Empty Nesters on a Green Global Trek

Two reasons we are here…

One reason is Ben’s consulting work which focuses around bamboo in Indonesia and Viet Nam.

Second, most exciting, is to meet Adam, one of our four sons, who will be joining us for some travel in the region. As a chef he is interested of course in expanding his culinary “vocabulary” with some first hand Asian experience.

Best part about being Empty Nesters is having the chicks return to the nest, as adults.  After spending some time with Oren in Nicaragua, it is Adam’s turn to share some of our adventures (and we just learned that Ezra is thinking of joining us in Bali some time next year).

It’s a bit jarring to go from the beauty and resonance of Ubud, Bali, to the hectic city pace of Hanoi. Not only that, but when we arrive the city is in the midst of an unusually cold spell and high level of pollution. Now, we certainly don’t want to complain about the weather, given the brutal winter many of you are just coming through. However, it is quite a drop in temperature for us from the heat and humidity of Indonesia to the mid forties and grey skies of Hanoi.

It is always interesting to come back to a city for a second time, as the city feels more familiar than if it were brand new, but still, each visit takes on a new layer and adds depth to the relationship with that city. What does a new layer look like?

A city is a collection of neighborhoods. We are staying in a different location this time and are in the St James Cathedral neighborhood, which we didn’t even see last time. Early morning bells.  In the evening, university students hanging out in the square at small cafes sitting on the infamous plastic stools drinking hot tea or beer and eating sunflower seeds, leaving small mounds of shells at their feet.  Bus loads of Chinese tourists gawking at the Cathedral.

Notre Dame in Hanoi? The Cathedral towers over smaller old quarter buildings.

Another layer is of acquaintances becoming friends… During our first visit to Hanoi we met Anthony, owner of a buzzing cafe and organizer of Hanoi Gay Pride day. Over the last few months, I (Peta) have stayed in facebook contact with him. Now we make our way to Comga, his cafe to see if he happens to be around. We are greeted with huge hugs and declarations of sincere friendship, which is indeed very heartwarming for us.

Anthony: “I don’t just think of you guys as friends… I fell in love with you!”

After two days of being in Hanoi, we both get sick.  (Temperature drop, air pollution, etc…) The best part about getting sick in Viet Nam, is that chicken soup (Pho) is always near by.

As we (slowly) emerge from our cocoon, we rediscover a city “in transition”.  Hanoi, for a quick history reminder, was the Capital of North Viet Nam.  Vilified in the U.S. media as the center of a repressive Communist regime, with the victory of North Viet Nam over the U.S. invaders, Hanoi became the Capital of a re-united, Communist, Viet Nam in the early 1970s.

It is hard to fathom how quickly this city has transitioned through its several rounds of foreign attempts at domination in the last century.

First came the French, who colonized “Indochine”, starting with an era of exploration of the Mekong river system in the 1800s.  The French sought to set up Viet Nam as a “Colony of Exploitation”, i.e. a rich bounty of natural resources that would contribute to France economically.  The French brought a legal system and an intense period of infrastructure construction (ports, roads, railroads, buildings), which remain to this day.

Then came the Japanese, who from 1940, as France fell to Germany, seized on the opportunity of a weakened France to take over Viet Nam.  The Japanese were absolutely ruthless and under their rule, there ensued the most devastating famine that Viet Nam ever experienced.  Keeping the rice stores full for its own soldiers, but preventing the distribution of any food, even as the rice was rotting in stores due to humidity, to the starving population, the Japanese let Hanoi rot.  Tens of thousands of bodies were strewn in the street, dead from starvation.

By the time the Japanese retreated in 1945, the French tried to reboot their colonial empire, but by then a young local leader, Ho Chi Minh, had started to emerge as a consolidating force around a marxist economic philosophy and a nationalist movement to rid the country of foreigners, but there was an administrative divide between North (Communist) Viet Nam and South (Capitalist) Viet Nam.  A French military push to regain control failed miserably as Ho Chi Minh gathered momentum and moved South.

The U.S., in its perceived global struggle against an expanding Soviet block, ignored the French experience and launched the “American” war in 1959.  By the early 1970s, it was obvious that no amount of military might launched by the U.S. would break the Vietnamese nationalist fervor, and the U.S. finally withdrew.

So after all that, one might reasonably assume to find a very embittered anti French, anti Japanese and anti-American feeling all around.  The one element that still has a cringe factor is the Japanese element…  Puzzled by the apparent lack of anger at the most recent external foe, the U.S., we are given a simple image:  Vietnamese look at history the way they drive their motorcycles – they look and move forward and don’t look back.

It’s a nation on a rebuilding mission and there is little time to look back.  And so, Hanoi, moves forward.  Sadly, this forward motion is a blunt tool.  So for instance, the powers that be in Hanoi have decided that Hanoi will be a great modern Asian capital, and in their eyes, the plethora of street food vendors and back of bike peddlers is a sign of “yesterday”.  So they are out to eradicate this wonderful bit of Vietnamese culture.  The laws have been passed to make it illegal for street peddlers to hawk their wares.  There is right now a bit of a backlash as Hanoi is standing up to protect its street food culture, but the bureaucratic wheels are in motion and the press reports increasingly about the marginalization of the poorest of Vietnamese, the rural farmers who travel far to sell their produce in the city.

With all that in mind, here are some current visuals of Hanoi, as we meander the old quarter:

A flower vendor brightens the grey day with her colorful bouquets of blooms.

The dense mish-mash of electrical wires, remindful of Dehli, India

French architecture in the Old Quarter has some corners such as this one, which looks very much like a street corner in Paris.

Modern shops and some fun window shopping.

A vegetable vendor doing her rounds.

Hanoi streets are arranged by theme. This street is the street of hardware stores.

It is pretty common for people to do work outside their store on the front sidewalk. Here rolling up some wire mesh.

A street of stores with Chinese lanterns

Bikes, motorbikes, face masks, conical hats.

A vegetable vendor selling from her bicycle.

Always a balancing act of wares on the move. In this case ceramic teapots and mugs.

Motorbike wash where you can get your bike hand washed and detail cleaned.

A “xe om” motorbike driver takes a rest on his bike at midday.

Boxes being transported by motorbike, a common sight.

Tall narrow buildings behind an artistic mosaic which runs along the highway alongside Hanoi. Taxes are paid by land “ground” surface utilized, as a result most residential buildings are tall and narrow.

Many different artists contributed to the mosaic wall, which goes on for miles.

Lake Hoan Kiem. Finally the sun comes out and we along with many others, go sneak some sunshine

A student sits next to me and is enjoying practing her English and her French, with Ben.

A  Mercedes in Hanoi ~ Marxist Hoi Chi Minh would roll in his grave…Wedding car awaits the bride and bridegroom  who are celebrating inside

As luck would have it, after a few days in Hanoi, we get a positive response to one of our home exchange requests and make plans to move there in a couple days. There are not many available home exchanges in Viet Nam, so we are pretty pleased to have lucked out with one!