Heads Up!

Roman was leading another Saturday morning three-hour tour, so I of course got shanghaied into tagging along.  Today, the name of the game is architecture, specifically French influence.  And there's a lot, let me tell ya.  There's a looooottttttt of history that I'm not going into, because this is a blog and not a lecture hall.  So we're just going to look at some pretty pictures and enjoy the view.

Starting out at the statue of Ly Thai To, emperor 1009-1028 and founder of the Ly Dynasty, which was a pretty awesome one.

Gazebo with French influences and teenagers hip-hop dancing.

The Bank. It's a transition between Art Deco (ornately decorated) and Machine Age (stream-lined) styles.

Art Deco door of the Bank.

The Dome of The Bank.

Asian Dragons + Greek Columns = Kickass Chimera

The governor's house with  French details, including lion head reliefs and ornate awning.

Metropole Hotel, built by the French at the turn of the century.

The Opera House! Absolutely sensational!

Former French department store, rebuilt as the stock exchange.

The History Museum, designed by Ernest Hebrard in the Idochine style. Lovely.

Fabulous example of Art Deco.

And again, through the back door.

After walking around for three-plus hours, we hopped the bus to the Botanical Garden to attend a picnic.  Although no longer an actual botanical garden, it is still a lovely park with a plethora of giant trees, peacocks, and unfortunately adorable monkeys in cages.  I'm very much aware of the fact that humans and monkeys share 98% of the same DNA, but this connection is one about which I very rarely think.  Observing these creatures with hands so like my own, watching a baby monkey scoot around the cage in such a child-like fashion, noting the complete lack of foliage on which to climb and hang and leap, was absolutely heart-breaking.  I stood there as long as I could, I suppose in an attempt to lend some kind of moral support to these distant cousins, but eventually had to turn away with tears in my eyes.

Dragon at the entrance to the park made from plates and tile by the village of Bat Trang.

Pigeon coup sky-rise.

Fortunately, the picnic helped to lift my spirits.  It was put on by a friend of Roman's who runs an English-teaching program.  There were games and food and many curious young Hanoians who were eager to practice their English with me.  Most were college students or recent college graduates and all were very jovial and sweet.  I must have taken a dozen pictures with them--each wanted a photo with the exoticism.

Roman really wanted me to put this story in, so here goes.

Roman then had a very unusual "business meeting" with this woman who'd found his name on a few websites about Hanoi.  She was looking for someone to promote a national forest area complete with camping and a supposedly quaint and traditional village.  He informed her that he's not a tour guide or a publicist or really even looking to be in business at all, but she insisted on transporting him and a few of his friends all the way out there (about an hour west of Hanoi) next week so he can check it out and hopefully post their events on his various websites and forums.  There's not a whole lot he can do, but he assured her everything within his power would be done.  The best I can say about the whole thing is that the chicken soup at the restaurant where we met was delicious and helped stave off this fluke of a bone-chillingly cold winter Hanoi's been having.

There, Roman. You're welcome.

Today's highlight: attending a concert at Hanoi Rock City by the UK band THE LOST SOULS CLUB.  Recently opened in December, HRC is a cool, slightly industrial structure catering mostly to ex-pats.  I'd never heard of the band, but found them on a local events website.  They were described as similar to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, with whom I'm currently in love, so for five bucks I couldn't pass up the opportunity to CHECK THEM OUT: Leave The Light On.  They were fabulous, blending dark blues and rock in a toe-tapping, body-swaying-inducing beat that gets in your blood and revs the pounding of your heart up to tempo.