sunday in hanoi

As it turned out I did have a whole 2-day weekend, as work was delayed. Furthering my opportunities to be a tourist, one of the local engineers, Manh, took us out for a look around town. First stop was another of Hanoi's museum's, the Museum of Ethnology.

The museum attempts to preserve and display items from all the different ethnic groups in Vietnam - of which there are around 50. With such a varied landscape, from flat delta flood plains, to jungle covered mountains, you can imagine how varied the ethnic groups are too.

Some tribes operated along matrilineal lines, whereby a new married husband would live in his wife's family's home. This is or was common in parts of southern China, and so by extension some of Vietnam too. Other tribes operated along patrilineal lines whereby a newly married bridge would live in her husband's family's home. These kinds of traditions are all being eroded now as western influences take hold.

A common feature among the ethnic groups was to have a large common house in the village where guests of the village could be entertained, or indeed the village could meet and have entertainment for themselves. The different groups, however, had vastly differing designs for these common houses. One group built them very long: up to 100 metres in length, but only 6 metres wide. Another group built theirs very tall. Here is a photo of a reconstructed common house that is around 5 stories tall - pretty much exclusively constructed from bamboo and straw except for the foundations:

These common houses also helped out the local single men. At night they were able to sleep in them! A community sponsored bachelor pad?...

The best exhibition however was dedicated to life in Hanoi between 1975 and 1986. From the end of world war II until1986, Vietnam had strictly controlled economy. Central to this was a voucher system, which rationed goods. No matter how much money a person had, they could not purchase more than their allocation of a type of food or product.

There were personal anecdotes dotted among the exhibit which added a human touch and made the exhibition quite emotional and striking. Manh said that when "old" people visit the museum, often they cry when they view this exhibition. Half of Vietnam's 80 million people are born after 1975, so they don't even really remember this time. I asked Manh if the people who were lived through the period hoarded stuff - food, money, etc. "Of course!", even though they earn lots now, he said, they don't spend any money. He continued, "my generation earns and then spends." Sounds familiar : )

In those times licences were required to own radios and bicycles. If a bicycle was stolen, it could be traced by its registration! They even had number plates. Only mid-range public servants or higher could even hope to own radios and bicycles. The ration of meat for the lowest member of the public service was 400-grams a month, this increased to 4-kilograms a month for the most senior ministers.

The best students Vietnam had to offer at the time were able to study in the Soviet Union. The ultimate gift to bring back was a television! Of course other smaller items such as electric fans and clothing irons were also appreciated.

Now Vietnamese dream of owning cars, instead of just motorbikes. Another local engineer, Tung, told us that he thought there should be more cars. Mark and I weren't so sure. The streets would stop working! Permanent traffic jams would surely ensue. Tung answered that the government needed to build bigger, better roads anyway. I remain unconvinced. Then again... it rained the other day, and I was glad for a fully enclosed taxi-car, rather than a motorbike!!

Finally we visited Lake Hoan Kiem. This is a famous Hanoi landmark, with an equally as famous legend to match. It is said that emperor Lê Lợi had a magic sword given to him by a golden turtle, and that after defeating the Chinese the turtle took the sword back and took it to the bottom of the lake. Hoan Kiem Lake translates to the lake of the returned sword.

In the middle of the lake is a temple dedicated to another military figure in Vietnamese history. Trần Hưng Đạo defeated the Mongolians a couple of times when they attempted to invade Vietnam. He was well read, and especially liked Sun Tzu's "The art of war", and this was reflected in his tactics - often resorting to guerilla tactics to aggravate the enemy into mistakes.

The bridge to to the temple is a common sight in tourism brochures:

It was cool to see that even among the hundreds of tourists milling around that some locals could still find some space for a game of chess.