Day 8...Soft White Underbelly of Hanoi

Day 8...Soft White Underbelly of Hanoi
A very special Rose greeted us in the morning to guide us around Hanoi. Our guide for the day, Rose was arranged by Robert Kalachian of Giving It Back to Kids..the central Vietnam wheel chair distribution partner. What a wonderful guide Rose turned out to be. Small in stature but bold and adventurous in nature! Rose kept us going at a breakneck pace. Rose is married to Cory an expat from Minnesota who came to Hanoi to stay a couple of weeks in 2004 and still remains as a happily married man. Hanoi can do that to you.
Rose speaks perfect English even though she has only been to the states one time.
Our first stop was the Hanoi Hilton prison where John McCain was imprisoned from 1967 to 1973. It is located smack in the middle of Hanoi and served as a prison from the early 1900's. At first for Vietnamese revolutionaries..both men and women. And later as a prison run by the French during their occupation of the country. Its last use was to hold US prisoners during the Vietnam war. As with the killing fields, this place gives one the chills. The stark and dark are ominous to look at. Long benches with ankle irons running the full length to keep the prisoners in check. The massive guillotine ,complements of the French, located in the court yard. Finally, the quarters occupied by the US servicemen which were described in the writings as being more humane and civilized. I need to read McCain's book to compare stories.
The way the North Vietnamese portray the war is interesting. The pictures and writings on the prison walls were all focused on the various war protests that were held in the States and a subtle reference to the enlightened nature of the activists.
No matter where we have been in Vietnam there is absolutely no anti American sentiment and virtually no reference to the war. When asked about it, Rose said that the Vietnamese people only look forward not back. I think that is a great approach to life.
After the prison, we went to the cultural museum. It is a beautiful complex of gardens and pagodas that served as a cultural university for many years. We learned a little bit about how the students were taught and tested. It seemed a lot like Cambridge...lots of one on one and very little testing until the end of the program.
After the museum, Rose took us to her favorite Vietnamese restaurant. She asked us how adventurous we were. Of course, we said bring it on. Bring it on Rose did. We went to Highway 4..on on place not far from where she lives. We climbed up to the 3rd floor and sat in traditional Vietnamese style at a long sunken table where we sat at ground level. Rose did the ordering. We started with deep fried crickets. We could have chased those down with grasshoppers but that would have been too much protein.
We had water buffalo meat, green mango salad, green papaya salad...both are my favorites. Next up was an order of dog meat. Yes, Danny had to try it. Once in on on life time is more than enough. We had some plum and apricot wine. We stopped short of ordering a shot of the gecko and scorpion wine.quite a tasty repast.
After lunch, we went to the market place area. Shop after shop of anything and everything.Every street specializes in a different product. There is silk street,coffee street, watch street etc. I wanted to pick up some Vietnamese instruments so of course we walked to music street. Bingo...I got two types of guitar like instruments, a fiddle like thing, assorted noise making instruments and four really cool antique opium pipes to add to my collection. I tried to ship all of the instruments to the ranch so that we can have some rollicking jam sessions. They wouldn't ship the big stuff so now we are lugging all the instruments around with us. We call ourselves the " Chasing the McDaniels Band"
After shopping we headed to chicken street for dinner. As the name implies nothing but chicken barbecued on this street. Rose took us to her favorite stand. They cook over small rectangular stands using a very hot burning wood. The chicken is placed over the open fire on skewers and then heavily basted with honey. They also flatten big loaves of french bread and toast that over the fire with honey also basted on it. We sat at a little table and they brought us mound after mound of chicken and bread. Incredibly good.
Rose wasn't yet through with us so she took us to an area that serves home made beer for 30 cents a glass. What a hoot. On on French bistro Hanoi style. Every one grabs a little miniature plastic chair and sits out on the street corner with scooters and cars whizzing by. Miraculously no one gets run over. We are surrounded by a hodge podge of eccentric ex pats that somehow always seem to find places like these. Great conversations were had as we sipped our beer and observed the street scene.
Rose walked us back to our hotel at a pace that could match any Olympic speed walker. She doesn't tolerate slow pokes.
Back at the hotel, we are thoroughly sated and pleasantly exhausted.
Yes, we have experienced the soft white underbelly of Hanoi.