Day 4

 May 13 Saturday

 

Wall of Remembrance

Watching the Village Women video

We started out the morning late, for once, around 9:30 AM. Our first stop of the day was the Women’s Museum of Hanoi. The museum highlighted the struggles of the Vietnamese women over time. As opposed to the typical patriarchy of Western and Chinese societies, the Vietnamese practice a more women dominated or matriarchal society. We saw portions of women’s lives through the different levels of the museum which included the fashion, their roles in the wars, and elements of their daily lives. Vietnamese culture puts major focus on their women so it would make sense that they would look up to a mother-like idol which they call the Mother Goddess.

Museum display of women farming

Museum

            We toured the streets of downtown Hanoi, sampling the local cuisine along the way. We tried Ban Mi, pho, bun nem nuong, and sugarcane juice. The vendor even made the juice from the sugarcane in front of us! In the same area, we saw a Catholic Church from the French occupational period. We were told the church has been standing since the late 1800’s.

Hanoi cathedral

   

Prison front

         Our next stop was the Hanoi Hilton, a remnant of both French colonialism and the Vietnam-US War. The structure once housed political prisoners and downed American pilots, including former US Senator John McCain. The original layout of the prison was very large but was partially demolished so only about ¼ of it remains today as a museum. It houses many painful memories for the Vietnamese, French, and Americans. Many Vietnamese met their demise from the French guillotine. A barbaric tool brought to Vietnam by the colonists. Two examples survive today, one in Hanoi and the other in Ho Chi Minh City.

John McCain

French atrocities

            We then went to a Vietnamese water puppet show. This art form is one of the oldest of Vietnamese culture, originating in the countryside for entertainment for the farmers. The storyline consisted of four sacred creatures, and they all had their separate acts where they danced and splashed in the water. There was also live music and singers that accompanied the puppets.

Water puppet show

            To finish off our night, we stopped at a coffee shop to try the world-famous egg coffee. Tony said that the place we went was a local secret. The owner invented egg coffee in 1946, with several imitations popping up in the local area since then. The rest of the evening, we were able to go out and explore a section of Hanoi. Around Huan Kiem Lake, we explored local restaurants, shops, and even a temple located on the center island of the lake. You had to pay to get a ticket, but we luckily got a student discount even with our American student ID’s!

 

Emilee Owen and Thomas LaFave