Hanoi

This blog post has taken a while and I might be tempted to edit it over and over again as I am still trying to comprehend all that Hanoi is and articulate the experience of being in this amazing city.

A friend who was born in Vietnam but immigrated to Washington State at age 18 months with her family thanks to a progressive open-door policy by Governor Dan Evans offered some insight.  She recently made her first pilgrimage to her country of birth (she’s a US Citizen now) and compared going to Ho Chi Minh city like visiting Manhattan.  Like us she followed her visit in Saigon to go to Hanoi.  She told me before we left that Hanoi was like going back in time. 

Great article here: https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/editorials/when-washington-did-the-right-thing-for-refugees/

From a quickly developing city in the south, to a city in the north that is extremely alluring and traditional in old ways with a unique chaos from the fast motorcycles zooming in all directions and telephone poles cluttered with thousands of wires as divergent as the motorists on the streets below. 

Hanoi caused all our senses to explode at once.  Incredible smells, heat and humidity like we’ve never experienced, amazing food, beautiful people, constant noise from street vendors or the previously mentioned motorcycles. 

It is noteworthy that everyone we met is very hard-working.  Every chef, everyone in the market, every government official, every motorcycle mechanic stall (there were several), it was apparent that they were goal oriented and dedicated to their task.  The city is vibrant and alive, and at nighttime it was dazzling to the eyes.

Our stay was shortened due to a typhoon which cancelled our cruise in Halong Bay, but our time there will be a part of my soul forever.

We will return.

On our second day in Hanoi we went to the Vietnam Military History Museum.  

We walked several blocks to get there in 100 degree temperature and 90% humidity.  I think that lent itself to part of the Hanoi experience as well.

The museum was much more than just the US war in Vietnam, but hundreds of years of history including war with the Huns, and of course 80 years of French occupation and slavery.  It seems that only in the last 30 years has this small country had any semblance of peace in it's existence.

I will let the experiences speak for themselves.