Typical seasonings served with many of the meals
Outside the catholic cathedral in Hanoi
The street-side pantry of one of the food places we ate at several times
These are little "high-chairs" that go on the front of motorbikes for infants and toddlers
Above a shoe repair stand
There is very little graffiti but everywhere the walls are covered with these numbers. I think they are for taxi cars or motorbike taxis
One of the houses at the Museum of Ethnology
This couple, typical of many we saw in the museum grounds, worked hard on achieving just the right pose
One of the houses was surrounded with carvings that celebrated fertility and sexuality. I have not included the pictures of the much more graphic carvings for fear of shocking those of you with a delicate sensibility!
Once again I enjoyed watching the early morning exercises by the lake side -
-some people really do seem to go to extraordinary lengths!
Hanoi Again – October 2008
I first visited Hanoi only a couple of weeks after my arrival in Viet Nam. Visiting again, this time with Nicky, made me realize how much more comfortable I have become with being in a busy Vietnamese city. We arrived on Wednesday morning and spent two days there before traveling to Bac Ha and Sapa and then spent another couple of days in the city when we returned. Both of us had had horrible experiences with hotels in Hanoi in our previous visits so we were relieved to find a hotel in which the staff were much more pleasant.
One of the highlights of this visit was the Museum of Ethnology. Inside it has an extensive exhibition of textiles and technology from the 54 ethic minority groups of Viet Nam and outside there are many original ethnic houses that have been transported to the site. I particularly enjoyed the diverse textiles of the different groups. I was struck by the amount of effort that goes into producing these complex and beautiful items.
In the grounds of the museum many couples were posing for their wedding photographs. Emphasis here must be placed on the word ‘posing’. This was a very serious business in which the couples are artfully arranged into dramatic positions. I think that most of the photographers must have spent far too much time looking at the covers of appalling romantic novels. It was a lot of fun to watch.
At the museum we also discovered Craftlink. This is a shop, similar to TradeAid, which sells beautiful items from many of these groups. We went also to another of their outlets and I bought several items at each. As usual I was on a bit of a budget but I am already regretting that I did not buy more -the work was beautifully designed and constructed.
In Hanoi we visited many art galleries and the Museum of Fine Arts. In general I continue to be pretty disappointed with Vietnamese modern art. It is difficult to find work that it is not stolid, staid and remarkably flat. In the museum some of the ancient work was interesting but the huge display of ‘revolutionary’ art appears to have been selected solely on content rather than quality. A visiting exhibition of Goya’s horrendous, but wonderfully executed, etchings of the Spanish civil war highlighted the shortcomings of the Vietnamese work. Our suspicion that even the famous artists are mass producing their paintings, probably with the aid of a team of underlings, was confirmed by an art dealer we met on the train when we returned from Sapa. When you do find a painting that you like it is not encouraging to see it reproduced repeatedly in other galleries and in catalogues that have been around for ten years or more. It seems very unlikely that I will be returning to New Zealand with a piece of Vietnamese art.
A photographic exhibition that we did both find very interesting was at the Women’s Museum. It was about the women street sellers of Hanoi. For many years these women have sold fruit, flowers, household items and trinkets on the streets but changes in the local laws are making this increasingly difficult for them. Most of the women work very long hours but only make about 25.000 VND (about $2) a day. Both of us were feeling very aware of our privileged position, and more empathetic to the plight of the persistent and sometimes irritating sellers, when we went back out into the street.
We mostly enjoyed walking around back streets and alleys away from the tourist areas. In these places we found the small surprises and delights that we both enjoy so much. We also found in these places food that was much nicer, more authentic and cheaper than that which is available in the tourist spots. Clearly it is unpolitic to laugh at the translations of people who have endeavored to include English on their menus but one was so unique that I cannot resist sharing it with you. Amongst many other items we were offered;
Alive Drunken Squid
Beef Oscillated
Fried Noodle with Hearts Elliptic
Fried Ox Dandruff is Rolling
and my personal favorite – Fried Ox Dandruff is Iridescent
Finding it impossible to imagine how on earth dandruff, iridescent or otherwise, can end up on a restaurant menu we tried really hard to establish what it was but we were unsuccessful and sadly not adventurous enough to try it!
Hanoi is a beautiful and interesting city but the countryside, towns and villages of Viet Nam are much more appealing to both Nick and me. We had not planned on staying in Hanoi after our trip upcountry but the flooding that besieged much of the northern region of Viet Nam changed our plans. It was so wet that it was impossible to do much in the countryside and transport became very difficult so we returned to Hanoi earlier than planned and had a couple of extra days there. Hanoi experienced the worst floods they have had for 35 years. The storm water system was completely overwhelmed resulting in many streets, businesses and houses that were awash. Parts of the city came to an almost complete standstill as the incessant traffic was halted by the flooded streets. It was quite an experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment