Journal Diving #4

It’s time for another installment. Here goes:

After breakfast we head for the DX market. We’ve heard it’s the biggest in Hanoi – when we get there, it’s large all right. 2 stories of multicolored plastic crap. We’re pretty disappointed and done looking after about 15 minutes.

So off to the HCM [Ho Chi Minh] museum. It’s pretty surreal. There are plenty of letters, photos and quotes, but no narrative, so I still don’t really know about his life. There are a lot of symbolic exhibits: “This stylized giant brain symbolizes the cave where Ho Chi Minh hid.” “This cubist table and chairs covered with gigantic fruit symbolizes our commitment to the environment.” Huh?

It’s definitely an experience. Afterwards we wander up to West Lake and have coffee at a fun restaurant/boat overlooking the water. [Surrounded by a flock of plastic swan boats, as I recall.] Then back to the Old Quarter for an authentic lunch experience. We find a bun bo nam bo bar and sit at the long tables on narrow, tippy benches. They plop down bowls of noodles, lettuce, beef, peanuts. It’s good stuff!

This is from my November 2006 trip to northern Vietnam (Hanoi, Halong Bay, Sapa, Hoi An) and Siem Reap, Cambodia. A really wonderful trip (especially the food!).