touring Hanoi with the group

The first full day the group had together started out with the awesome hotel breakfast buffet.  

A good way to start a day of seeing the city!

It was a gloomy day, alas.  We did get sunshine later in our time in Hanoi, but for seeing the city it was grey.  No matter.  We enjoyed it just the same.  Our guide Richie narrated the day for us, and all of us, librarians and guests, went together.

Our first stop was the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.  

Most of the year it is possible to go inside, move through quietly and respectfully, and view his body.  We happened to come at the time of year when the embalming was being renewed, however, and so we stayed out on the plaza.  Quite the magnificent plaza, though.  Richie told us some of Ho Chi Minh’s biography, and we captured photos.  One thing that we were told is that we had to dress with a certain degree of modesty, and while that really only affected the women in our group (who were asked to bring something to cover bare shoulders), I did see guards at the entry telling men that they needed to tug down their shorts to reach their knees.

A short walk around the corner, as it were, took us to the One Pillar Pagoda, a Buddhist site.  

Buddhism has a strong foothold in Vietnam, and the little temple was a popular attraction.  We were there for a short bit and then got back in the bus.

I already commented on the prison museum.

It was terrific to get to lunch where we could revive our spirits.  KOTO is an enterprise that employs and trains young people from poorer rural areas.  

Our group meals on the trip have all been rather the same:  soups, rice or fried rice, spring rolls, sautéed meat dishes, a soupy dessert.  It’s only mild criticism, truly.  I wish we were having some dishes that were a little more, well, out there, but I get that restaurants will serve the greatest hits, so to speak, to tour groups.  Anyway, I did like the pork with pineapple a great deal, and the tamarind fizz mocktail was very tasty.  All of it was good!  And a lot.  I swear I have gained at least a few pounds on this trip.

The first stop after lunch was the Temple of Literature, the site of a centuries-old Confucian temple and university.  

It captured some of the history of national exams for scholars to serve the royal government.  A sprawling site, partially reconstructed, it was also a relatively peaceful site amid the city hubbub.  Delightfully green in parts, too.

The final stop was the Vietnam Women’s Museum.  

Surprisingly stifling and warm inside (save for the floor for fashion) given that it’s preserving collections.  I liked seeing some of the exhibits, but it also had me thinking about a problem with the sightseeing:  everything was very anthropological or sociopolitical in nature.  I would have loved to have gone to a fine arts museum to see what current and past Vietnamese artists have created.  I would have loved seeing a little more joy and beauty for the sake of joy and beauty.

Our Hanoi hotel, the Mövenpick, had an evening happy hour that was really a chocolate hour, a small buffet of chocolate treats in the lobby bar.  We joined a few others there, then waited for Dr. Hien, our local contact for setting up the meetings.  I met with her for a half hour to go through itinerary changes and expectations for the meeting, then Conrad and I headed out to a nearby seafood place, San Ho, recommended by the hotel.  

It was alright.  The crab fried rice was the highlight of a somewhat pricey (for Vietnam) dinner.  We ordered martinis, they came back and asked if we meant the Martini (& Rossi) vermouth on the menu, we turned the page and pointed at the gin martini and affirmed that we wanted two, and out came two tumblers of warmish vermouth.  Sigh.  Our kingdom for a good cocktail!

To bed after that.  We had a day of library meetings for me and a boat tour of Ha Long Bay for Conrad and the other guests.