Rainy Days and Museums

After spending a few days loping around Hanoi all by my lonesome (surviving a fun day and a half bout of food-poisoning ... guess no trip is complete without it ...) Jones finally arrived this morning! We were pleased that the whole exchange of meeting in a foreign country went off without a hitch, but I'm sure our mothers were even more pleased, given our reputations as being slightly, uh, shall we say, scatter-brained? :)

So. Vietnam. The tour begins in earnest! We were excited for our first stop on the "Banana Pancake Trail" (so named because of the spattering of Western establishments serving up the old-standby to hungry, hungry hippies roaming South East Asia back in the day), but weren't quite ... exactly ... sure what to do here. Another traveling companion who was to accompany us on the journey actually planned out this leg, but decided not to join us for it. Hm. We'll call this a bit of a pickle, seeing as neither Jones or I really did our research on how to get around Vietnam, devoting ourselves instead to planning our respective countries or getting massages or whatever the heck else we did to fill our time in China.

Luckily, the weather kind of determined our day for us. It was a yucky, cold rain all (um, thought I left monsoon behind me?!), so we decided to hit a bunch of the museums after breakfast. Our first stop was the History Museum. In my opinion, if you've seen one, you've seen ... most of them. There aren't very many museums of generic history that could entertain me for very long. Ahhh, potsherds. Ohhhh, a spoon from 10,000 BC. Meh. It had the advantage of keeping us dry for 20 minutes longer than we would have otherwise been.

After a lunch at a delightful little cafe - Hanoi is loaded with them, I guess the French were good for something? - we headed to the Hao Lo Prison Museum, which was actually pretty fascinating. Originally built by the French and used to detain Vietnamese reactionaries in incredibly inhumane conditions, it was eventually used by the North Vietnamese to detain American POW's during the war, including John McCain. While we had heard that McCain was tortured so severely there that he tried to commit suicide twice, the videos in the museum showed American soldiers having barbeques, playing volleyball, and "learning to appreciate the generosity of the North Vietnamese, which they had not understood before." Putting America's own record in Vietnam completely aside, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that anyone who is tortured so severely they try to kill themselves is probably not enjoying these aforementioned barbeques and humane conditions. The same video that proclaimed the generosity of the NV captors also celebrated the "vanquishing of the evil American imperialists," so it was pretty hard to believe in its neutrality with such loaded language. After some further research into the matter, it appears as though there was some serious propaganda going on; the conditions were, in fact, awful. Naturally, no one's going to lay claim to that. Of course, every country has propaganda, and no one has a squeaky-clean past, but it was a little disturbing to see it displayed so ... blatantly.

Our final museum stop of the day was the Hanoi Women's Museum, which had two exhibits: One show-casing all the bravery of women who stood up for the Communist party during the war and even gave their lives for the cause, and one displaying photos, videos, and stories of the street vendors in Hanoi. This one was more compelling to me, given the fact that I see these ladies everywhere. Apparently, these are women who cannot make enough money farming their land in the countryside, and thus have to come to urban areas to try and make enough to feed their families. They sell vegetables, baked things, plastic wares, straw mats, flowers, whatever. A couple years ago, the local government tried to prohibit such activity, as it some claim that it is disruptive to the development of the city. It was heartbreaking to hear their stories of their struggles: up at 3am everyday, only to stay out, walking around with heavy carts or baskets, until nightfall. All this for a couple USD a month?

It's times that like when I just feel like an incredible snot; I'm so lucky that I not only have food, shelter, clothing - basic things that others work so hard for - but I have so, so much beyond that. How many people in the world can just nonchalantly buy a plane ticket to another country, travel frivolously, and eat bruschetta just 'cuz they feel like it?

Ah, the cards we're dealt aren't fair, so I'm just going to feel a bit extra thankful tonight. Thanks for reading; I'm glad I could share my day with you!

Oh PS, Jones and I ate dinner with a guy from WHERE tonight?! Yep, Madison, WI. It's a small world after all. : ) Go Badgers!