Seeing the Sights in Hà Nội
By Lauren Gerzina & Justin Hayes
Prisons, Trains, and Water Puppets
Lauren woke up feeling terrible. Didn’t want to get out of bed terrible. So Justin ordered in (on the Grab app) breakfast from a GF breakfast place. Lauren got a bagel with smoked salmon and Justin got a protein bowl filled with eggs, avocado, kimchi, rice, and black beans. After eating, Lauren crawled back into bed to nap more.
When she woke up a bit later, she told Justin to go do something without her since we didn’t have too much time in Hanoi to explore. We listed off our “must-dos” and realized that Justin really wanted to see Hỏa Lò Prison (a.k.a. the Hanoi Hilton) (Lauren was less excited about learning about torture and prisons) so he decided to walk the short 12 minutes over to it. Lauren continued to nap on and off throughout the morning.
Justin found the museum to be quite educational and sobering, albeit quite crowded. It was also interesting that in many of the tight-squeeze exhibit areas, there was a lot of pushing and shoving by some of the visitors – not so much the orderly museum-going experience we’re used to in the states. Justin would be actively reading a placard or something, and a little old lady would roughly shove her way in front of him. It was kind of amusing, actually.
The museum is not just about the infamous “Hanoi Hilton” prison where the North Vietnamese kept American prisoners of war. Instead, most of the museum focused on the initial purpose of the prison – used by the French colonialists to detain, torture, and execute Vietnamese nationalists and revolutionaries opposed to French occupation. During French rule, the prison was called Maison Centrale or Central House.
The prison was quite brutal, unsanitary, and dehumanizing. Vietnamese prisoners were kept on sloped slabs with their feet locked in chains at the foot of the “beds.” There were two holes atop cement steps where they could use the bathroom (in the same place where they were kept). Disease was rampant.
The museum contained fascinating stories of how the prisoners organized political activities, daring escapes through the sewers, and ultimately many of the revolutionaries would go on to form and/or join the Vietnamese Communist Party. Prisoners turned the prison into a revolutionary school, hiding teachings in invisible ink on the pages of Bibles and forming a political party to organize their beliefs.
When it came to American prisoners kept there during the Vietnam War, the tone changed dramatically. There was no mention of the cruel torture that the American P.O.W.’s received and most of the exhibits were focused on how humanely they were treated. While not surprising given that Vietnam is still a communist country, it was a stark juxtaposition between how they portrayed the conditions of the Vietnamese soldiers vs. the Americans.
It was definitely worth a visit, regardless.
When Justin got back, Lauren felt ready to explore the city a bit, so we went out to lunch at a highly rated restaurant called the MET. Lauren got the crispy Vietnamese pancakes (we are both going to miss these a lot), and Justin got a bowl of beef Pho since he too was still fighting chest congestion and cough.
After lunch, we headed to one of the infamous “train streets” to see if we could grab a drink while the train came through. We didn’t go to the most popular street since we heard conflicting information about whether it was going to be crowded or even open to the public at all. We found one café in the area that was full on the bottom floor, so we headed upstairs. We got a good seat by the railing and awaited the train. It got so close to the walls and was very loud, but definitely a cool experience.
It was then time to head back to Thang Long Water Puppetry Theatre to meet up with Pip and Elle for the show. We got decent seats about halfway up and centered to the stage. We also got audio guides that provided brief explanations of what we were seeing/about to see (these were definitely worth it).
Justin was very familiar with Vietnamese Water Puppetry, having completed a dramaturgy project (basically, commissioned research that theatres might conduct about the background, history, styles, traditions of a particular form of theatre before putting on a play) in IB Drama in high school. He actually emailed with several experts on the topic and visited the Atlanta Center for Puppetry Arts to see actual Vietnamese Water Puppets while he was working on his project.
In all, the show lasted about 50 minutes, and it was quite impressive to watch. Basically, the show was about 10-12 different short stories about Vietnamese culture and beliefs – for example, the dance of four sacred animals, the dragon, the turtle, the unicorn, and the phoenix. Puppeteers hid behind a giant pagoda with black screens on the bottom where the puppets would appear and leave the stage, which was a large indoor pond. The puppets are controlled by large sticks made of bamboo that go under the water and are controlled from behind the stage. Many of the sticks have strings or pulley systems to operate the limbs or other features of the puppets. Some of the puppets were extremely elaborate, such as the dragon or a row boat with 4 rowers on top. While the puppets moved in the water, musicians played and sang traditional Vietnamese music while two women narrated the stories.
It only took 16 years after Justin completed his project to see this type of performance in person and in Vietnam, which was very cool!
After the show, we said goodbye to our Aussie friends while learning that they would be joining us on our journey to Ninh Binh the next day! We then headed back to our hotel, ordered in some food, did laundry, went back to another pharmacy for more meds, and hit the hay.
Also fun fact: at the pharmacy, we learned that you can easily get over the counter opioids and antibiotics without a prescription.
