Vietnam Day 7: Hanoi.

Today we were up bright and early to get to Train Street on time to see the train go through. I saw this propaganda poster celebrating 95 years of communism in Vietnam on the way and it was yet another echo of North Korea. Hanoi also has a statue of Lenin in the middle of the city.

On the first day of the trip, I asked Robin if we could go to Train Street. Most people on the bus hadn’t heard of it, but the rest of us were keen. And now here we were!

Train Street is one of the must-sees of Hanoi. You can see how narrow the street is, even before you factor in a train running down the middle of it. Cafės line the edges, and people come to sip a coffee and watch the train go by 2 inches from their noses.

Here’s where I had a run-in with Jen.
On the way in, Robin said to us that he’d booked seats and tables for us at one of the cafės. “The owners have to pay rent, so it’s important that you buy a coffee or something. If you don’t want a coffee, just buy a bottle of water. Just something to help them out.”

Not a big ask. A coffee is only $2AUS. As you all know, I’m frugal, but a couple of dollars to pay for a spot 2 inches from a moving train is good value in anyone’s book.

But no. We had ordered our coffees and we were chatting, when a disturbance on our left caught our attention. Jen was loudly proclaiming, “But I don’t WANT anything!”

The coffee shop owner left her and went over to Robin, who came back with him and had a word to Jen, who ended up ordering a coffee. Once Robin and the owner had gone, she started grandstanding about how outrageous it all was.

She moved closer to me as she was complaining.
“For Gods sake Jen, it’s $2,” I said. “ These people have to make a living.”

No, Frogdancer, that’s not the point,” she said. “The point is that I didn’t want a coffee.”

I decided to be blunt. We were all getting so tired of her.

No, YOU’RE missing the point,” I said. “ The point is that we’re renting the space in the front of his shop to see something we can’t see anywhere else. The rent we pay is $2 for a cup of coffee. If you don’t want to pay, you should never have left the bus.”

She took a tiny step back and began to justify herself when the train’s horn blared. Thank god! Everyone forgot everything else and we lifted our phones and waited for the train.

How incredible was that? It’s so dangerous and so exciting! We saw 2 trains, then we headed off to see one of the oldest universities in the world.

The Hanoi university was established in 1076 and, if it wasn’t for the royal family leaving Hanoi in 1802 and taking the uni with them, it would have been the oldest continuously operating uni in the world. That honour is for Bologna in Italy.

There are 2 small temples on the street outside, at the outer borders of the property. Even the king and queen, when they rode past, had to get off their horses and walk, to show respect for the knowledge within.

The first part of the uni is all original. Sadly, the back end of it was bombed to oblivion during the war, because it was very close to the train station.

Robin showing the university is on the 100,000 dong note. This is worth $6 in Australian dollars.

See the fishes at the top? These symbolise the normal students. They turn into dragons when they graduate.

And on we went to another courtyard. See the bonsai? They’re everywhere here.

Having a child go to university is still a source of pride for Vietnamese families, but it was even more rare back in the day. When a boy graduated – because girls weren’t allowed to go to school until 1910 – he had his name engraved here.

The dragons! Here are where the classrooms used to be.

Here’s Robin gesticulating wildly as he explains the symbolism of the sculpture. It’s about yin and yang… opposites helping each other. The turtle symbolises long life, while the crane is beauty. When there are floods, the turtle lets the crane rest on its back. When there is drought, the crane carries the turtle to water.

Confucius.

The doorways of most south-east Asian buildings are like this. It’s because humans know to step over, but spirit ghosts don’t, so they can’t enter the house.

Instead of a school bell they had a drum that beat at the end of every hour to signify the end of a period.

It’s so peaceful here, but in the background you can hear constant Horn beeping from the traffic .

The Clintons came to visit here in the year 2000 so they made sure they had this part finished so it looked decent .

This is a shrine honouring the headmaster of the university 700 years ago.

He taught the son of the king and then when the boy became king,  he told him about corrupt ministers but the king didn’t listen and didn’t fire them.  The headmaster resigned and went and opened up a school for the poor people. He’s like a second Confucius in Vietnam.

Then we were taken to see how Vietnam’s national art – lacquer – is done. It’s beautiful stuff, and unlike Chinese lacquer which has 3 layers, it has 10 layers. It takes 3 months to make an item from start to finish.

I couldn’t help it. This was the first thing I saw when I walked into the showroom and after 15 minutes of denial, it found a home in my suitcase.

Any parties that are held in the countryside , any man who doesn’t have a son has to sit with the women. There’s 52% boys in Vietnam.

After lunch, we were given an hour to walk around and see a bit of Hanoi and maybe do some shopping. 

I walked up to the cathedral to orient myself, then set off. On the way I met John from the group. We walked and talked and got thoroughly lost.  After a while I tried Google Maps, but it led us in the wrong direction. Finally I said to John, “Let’s get a rickshaw and head for the cathedral.”

I bargained him down on the price, saving us a whole $3, and within a few minutes we were back on familiar ground.

The WhatsApp group was full of people in the same predicament. Amazingly enough, we all arrived at the meeting place on time. Phew!

I’m not sure how fresh those undies would smell after being dried among all the exhaust fumes!

Pretty much all my life I’ve had short hair. A year ago, I decided to let it grow to see what it would be like.

Bloody awful, as it turns out. It was always in my face and driving me crazy. So while most of the group went to see Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, I decided to find a hairdresser and get my hair cut.

In Hanoi, when a hairdresser washes your hair, you lie down. So much more comfortable than sitting in a chair and leaning back. I also received a scalp massage. Lovely!

And here I am, back to normal. Funnily enough, the first people I saw when I stepped out on the street were Robin, Maree and Tina. They were on their way to get a massage. They applauded when they saw me. 🤣

Dad Joke of the Day:

I named my baby daughter ‘Grandma.‘

She’ll grow into it…