Biking Through The Rice Fields of Vietnam

Moving south from Hue, I spent a few days in Hoi An, a well preserved classic Vietnamese city.  It was overrun with tourists, so I hired a bike tour and spent a day biking in river delta around Hoi An.  You need to get around the water?  Here's your ferry.

All boats in Vietnam have eyes on their bow.  The legend is that there are monsters below the surface and the eyes help you see them!

I love scenes like this.  Seeing how real people live and work.  The loading and unloading of motor scooters!

Family car?  No.  Family scooter!

Here's your electricity pole!

Fishing nets.  The let's are let down at night and a water is shone into the water to attract fish.

So, I love finding out how things are made.  Here, a woman is making rice noodles.

And now I am making rice noodles.  Take the ground up rice slurry and spread it out on a steam cloth and flatten it out.

Cover it for a minute and then uncover it.  Get it off the steam cloth by having it rolled onto a round pipe.

Finished product.  The thin rice noodle paddies are layered.....

....and then cut.

Continuing along our bike ride.  "Long live Ho Chi Minh"

One of the few tractors I saw

The planting of the rice seeds.  The old fashioned way.

Making bamboo mats.  The woman chooses the pattern and therefore the color of the straw.  Feeds it through the loom and the man tamps it down tight and ties off the ends.

A basket boat.  These were made popular because boats were taxed, so these baskets were made large enough to be boats.

What's this stuff?

It's Incense!

You feed the incense into a machine and it makes a little tube of incense through which you feed the stick.

Imperial City, Hue

After an overnight train from Hanoi to Hue, I arrived into this historic city in central Vietnam and was greeted by overcast skies and drizzle.  Seattle weather!  Hue was the imperial capital of the Nguyen Dynasty between 1802 and 1945.  During 1802, the Citadel of Hue was constructed. And, as I mentioned in the Hanoi post, it has many features found in Chinese imperial architecture.

The Nguyen's built their Imperial City as a fortress.

Hall of Supreme Harmony.  Chinese style roof?  Check.  Yellow tiled roof check.  Large open hall inside.  Check.

Inside the Imperial City was the Purple Forbidden City (note name...) that was the residence of the imperial family.

Much of the Imperial complex at Hue was destroyed during the Tet Offensive of the Vietnam War in 1968.  The Vietnamese Communist Party chose NOT to restore the city as it represented the feudal regimes of the past.  However, as you can see here, there has been a great deal of reconstruction in the recent past.

Renovation of the Emperor's Reading Room

One of the many gates in the Imperial city.

There were other sites that I didn't see due to rain and lack of motivation to slog through the complex. I learned in my travels that I am particularly interested in more recent history, such as the Vietnam War. There was a one-day trip to DMZ (about 40km north of Hue) and other sites, but I didn't have time.  I regret not making that time.

A Day in Hanoi

I got to Hanoi, logged onto my phone and started chatting with a guy who offered to shuttle me around on his day off.  So, instead of having to worry about taxis and walking, my friend Ngoc picked me up and we were off on seeing the sites of Hanoi!  Thanks, Ngoc!

"Celebrate 59 years since independence!"  1954 was the year the Vietnamese defeated the French at Dien Bien Phu.

First stop, Ho Chi Minh's memorial.  Inside the memorial we passed Ho Chi Minh's embalmed body.

Inside the mausoleum complex are many buildings.  Here's the Presidential Palace which was the home of the French Governor of Indochina.

The Stilt House, Ho Chi Minh's residence from 1958 to 1969.

Next stop, the Temple of Literature

A running theme that I concluded (rightly or wrongly) is that Vietnam is much like China.  The Temple of Literature houses a Confucian temple.

It was also a place for Confucian study and where the exams were given.  Therefore it is the unofficial first University in Vietnam.

Just like in China, the names of those who faced the Confucian exams are carved onto stele that ride turtles.

Find Ernie!

For lunch, we went to this restaurant that was written up in the International New York Times.

It's located in a residential neighborhood near Truc Bac Lake.

It's a nostalgia filled restaurant!

It's theme is a throwback to the state-fun food shops of the 1970's when the government even ran restaurants.  Although it no longer runs on the ration card system, the old signs have been hung up on the wall.

Ration cards.

Ngoc ordered and this arrived first.  A dome of rice?

Turns out, just a shell of crispy rice.  Dipped in sauce and it was one of the best things I ate in Vietnam!

Last stop, the "Hanoi Hilton."  Here's the entrance of Ho Loa Prison (it's actual name).  The French built this in the late 1800's to house prisoners, specifically Vietnamese who were anti-French colonial rule.

As I learned in my week in Vietnam....the "propaganda" quotient is laid on thick.

John McCain's flight suit.  The current museum is housed in about what is 25% of the original Ho Loa prison.  The rest of it was torn down and a high rise was built on that land.  Progress in Vietnam!