Tôi Yêu Em, Viêt Nam

“Better a small serving of vegetables with love than a fattened calf with hatred.”

-Proverbs 15:17

It's weird to think that, just a week ago, I was sitting in Hanoi listening to the hum of motorbike engines and the chatter of street vendors. Right now I'm in a house hidden in a maze of alleyways in the medina of Rabat, literally half a world away. And boy, does it feel like it. Before I start describing that, however, I have more to write about Vietnam.

The second half of our stay in Vietnam was in Hanoi, the capital and second-largest city (after Saigon). The differences between the north and the south, or at least Hanoi and Can Tho, our previous home, are immediately apparent. Can Tho gave me the feeling of constant growth and development, like it was a city that had just sprung up out of nowhere. In Hanoi, one can tell immediately that it's an immensely old city, with centuries upon centuries of history. Hanoi was made the capital of the Vietnamese Empire in 1010 (though it had been inhabited hundreds of years before that), and was one of the most important cities in the area ever since.

 My group stayed in a hotel in the Old Quarter the whole time, so that history was especially apparent. The spectre of French colonialism is especially visible in terms of skinny roads without any apparent organization, coffee shops everywhere, and stylish French names on most upscale restaurants (even though nobody actually speaks French). From what I understood reading about history and speaking with my host family, the century or so of French occupation was pretty brutal, and there's way more resentment towards the French than there is towards Americans (which speaks volumes about how bad French rule was, considering some of the really horrible things that happened during the American War). The one country they really, really despise, however, is China. China treated Vietnam as a vassal state or colony for centuries, and overall acted like jerks for most of their shared history. Even though Vietnamese culture is very close to Chinese culture and more than half the words in Vietnamese come directly from Chinese, they still don't like to talk about China, at least not in positive terms.

One other interesting thing for me coming from the south was how many foreigners were in Hanoi. There was very little to do for tourists in Can Tho (even though I think it's a beautiful city), so seeing foreigners was a very weird thing. That showed in the weird looks I always got from everyone, and the constant "hello"s that followed us everywhere we went. In Hanoi, however, there were white people all over. It should have felt comforting, but instead it mostly felt weird to see overweight Europeans with expensive cameras lounging in the back of rickshaws, or creepy foreign guys with girlfriends who were probably 20 years younger. On the other hand, it was a little bit refreshing not having to deal with the astonished stares everywhere I went.

Our hotel was next to Hoan Kiem Lake, also called Sword Lake. Legend has it that, some time in the 15th century, Le Loi, an important Vietnamese emperor, was fishing in the lake. Suddenly, a giant turtle popped out of the water and grabbed his sword, swimming away with it. The sword and the turtle were never found, so the emperor decided it was the Golden Turtle God (I'm not making this up) reclaiming the sword it had given him years ago. As a matter of fact, there is actually a species of critically endangered giant softshell turtle swimming around the lake, though it's rarely spotted by onlookers. So maybe the story isn't so far-fetched after all. Nowadays, the lake serves as a popular spot for Vietnamese couples to wander around and stare romantically into the middle distance. During one walk around the lake, I counted ten separate couples getting their wedding pictures by the lake. Wedding pictures seem to be a really big thing in Vietnam.

This is Turtle Tower, a 17th-century temple that's survived several wars and colonizations intact.

This is the Temple of the Jade Mountain, a very important temple built on another island in Hoan Kiem Lake. The temple honors a 14th-century Vietnamese hero who fought against the Chinese.

This is taken from the 35th floor of a skyscraper, which is 28 floors higher than I'd ever been in a building before. For some perspective on just how much of a country bumpkin I am, the previous record was held by the 7th floor of Bicentennial Hall in Middlebury.

This is West Lake, the biggest lake in Hanoi. It also happens to be where John McCain crashed his plane in the Vietnam War. It's interesting to think how I might have boated over the wreckage of his plane in a paddle-powered swan boat. 

 It seems a world away now (probably because it is), but I still miss Vietnam a huge amount. I feel like I could have stayed here another month (or year, realistically) and still feel like I had more to discover and explore. I left behind a wonderful family and great new friends, as well as a newfound appreciation for just how many kinds of rice there are out there. Farewell Vietnam, you are missed. I'm leaving for a four-day trip into the Atlas Mountains tomorrow, but I should have my first Moroccan blog entry up after that.

Tam biet until then!