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We visited the Vietnamese Museum of Ethnology. The museum focuses on the 54 officially recognized ethnic groups in Vietnam. That’s 54 distinct and separate groups of people, with different traditional dress, different appearance, different cultural identities, and in some cases, different languages.
The people of Vietnam are a strange mix of very diverse cultures. I’m not sure how this came about, especially since Vietnam is not a very big country. It is only 329,560 km² (or 127,244 square miles), about the size of Germany. So why so many different ethnic groups? I’m sure the people who study populations of the world could give a definitive answer, but to me it’s a mystery. The numbers in parentheses below are the population of the ethnic group in Vietnam, according to the census of 1999. Notice how few O Du and Rom Ma there are.
Our next stop was at the Temple of Literature, which is a temple of Confucius in Hanoi, northern Vietnam. The temple hosts the “Imperial Academy”, Vietnam’s first national university. The temple was built in 1070 at the time of King Lư Nhân Tông. When we were there we saw many students who appeared to have recently graduated from their universities, and were posing for photographs, evidently this holy place held deep significance for them.
We walked up a flight of steps to view a shrine of some sort. It was some god who had several arms, and offerings of food were placed at it’s base. Entering the Temple of Literature, we saw a huge pond, and around it were several small open air shrines, each with its own special purpose.
The turtle is revered for its long life. The altar of Confucius is huge, and very brightly colored. Below, our trusty guide, Tin, is always nearby to give us a dab of sanitary gel in our hands, and to drop an Airborne like vitamin C tablet into our water bottles. He was very conscientious about keeping his group healthy.
Some groups of students wore their caps and gowns, as if they had just come from their graduation ceremony.
They were quite relaxed as they sat on the lawn and conversed with one another, and they appeared to be quite happy, as this was evidently a big day for them, marking the completion of their studies. Their days as students were now behind them, and they must prepare themselves to face the new responsibilities of making a living for themselves, as do we all.
Ah, the simple but cherished rewards after a long morning of tramping over vast parts of Hanoi, to relax and enjoy a Tiger beer and a delicious lunch. Our next stop was visiting to the Hanoi Hilton. This is where John McCain spent 5½ years, after he was shot down over Hanoi in October of 1967. He was released in 1973 after the Paris Peace Accords. This is the entrance of the prison, and an aerial view of the complex.
We didn’t take a lot of photos, as we were in such awe at the conditions that human beings were subjected to. There was a continuously running movie that depicted life in the prison, and I must say, it was gut wrenching.
This is where one of our members had a mishap as she was walking from one area to another, not looking down, and stepped on a slightly uneven part of the walkway, and she stumbled, created enough force to break her ankle. She was taken to the hospital, and although she wanted to continue with the tour, I think that if she had, her insurance would not cover her, so she and her husband had to return home. It saddened everyone who had become acquainted with her.
This is a drainage conduit where 5 POWs managed to escape. There were some pipes, which are not visible in this photo, which looked impossible for any human being to squeeze through, yet somehow they had. On a somewhat happier note, that evening we had dinner at a local restaurant, and it helped to take my mind off of the Hanoi Hilton experience.
Ann and Carolyn were fun friends that we became acquainted with. Ann is a medical doctor. Both were retired. So this is the type of trips that one takes after retiring from a life devoted to corporate America. ;o) Not too shabby. Whoever created the menu for our dinner certainly had a way with words, but I must say, the descriptions of the various dishes was pretty accurate. Everything was delicious.
The next morning (and in the next chapter) we take a leisurely ride through Hanoi’s Old Quarter by “green” electric car. |
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