Author: Troy Knight

PAGODAS AND PALACES

 

We left Hanoi today after the hotel staff gave Troy a tiny birthday cake a joyous rendition of Happy Birthday   and encountered the commuters coming into the city.  Again dad and mom with youngsters tucked between them on scooters, laborers balancing poles and equipment on their shoulder as they soldiered through the traffic, sleeping buses, cars and tuk tuks were making their way into or out of the city.  Our first stop was the famous Vai Dinh pagoda which honors the monks who have become Buddha.  A long pathway takes the visitors past their statues and each rendering is unique.  We were touched to see the statue of the monk who died in 1973 when he burned himself in Saigon protesting the war.  Vivid memories of that horrible event came rushing back to each of us.  An enormous bell and drum and temples filled with Buddhas in every form and fashion are on display.  Altar tables with fruit, water, cookies, and flowers offer a rich display and joss sticks burn lifting up the prayers of those who come to pray.  There is a hotel on the grounds for those who wish to have a longer spiritual visit.  We were exhausted and eager to get to lunch and iced green tea. Troy and I obviously have not reached that happy nirvana.  The second stage of the journey took us through the countryside on long boat trip down a river, through four caves, around a pagoda with a live concert of beautiful Vietnamese music.  The trip took us by workers bringing in building materials on these tiny boats most of which were paddled by women.  These women in the country work hard doing farm work, roadwork and other labor intense jobs.  Most of the harvest is over so they do what ever work is available.  One crew was sweeping up a load of rice that had spilled on the road.  The roadways are full of cattle, horses and goats.  They roam freely and manage to survive the onslaught of scooters.  Our last stop was a visit to the pagoda honoring the first king of Vietnam.  His symbol was the water buffalo and a gorgeous buffalo wearing a bright red ribbon stood proudly on the grounds.  We headed out past barbeque goat stands, pineapple and mango salesman to a lovely hotel in the middle of nowhere.  Our guide and driver are giving Troy his second birthday party of the day.  We are blessed.

GOOD MORNING , VIETNAM

 

Hanoi assaults the senses in every way.  We woke up to the sound of traffic outside our window and those noises spent the rest of the day with us.  Car horns, the sputter of scooters, the roar of buses and the clang of bicycles bells surrounded us all day.  Small children three deep on a scooter ride behind their mom on their way to school and granny clutches the back of the drive with one hand and holds on to a bag of groceries with the other as the makes her way home on a Grab a Scooter which is Hanoi’s answer to Uber.  Our first stop this morning was to the old prison known to most Americans as the Hanoi Hilton.  We learned first hand of the suffering of so many men and women.  The political prisoners who were held by the French and the American pilots who were shot down over Hanoi and  held by the Vietnamese.  The prison was designed to bring suffering, fear and death to its inmates.  The second stop was a happier place, the Museum of Ethnology.  This place honors the many different ethnic groups who came to Vietnam to escape hunger and war.  The museum was a collection of their crafts and clothing and the outside was a collection of their homes and villages.  My favorite was a house designed for the family to live upstairs and their elephants to live under the dwelling.  Sorts of like an American beach house.  Just when we thought we were on sensory overload when visited the Temple of Literature which is the oldest university in Hanoi.  Today was graduation day in Hanoi and the custom is for graduates to come to the temple for group pictures, individual pictures and  to celebrate their accomplishments.  They burn joss sticks when they pray and show their gratitude to the spirits.  We stopped by to pay our respects to Uncle Ho and to visit his stilt house.  He was not at home, but is in Moscow being reembalmed.  It was ok with us to miss him.  We spent time in a local park where two 12 year olds practiced their English and Troy let them use his camera to take pictures.  A water puppet show and a rickshaw ride back to the hotel ended the day.  The puppet show was wonderful and the rickshaw bicycle ride scared the daylights out of us.  Now it is time to recharge for tomorrow.

HOUSTON TO HANOI

  • Troy and I left Clear Lake at   3:30 am November 2 and arrived in Hanoi at 10:20 pm on November 3.  The trip was long and tiring, but uneventful.  Troy got part of the ear bud stuck in his ear and a coffee stir stick took care of that, he got pulled from the VISA line and had to deal this an immigration officer, don’t know what that was about, but the good thing was our luggage and driver were waiting for us at the airport.  Tomorrow the real
  • adventure begins.  Sally