hour. The narrow alleys, plenty of street food on
offer and number of pavement vendors selling fruits and vegetables was
reminiscent of Indian street scene but with the difference that the streets
were litter free and clean without potholes and overhanging wires. After the
cycle-rickshaw ride, we went to Ngoc
Son Temple, also called as the Temple of the Jade Mountain, which is built on a small island, called Jade
Island, in Hoan Kiem Lake. The lake marks
the historical centre of ancient Hanoi and is a focal point for its public life.
The lake is also one of the scenic spots in the city and so it is said that if
the Temple of Literature is the leading cultural and historical site
in Hanoi, Ngoc Son Temple is the most scenic temple of the
city. The temple is dedicated to military leader Tran Hung Dao who
defeated an armed force of 300,000 soldiers sent by Mongolian Emperor Kublai
Khan in the 13th century to invade Vietnam. Besides his shrine, there are also
shrines for scholar Van Xuong and Confucian master Nguyen Van Sieu. The temple has also some ancient artefacts
including ceramics and a preserved specimen of a giant turtle found in
the lake weighing 250kg. The
Next day we vacated our room
in the Hotel and left with hand luggage to join an overnight cruise in Halong
Bay. Rest of the luggage we left in the
custody of the hotel for collection next day.
Ha Long Bay (also"Halong
Bay") is in northern Vietnam, 170
km east of Hanoi. The bay is famous for
its scenic ocean topography and is included in lists of natural wonders
of the world. Halong Bay
is in the Gulf of Tonkin and is located in Ha Long city. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and large
parts of Ha Long Bay are officially protected from development. In Ha long Bay,
there are around 1969 limestone monolithic islands rising spectacularly from
the sea. Most of the islands were formed over 500 million years ago and each
island has a massive amount of trees. There are several large
Oasis Bay was our cruise
boat. It had 3 decks, 18 fully equipped
en-suite luxury cabins with balcony, a bar, a restaurant besides dining area
and sundeck. After the welcome drinks we were shown to our cabin. Lunch was served as the boat was cruising the
bay, skirting round various islands.
There were other boats, big and small, besides ours doing the
rounds. As we surveyed the assembled
guests we noted that there was an Indian couple with their teen-age daughter
and had our seats changed to their adjacent ones and enjoyed their company in
dinner that night and at brunch next morning.
They are from Bengal and now stationed in Jakarta, Indonesia where Surya
Kant Chakraborthy, the head of the family, was working. In the afternoon the boat anchored at Frog Pond area
where a few went kayaking and some took to swimming while we did the watching
from the upper deck soaking in the soothing scenery. Evening there was a cooking demonstration
where Rajam joined the chef to learn a popular dish of Vietnam, spring roll.
After dinner we retired to bed. In the
night the ship was only rocking back and forth in a fixed spot and we could see
the lights of the distant boats which were also rooted to their spots, engaged
in a similar exercise. In the morning there was a Tai-Chi session which was
attended by Rajam only. There was also a
visit to Sung Sot Cave in Bo Hon Island, the biggest cave in the Bay. As it involved climbing 600 steps, a part of them quite steep, we
didn’t go for it. Brunch was served at 10 a.m. as the boat was cruising back to
harbour and we landed in Ha Long harbour at about noon.
We went back to the Hotel in
Hanoi, where we checked in again, collecting our luggage, as our flight back to
Sydney was only at 11:50 p.m. Hanoi E Central Hotel was the hotel of stay in
Hanoi. We had a few problems with the
hotel. The room allotted on arrival on 9th
Dec, was a small one, so small that we struggled to keep our luggage. But for the few hours stay after return from
Hanoi they allotted a spacious room with a good view which made us feel bad. Further the lift operated from the first
floor and we had to climb the staircase for going up to room or going down to
street. But one redeeming feature is
they tried to help us and apologized for allotting the small room in the first
instance and gave a take-away for the night.
The tour on the whole was pleasant and we left for Sydney with happy
memories. And to cap it, the flight was only half-full and we could shift to
empty seats in the back to sleep well and arrive in Sydney without any jet-lag.
Photos taken in this leg of
the tour can be seen in Flickr album “Hanoi” @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/sam-sekar/albums/72157689878023741. Photos taken in entire tour can be seen in
Flickr album “Vietnam Cambodia tour” @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/sam-sekar/albums/72157691274909395.
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