Flew into Hanoi last night. Thanks to Terry Scroggie (a Canadian we met) we booked (with some communication problems) a hotel in Hanoi - the City Gate. The owner, Mr Hung, is more helpful than Mr. Wong at American Express ! He had us picked up at the airport and driven (in true James Bond fashion) to his hotel - a real mad mouse trip. Today we toured the city visiting Uncle Ho (we actually saw him - he is not dead - just resting), and the HCM memorial. The queue to 'visit' him' is about a kilometer long and viewers are checked and controlled as if they were in a prison line-up. I thought Kitty was going to be bayoneted for talking when told not to (No Mark, bayonetted by the guards - not by me).
Ho Chi Minh was an interesting person. I must read more on his history. He actually tried to get the French to improve the rights of the Vietnamese at the Versailles Conference in 1919. But failed. The French come out as absolute bastards. Forget Liberty, equality and freedom (which is what Ho asked for). After 1945 Michelin Rubber indentured some 47,000 Vietnamese for their business. 12,000 died. Shades of Leopold's Belgian Congo. But the Vietnamese have a long history of beating invaders - from Kublai Khan to the Chinese, French and Americans. Good on them !
Hanoi is an amazing place. A chaotic cacophony. It is like a huge Victoria Market at Christmas with half the people on motorbikes. Watching two streams of motorbikes criss-cross an intersection at right angles is amazing. It is like a precision circus act. Unfortunately the sidewalks in the old city are impassable due to thousands of parked bikes, pavement restaurants and rubbish so you have to walk on the road with the kamikaze traffic. Not for the faint-hearted. No rubbish bins so by night the rubbish is again like Vic Market at close of business. At least they sweep the streets before dawn.
Well off to the Water puppet show. Apparently you either love it or hate it. Keep posted
PS - Ho Chi Minh was not his real name - he was another of those ubiquitous annoyin' Nyugens. But he did has some 50 other aliases. But - if you believe the literature - he was one of the most dedicated and greatest men of the last millenium. Oops - now I'm on ASIOs files ! Even my face is going red (I must join the Labour Party - Yvonne - now I'm an out-of-the closet commie)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment