Vietnam - Hanoi and the north

Vietnam - Hanoi and Halong bay

We arrived in Hanoi from HK expecting Vietnam to be much less civilised than HK with an air of excitement about how undeveloped and natural it would be. We arrived at our hotel and found a beautiful colonial hotel that was anything but basic – especially after having eaten a great fish BBQ meal at apparently the best restaurant in Hanoi!!

The next day we set off with our guide, Hang, to explore Hanoi, the wars that V have suffered and to find out about Hanoi, the capital city, Communism and Ho Chi Min – the V president who took the country to independence in 1945. The key facts are:

Vietnam summary

* Ho Chi Min president of Vietnam from 1945 when independence gained from French after 100 yrs - he was president for 34 yrs until 1969 when he died. 79 died of old age and smoking alot! Body embalmed in mausoleum in Hanoi.

* 6.5m people in Hanoi - 86m people in Vietnam - ho chi min city 10m.

* Confucious was followed in 15th century by the then King and vietnam had more temples than in China supporting Confucious. V has 3000 yr old history as it's own country.

* After 1945 independence, French came back for a 9 yr war which they lost and then Americans came for the Vietnam war which finished in 1973 - they lost as Russians were helping to defend V and communism. Then Civil war until 1975 between Ho Chi Min communist abd the southern US puppet government - Ho Chi Min supporters won! Communist country now with one party and president elected with prime minister and General Secretary of Communist party is also an important part of the three decision makers in the country.

* Ho Chi Min was described as the countries hero and you could see why – but V life under him was still very tough and on the basis that if it looks too good to be true – it usually is we did find some unrest and differing views about both HCM and also the current V situation. But HCM is generally hugely revered and probably rightly so from what we heard.

* V war was US supporting South Vietnam and Russia/China supporting the North. North, communist, finally won and Viet (the name for the North) became a communist Viet Nam (Nam meaning the south) – when unified then known as Vietnam.

* 117:100 current boy to girls ratio - could go to 150:100. Government now encouraging girls.

* 4 Sacred animals: Unicorn (dog/lion mix), Dragon, Tortoise & Phoenix.

* Yellow colour royal V colour and used for Government buildings - Lotus flower national flower.

* Vietnam Emperor left V in 1945 after independence from French to live in France after advising HCM for 3 months. Family have now died and only distant relatives now survive.

* V people have 24m motorbikes - carry fridges and cows on them. Buildings are very vertical as pay for front space - so tall and thin buildings.

* 54 ethnic minority groups - 86% of V people are V people - other 53 minority groups make up other 14 %.


* V currency is V Dong - and there are 30,000 Dong to a £1 and 20,000 to a $1 - so I felt like a king when I had 4 million Dong from the ATM - but less than £150.

* V hats made of wood frame and palm leaves woven with silk.

* Wishing tree from Mekong river people. They use for making wishes come true!

* 4.8 million people were affected during US Vietnam war by a chemical warfare - called Agent Orange - sprayed over jungle during war - 500k children also affected - will pass from generation to generation - also had blue and white but Orange gad deforming chemical in it - not enough money to support them. Huge political issue across the world – especially between USA and V – still to be resolved.

On our tour the next day we visited the Mausoleum of Ho Chi Min in central Hanoi and visited the French Indo-China presidential palace pre-1945, which Ho Chi Min declined to live in but used as his administrative offices. We visited the 2 houses Ho Chi Min lived in – very basic, simple style in his very small Presidential complex. Although it all looked fairly communist it had a good feel as HCM’s praises were sung by all around. We learnt much about this truly amazing guy who genuinely put the people before him and supported a communist environment that he created with Karl Marx and Lenin as his heroes – neither of whom he met!

We visited temples – especially the Confucious one – which was V’s leading University – only for the top students who went on to advise the Emperor/President.  In the 15^th century the V emperor was so enamoured with Confucious that many temples were built and converted to support Confucious – despite the Emperor probably never meeting Confucious – in fact there were more Confucious temples in V than there were in China – where he originated!! We visited the Museum of ethnic minorities where we saw round how the 54 different ethnic minorities lived – accounting for 16 per cent of the V population today – the rest are true V people. We saw the different tribes and buildings they lived in – long houses for big families and tall meeting houses. We also met hoardes of school children from out of town who had never seen a blond girl and so were desperate to touch Megans face all the time (which she was not happy about!) and talk to the boys. We also visited the “Hanoi Hilton” – a prison where the Vietnamese kept American pilots prisoners – including John McCain and found out more about the war. We also visited an arts and Crafts centre where everything was made by the victims of the US attacks using Agent Orange which affected 4.5m people and 0.5m of their children – a real scandal that has not really become a front and centre political issue of the V war – but I am sure it will do one day!

All-in-all Hanoi is a huge sprawling city, hugely populated, the core of the communist party originates from here. And it is a city which is need of upgrading (like much of Danang) to be more modern. Saying that we always felt safe and were fascinated by the huge number of people – always very friendly – and mopeds everywhere with everything from fridges to cows strapped to the back. In the north of V it was a good start to seeing V.

The next day we left Hanoi and drove 3 hours to Halong bay – for those of you that saw the Top Gear programme – this was the route they took too. They were on bikes we were in a mini-bus. We drove past the Vietnamese at work on the land with their bamboo pointed hats,, selling anything and everything from the roadside and their tall thin homes (you pay government rates based on the road frontage width of your house – so most houses are very narrow – go along way back and are 3 or 4 storeys high! Even if built on there own in the middle of nowhere. We arrived at Halong bay remembering the funny time the Top Gear guys had had there. We boarded our junk and sailed off for a 2-day tour through the Halong bay limestone mountains – all 1969 of them – jutting out vertically from the water. We sailed slowly and the mist was in and it was very beautiful and eerie! We arrived at an island which had a sandy beach and a massive cave with Stalactites (from the roof) and Stalacmites from the ground – made from calcium and limestone. It was a big cave and we were the only ones in it at the time. We then went for a kayak with our guide around a range of islands and caves – it was very peaceful as we were in the middle of Halong bay with no-one around. We were the only ones on our private junk! Our guide The and our 7-crew on board to serve us (a bit over the top) were all very friendly. We had amazing food served to us and clapped at every opportunity as a group – especially whilst singing a range of songs accompanied by Sams guitar – and singing loudly a number of times en masse “Vietnam Ho Chi Min” in support of the famous man! Which of course we were all asked to join in with after dinner.

All the boats in Halong bay were interesting – the tourist boats were all Chinese style junks. The local fishermans boats were made of mud and palm leaves and rowed along so quietly – rowing the wrong way (pushing) whilst standing up. We went to the village where all the fisherman and their families lived. Houses floating on barrels – kids who learnt to swim before they could walk – families who had never been on land and who fished for generations living in this particular ring of Halong bay mountains protected from Typhoons. A real treat and experience to see how these people lived in the middle of Halong bay (2 hrs from any civilisation). Pretty basic living but fishing/tourism has kept the fishing village tidy, well kept and the kids/Adults fed and watered - some families have never left their floating villages.

We then headed back to town through the bay enjoying the views of all these extraordinary mountains created by upthrust from 2 plates coming together (no volcanoes involved here) bringing the limestone from below the earths surface to above. The water levels in the bay is around 15-20m deep still – which ties in with when the water levels rose 15m many millions years ago and flooded the mountainous plains – now below the sea.

Vietnam and the north is very much the communist base of old - and actually is still very strong and supportive of communism - selling it as a modified and improved version - which it comes across as. Yopu get the feeling the people in hanoi are striving al the time to improve their lives - a bit like London or other cities around the world. Hanoi does need modernising - it is still old and run down in parts. But it has a character and charm - and the mopeds are speeding everywhere. Crossing the road slowly despite the oncoming traffic is a unique skill we survived to acquire!

With the tour of the north V complete we jumped on our plane to Danang in the centre of V – where the US army landed for the V war. We were interested to learn if there were different points of view to this country which seemed very happy, friendly and content to live happily in a well modernised communist infrastructure. All with 2 mopeds each!!!!