Hanoi Hangout (Part 1): Discovering the Legacies of and around a Mysterious Lake and a Mighty River

- Oct. 27, 2017, Friday.

- Hanoi had always been a place I fancied because of its strong and shared involvement with both Northeast Asian (particularly Chinese) and Southeast Asian history. While to some this doesn't matter, and that Hanoi still "looks like any other city in Southeast Asia," I strongly begged to differ. Also, most people go directly to Saigon (the southern capital; now Ho Chi Minh City) as it is currently Vietnam's largest metropolitan area with its fair share of history and culture, and probably it rose to more popularity because of the Broadway musical "Miss Saigon." Saigon is so well-known that some people even think that Saigon is Vietnam's capital, when in reality, it is Hanoi. Since my visit to Saigon 5 years ago, I had always dreamt of going to Hanoi some day.

- This year, thanks to the amazing placement of the Halloween/All Saints' Day holidays on the calendar, I was able to quickly book my plane ticket to Hanoi a couple of months earlier since I knew that my short trip won't hit any of my classes in the university. My good friend Genevieve was the only one who got to tag along since no one else was available to tag along with us. (Well, at least booking stuff was easier with less people in the trip. Also, I'd normally like traveling solo, and I think it's still the best way to travel, but sometimes traveling with a travel-compatible friend or two would make the trip more interesting.)

- We arrived in Hanoi just past midnight of the 27th; we flew via Cebu Pacific as it is currently the only airline that has direct flights between Manila and Hanoi. We arrived at Luxury Backpackers around an hour after leaving Noi Bai International Airport. Our hostel is one of the top-rated hostels in some review sites including TripAdvisor; the hostel's 5-star rating is no joke and honestly I'd give it 10 stars if I could because of its amenities and hospitality. The hostel is located within Hoan Kiem District, the cultural and historical heart of Hanoi (i.e. most of the tourist spots are within walking distance.) The district's name Hoan Kiem is taken from the historical and mythical Hoan Kiem Lake.

Look at our nice room!! Thank you Luxury Backpackers for giving us a home in Hanoi!!

- Genevieve and I started our Friday morning by walking to the St. Joseph's Cathedral or "Nha Tho Lon." This French-colonial church is perhaps is the counterpart of Saigon's Notre Dame Cathedral, both of which had architectural styles derived from Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral. The Neo-Gothic style St. Joseph's Cathedral was built in 1886, 6 years after the Notre Dame in Saigon, and serves as the main church in Hanoi. Similar to the one in Saigon, the church looks nicer from the outside than from the inside. This church is located at the western side of Hoan Kiem Lake, and walking to the lake from the church would take around 5 minutes. Speaking of the church's location, there is some controversy connected to the church's location as the 13-story Bao Thien Pagoda used to be there before the French used the location to build the church.

St. Joseph's Cathedral.

With my modern casual male aodai. :) :) :) :)

Inside the cathedral; I told you, it looks better outside than inside (but the interior ain't that bad too!!)

I thought she was real!!

- We later visited Hoan Kiem Lake from the church, and the first thing we saw was the lake's Tortoise Tower (Thap Rua.) It is a tower in the middle of the lake built in honor of the legend that surrounds the lake. In the 15th century, Emperor Le Loi was on his boat in the lake when a golden turtle came to claim Le Loi's sword. Emperor Le Loi realized that the turtle's master was a dragon god that gave the emperor his sword. The emperor returned/gave the sword to the golden turtle, and thus the name of the lake: Hoan (return) Kiem (sword).

Tortoise Tower/Thap Rua.

Silhouette.

Genevieve's dramatic shot of me and an elderly Vietnamese lady.

- At the northern bank of the river lies the Temple of the Jade Mountain on Jade Island (Ngoc Son Temple.) The island is accessible through the lake's iconic bright red bridge called "Welcoming the Sunlight Bridge" (Cau The Huc.) The bridge looks like a long Vietnamese runway. The 18th century temple was built in honor of various philosophers and heroes of Vietnam. The temple is also known for having a preserved giant soft-shelled turtle, one of the last in the world. In the lake alone, there used to be four of these turtles (around 2 meters long and 1 meter wide!!) and now only one lives in the whole lake; the preserved one in the temple is the third turtle. Vietnamese authorities are now trying to find ways to study these turtles further and help prevent the extinction of this kind of giant turtle.

OH LOOK!!!! Kiddos and their teachers in aodais!!!! <3 <3 <3 <3

On the way to Ngoc Son Temple. The red bridge is Cau The Huc.

On the bridge with my fully Vietnamese garb. Yes, I brought these from Manila to Vietnam; the golden khandong on my head was from Saigon 5 years ago.

Entrance to the temple.

Genevieve's drama poster.

My period-drama-poster-worthy photo.

A....lemon?....being offered to the gods.

A calligrapher in the temple. He's wearing a black aodai with a matching black khandong.

The preserved third turtle of the lake which died in the 1960s during the Vietnam War.

A pagoda in front of the temple.

- After our visit to the lake, we walked around the lake to buy some souvenirs, and is actually one of the best places to buy souvenirs in Hanoi (other nearby areas for souvenir shopping include the weekend night market, Dong Xuan Market, stores along Hang Gai Street and the streets perpendicular to Hang Gai.)

- We had a little morning coffee break, literally, at Cafe Giang, along Nguyen Huu Huan Street, just north of the lake. This old-timer cafe from 1946 specializes in coffee and tea, especially Vietnam's famous egg coffee. The store was actually relocated twice, but its recipe remains the same. The coffee has, well, coffee, fresh egg yolks, and condensed milk. When this kind of blend was invented, egg yolk was used because it was hard for the Vietnamese to find fresh milk. The result? Coffee tasting like melted coffee icing!! It isn't only a treat for your thirst, but a treat for the heart as well.

Egg coffee (mine's the cold one because I don't usually like hot coffee.)

Cafe Giang; the cafe part is at the second floor.

Old photos/images.

The tables and chairs seem to be for kindergarten children (but the Vietnamese are really just fond of small tables and chairs.) 

Yes, they're that small, and fortunately my chair didn't break after I sat on it.

Quite hard to find since the entrance is narrow.

Colonial-era buildings.

- Further up the same street is a restaurant called Bun Cha Ta, where Genevieve and I had lunch (yes, we had lunch right after our "coffee break.") Bun Cha Ta, like Cafe Giang, is a historical restaurant, and has been around since the early 1900s. Bun cha is a dish that may look like a deconstructed pho, but its taste differs greatly. "Bun cha" is a dish with a sweet-salty-sour soup with grilled pork balls and a plate of vermicelli at the side. This is served with dipping sauce and a bowl of various fresh herbs and vegetables like basil and lettuce to be added to the soup. Eating this can be quite hassling as there are many components to the dish, such as dipping the noodles in the soup, etc., but one thing's for sure - eating bun cha is a performance!! This is also my ultimate favorite Vietnamese food, together with the Vietnamese fresh spring rol (goi cuon.) Speaking of lunch, this was also one of the trips that I had to perfectly schedule my lunchtime, since Hanoi has a habit of closing museums and other attractions during lunch time (11-12, 12-1, or 11-1, depends.)

Time for buncha!!

Mine's the meaty one below. I also had a plate of fried spring rolls. Heehee. Genevieve had the tomato and tofu one above.

- After lunch we headed to the Hoa Lo Prison Museum at the southwestern part of the lake, which greatly reminded me of Korea's Seodaemun Prison Museum (click here to see my visit to Seoul's prison museum.) This prison was significant for two reasons: as a prison for the Vietnamese during French rule, and as a prison for Americans by the Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. This prison, built in the late 1800s, was also known as "Hanoi Hilton" or "Maison Centrale." During the French rule, this prison became home to some of Vietnam's revolutionists, activists, and thinkers who eventually became the country's politicians. While the museum was interesting, there is always something about prison museums that gives me the creeps: the life-sized "prisoner mannequins" placed in random prison cells meant to scare the hell out of me.

Looks tame outside.

Remnants of the old prison.

Traumatic scene.

Behind cells.

It is mannequins like that that give me nightmares.

Sample of a sewer canal where the prisons escaped.

Sadako Genevieve.

And me being my crazy self.

Melancholic.

Another one of those that made my heart hump out of my chest. This was a mannequin showing how some of the prisons were able to escape.

Wearing one of the robes from the prison museum for tourists.

OMG A GUILLOTINE.

Another reason why prison museums give me the creeps. (But I still like visiting them because I learn a lot about the country's history.)

- A few blocks from the prison museum is a tamer museum: the Vietnamese Women's Museum. A fairly new museum compared to some others, its goal since opening in 1995 was to highlight the role of women through Vietnamese history and through the different indigenous societies of Vietnam. This was one of my favorite museums as I was able to see a very close view of different Vietnamese textiles and costumes.

Vietnamese Women's Museum.

The funny thing is I have an actual costume that looks like that, though in a different color haha.

Vietnamese conical straw hats turned into art.

Vietnamese woman and child.

Various women's costumes in Vietnam.

Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo  Ge Ne Bib.

Rituals. (That's not a real person.)

Wedding.

- The third leg of our museum afternoon was the most prominent museum in Hanoi: the National Museum of Vietnamese History. The museum was an archaeological research institution by the French, and then acquired by the Vietnamese government in 1958. The museum's building is in the Indochina architectural style, which means that is blends French and Chinese/"oriental" architectural styles. The museum houses artifacts from ancient Vietnam until the independence of Vietnam from the French.

The museum's Indochina-style main building.

OMG A DONGSON DRUM!! One of the earliest and most valuable artifacts of ancient Vietnam!! The details of the drum were superb, and not to mention how big it was!! (Around 3 feet??)

OMGGGG OC EO CULTURE!!!! Another treasure of Vietnam's earliest civilizations.

Shiva-lingam, Oc Eco.

Giant turtle memorial. it was around 8 to 10 feet tall.

Well-carved Avalokiteshvara.

- Just when we thought we were done with the museum, we discovered by accident that the museum has second building right across the main building!! The second building highlights the Vietnam War. You also use the same ticket you bought from the main museum, so don't lose the ticket!!

Second building!!

Ho Chi Minh giving a speech.

Giant bomb.

Ceremonial cannon.

- After our museum hopping in the afternoon, I had the fantastic idea (half sarcastic) of walking from the south to the northern part of the city along Tran Quang Khai Road, while appreciating the ceramic mural of Vietnam. We were on our way to see the Long Bien Bridge (later on this.) The ceramic mural was a new addition to Hanoi's tourist "spots," being completed only in 2010. It was a project to celebrate Hanoi's millennial anniversary. This long wall, around 4 kilometers, is in the Guiness Book of World Records. Of course it did not take long for me to realize that is was a bad idea, as the road eventually split into high and low parts, with each part going a different way. I also found out later on that it was a bad way to reach Long Bien Bridge, and the best way was still to access it from the downtown, go to the Long Bien Train station, and from there access the pedestrian lane of the historic bridge. Genevieve and I walked so much that we had to stop for some rest and fluids. We reached Long Bien Bridge, eventually, but I accessed it from the wrong entrance: the one for motorbikes. Anyway, at least we found our way and saw the bridge.

Passed by the Hanoi Opera House.

Colorful mosaic showing the history and cultures of Vietnam

Such detail!!

- The Long Bien Bridge (Cau Long Bien, aka "Paul Dourmer Bridge" after then governor-general of French Indochina) was opened in 1902, and designed by none other than Gustave Eiffel - the man behind the Eiffel Tower, and to some extent New York's Statue of Liberty and Manila's San Sebastian Church. This bridge, used by trains, people, and motorbikes, connects Hanoi's Hoan Kiem District and Long Bien District. The bridge is right above the Red River, one of the most prominent rivers of Vietnam that runs from Southern China to Vietnam; the name is so called because of the river's reddish-brownish silt content. This bridge, at some points in history, served as a bomb shelter, or a temporary morgue, among a few. It had been bombed/destroyed, and repaired through time, but one thing is for sure - the bridge serves as a kind of inspiration for the people of Hanoi.

Long Bien. Yes, the bridge is....long (literally.)

The mosaic as seen from the bridge.

Am at the wrong lane but at least I got to see the bridge.

Motorbikesssssss - the way of life in Vietnam.

- We eventually saw the Long Bien Station, where, as mentioned, we should've accessed the pedestrian lane of the bridge. But from there, we just walked to Dong Xuan Market and walked southward along the Dong Xuan Street until we reached the lake. We had dinner in a Popeye's branch near the lake since it was closest to the weekend night market, and it was quite spacious inside which was perfect for resting our dead legs from the afternoon torture walk.

Long Bien Station.

Dong Xuan Market.

- The weekend night market is open on three nights only - Friday to Sunday. It opens from 7pm onwards along Hang Dao, which is the street above Hoan Kiem Lake. From Hang Dao, the stalls that line the street run until Dong Xuan Market. Like any night market in Southeast Asia, the stalls sell souvenirs, food, and other small things. Ao dai stores, however, are in Hang Gai, which runs perpendicular to the street.

Night market.

 - Genevieve and I returned to our hostel after a long stroll in the night market. I promised her that our death walk from the south to Long Bien was the longest that we had to walk for the entire trip. Still, at least we survived our first day, and we were more than excited to explore more of Hanoi!! (Don't forget to read Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, and Part 5 here!!)

Genevieve wearing the aodai I bought for my mom, and me wearing the aodai I brought from Manila for my photoshoot the next day.