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Images of Hanoi
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Dao peasants image   
Photo: Peter Steinhauer


"...Perhaps on nights when there are no moon and stars, the peasants in Nam Dinh, Thai Binh, Hai Duong, Bac Ninh, Son Tay, and Hoa Binh go out into their courtyards and see a shining halo each time they turn their heads and look far off into a corner of the sky. There, hovering over a thousand years of culture and glowing with easy riches, what the peasants see is the halo over Hanoi, and they are still leaving their villages for it! Soon... they too will have to lie curled up starving as they look into the heavens on a night like tonight when bright moonbeams fill the sky..."

Vu Trong Phung, "Com thay com co"
Published 1936

[Ours is] a land of poetry, history, good manners and justice, not a land crowded with traders and merchandise.
Nguyen Hoang, Vietnamese ruler, to Japanese envoy
c. 1600
 
As when it was being remade as a modern colonial city, Hanoi today is undergoing enormous economic and social changes. Hanoi, like Saigon, is under great pressure as rural peasants and villagers seek a better life in cities ill-equipped to provide housing, food, health care, education, or decent job opportunities. In many respects, rural conditions have worsened since Vietnam's shift in economic and social policies began in 1986. Because it is seen as providing greater opportunity, Hanoi will be pressed to absorb a growing population whose needs new economic policies seem to be giving less than adequate attention. Poorly managed growth will also have severe environmental consequences. Care to learn more about these issues? Read on:
 
Just wondering what your dollar will bring in dong?

 Today's Exchange Rates

 
Hanoi Traffic Photo "...If you wish to understand the Vietnamese people, there is no better way than to learn to cross the streets... If in 1962 John F. Kennedy had sent McNamara and asked him to learn to cross the streets and make a recommendation, the general would have reported two inescapable conclusions. First, we could never win that war. Second, we did not need to win that war, for when the failures of the system were clear to the Vietnamese, they would simply veer around them..."  
 Robert Olen Butler
Oct. 1995
Conde Nast Traveler 
 
Lesson two in traffic safety (as reported in the Vietnam Business Journal)...
 
In recent months those plying Hanoi's roads might have observed that the speed of traffic on the city's Ba Trieu Street has increased to make it a virtual raceway. Yet only several months ago traffic lights were installed at each intersection over the course of two kilometers. A connection? Yes, discovered Mr. Nguyen: the lights are synchronized to remain green for vehicles travelling at about 60 miles per hour...
 

 
Nguyen Huy Thiep image In the late '80's doi moi brought, along with economic changes, a substantial opening for Vietnam's stifled literary community. While works produced during this period were widely read, works of some of the best authors (e.g. Bao Ninh, Duong Thu Huong) have since been withdrawn from circulation. Is it a sign of the times that one of Vietnam's premier authors earns his living today running two Hanoi restaurants? Or should we be encouraged about the world-wide exposure the works of those like Nguyen Huy Thiep, Le Luu, and Le Minh Khue are now enjoying?
 

 

 1995 saw the release of Dang Nhat Minh's film Nostalgia for Countryland, based on Nguyen Huy Thiep's short story of the same name. It is a beautiful film, much worth seeking out. His latest film is House of Guavas (Mua Oi).
  When in Hanoi, visit Nguyen Huy Thiep at Hung Tinh, his restaurant at #1 Lang Ha, near the American Embassy, or at Hoa Ban, just across the Chuong Duong bridge.

 
Ho/Salem Image In American literary circles, Robert Olen Butler is America's Man-Who-Would-Be-Vietnamese. His books and short stories provide remarkable insight into the Vietnamese experience from one keen observer's perspective, including this bittersweet remembrance from the viewpoint of one North Vietnamese soldier.  

 

 
 Reflections on Ho Chi Minh, the American War, and a pack of Salem cigarettes:
 Bao Ninh's Sorrow of War (available from Amazon) has been praised as one the great novels of war of this or any century. His short story, Savage Winds, appears in Issue 50 of GRANTA. Bao Ninh lives quietly in Hanoi.
Remembering VietnamPaul Reed's Kontum Diary is a true story of self-discovery and reconciliation, of an American vet's return to Vietnam to find the Hanoi family of the fallen NVA soldier whose diary Reed had captured in a time long past but not yet forgotten. Both book and video are available and recommended.

From a non-combtant's perspective, Michael Palin chronicles his trip to the new Vietnam in his book Full Circle. Excerpted in the Salon net-journal are his first experiences of the sights and sounds of Hanoi.

   

For Vietnamese perspectives on the American War and much more you'll want to consult Yale Southeast Asia Studies Department's guide to English language Vietnamese literature:
 

 
Despujols'The collection of Jean Despujols's photos and paintings from pre-World War II Indochina constitute an invaluable artistic, historical and anthropological resource. The collection is displayed at Centenary College in Lousiana. In Hanoi, the city's finest portrait artist, Bao Nguyen, has created remarkable versions in charcoal of several of Despujols' works which appeared in National Geographic Magazine in 1951. See both of their works if you can.  
 

 
weather In spring or summertime you're gonna be hot in Hanoi. Fall or winter you'll have an occasional winter chill but much more often than not the weather will be dry and pleasant. If you don't try to breathe the air...Hey, you can't have everything.
 
  

Diversions, Work, and Play in Hanoi:

If you are looking for a link you couldn't find here, please visit the World Wide Web Virtual Library-Vietnam, maintained by Vern Weitzel.

These sites have also chosen to link their pages to ours, so please pay them a visit:  

  • Destination Vietnam 
  • TravelWise 
  • Rec.Travel Library 
  • Yahoo: Hanoi City Guides 
  • Viet Page 
  • Lycos City Guide: Hanoi 
  • Infoseek Travel Channel: Vietnam 
  • Rough Guide to Vietnam
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