The time has come, the Walrus said... (Addendum 3)

To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings.


The time has come for my last post on Vietnam and Cambodia.  It's going to be, more or less, a scrapbook of my favorite photos and experiences.  Aussie Sue asked me on my last day in Hanoi what my favorite experience had been.  I was at a loss.  There were so many things I saw and did and ate and felt, it feels impossible to pinpoint a trip highlight.  But I'll try to narrow it down to a basketful of personal picks.

Cambodia was incredible.  Angkor, breath-taking.  Ta Prohm left me in awe.  This temple is definitely my favorite from our Tet-cation.  Vietnam is more difficult.  Five weeks...I don't know if it's possible to choose just one thing that stands out above all the others.  My first xe om ride?  The chocolate buffet at the Metropole?  Visiting the Temple of Literature and buying calligraphy along one of its walls?  Discovering the Buddha Forest inside the Fine Arts Museum?  Figuring out the bus system for the first time?  Taking my walking tour of the Old Quarter?  Watching Little Britain with Kyle and Roman after dinner and over Bailey's?  Seeing The Maltese Falcon at the Cinematheque?  It's probably going to sound like a corny cop-out, but I think the best part of my trip was meeting and getting to know so many amazing people, whether local, tourist, or ex-pat.  I'll be forever grateful to my favorite paternal uncles for opening their home and their lives to me.  Thanks, choo.

Dear Hanoi, I miss you. Do you miss me? <3 Mary

Bar Hopping

My time is running out.  I'm not ready to leave.  I thought I would be by this point, but I'm not.  I have to, though.  The longer I stay, the harder it will be to go back to the life from which I've taken a break.  I was generously invited to go on a last-minute holiday to Singapore Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but I can't even imagine having had to give up any of the sights I've squeezed in these final days.

Friday I got off to a late-ish start.  I know.  Here I am complaining about how much more I want to absorb of Hanoi, and I slept in.  But I wouldn't have been able to properly appreciate any mini-adventures running on fumes, which I had been for several days while trying to fill as much time as possible with Vietnam.  So I set off for a site I've been meaning to visit for a while: the Hanoi Hilton.  Before you get the wrong idea, let me swiftly clarify by saying that "Hanoi Hilton" is the name given to the prison that housed American soldiers shot down or arrested in 1964-1973 during the American War and Vietnamese revolutionists during the French colonial period before that.  Built in 1896, it apparently replaced a small village, about which the Vietnamese still seem pretty testy if the slightly incendiary and very blaming informative plaques are anything to go by.  They use phrases like "French oppression," "persecuted body and mind," "machine of suppression," and "imperialistic prison"...I think they might still be holding a small grudge. 

Central House, I guess? A.k.a. Hanoi Hilton.

It now sits in the shadow of Hanoi Towers, an upscale ex-pat apartment and shopping center.

Main door locks.

Catching a glimpse of this face through the bars scared the hell out me! I actually audibly gasped and jumped a few inches. Also, it's in the freaking DUNGEON! There's a DUNGEON!

 

Male prisoner stockade.

Death row cell.  This is about the time that the heeby jeebies really started to set in. :/

Oh, there's also a freaking GUILLOTINE! By the way, do any of you have any idea how difficult it is to photograph a GUILLOTINE?! Because it's hard.

There was also this lovely photo of decapitated heads being put on display in baskets to warn others against revolutionary activities.

Sixteen prisoners escaped through this sewer in 1951.

So in the area focusing of the American War period, they had all these displays trying to show what wonderful conditions American soldiers were kept in, including real twin beds, games to play, books, a guitar, and even photos of soldiers decorating Christmas trees! Right. And I'm the Queen of England. Pip pip!

After this fairly depressing mini-adventure, I needed some serious serotonin.  Fortunately, the Metropole Hotel (which is a real hotel, unlike the Hanoi Hilton) has every single day a CHOCOLATE BUFFET.  Yes, dear friends and family, an entire all-you-can-stuff-your-face-with smorgasbord of cocoa concoctions and delicious delicacies.  There were bon-bons, petit fours, mousse, chocolate creme brulee, ice creams, a chocolate fountain, cookies, crepes, and the literal creme de la creme--hot chocolate, but not like any hot chocolate you or I have ever had before.  That stuff I can now only consider swill.  This hot chocolate was poured by the gods to Earth to give humans a hint of a shadow of what they're missing up in the heavens.  My life will never be the same.

Oh, Metropole. How I wish I could afford to sleep in you.

I'm this little garden building has an actual name, but I just think of it as Where's the Chocolate Already?

Roman was a beast. I LOVE chocolate, but I think Roman would willingly have hybrid human-chocolate babies if it were scientifically possible.

Choco-coffee bon-bons. They have little coffee beans edibly painted on top!

This was my first plate...of three. I also had to take a little savory break and partake of some finger sandwiches.

Personalized crepe-maker!

The hot chocolate was made by heating heavy cream and adding broken chocolate bars till boiling.  It was the best thing that has ever existed in the history of the universe. Maybe the Ultimate Question is "How many cups of this hot chocolate should you drink everyday?"

After gorging ourselves on chocolate for two and a half hours, we had (not surprisingly) very little appetite, so we met Kyle, Ken and Aussie David and Aussie Sue (the couple who had us over for dinner right before Tet) for drinks at the Cinematheque bar before taking in an Israeli film entitled Passover Fever.  It was kind of a weird movie, but it had been kind of a weird day, so I didn't particularly mind.  The highlight was the Amaretto Sour I got at the bar, just a little preview of what awaits me next week when my three best friends and I meet up for Savannah Reunion Weekend 2011.  If I have to leave, at least there's something worth leaving for waiting for me. :D

Can't wait for the plethora of Amaretto Sours that will await me in Savannah!

P.S.--Bonus points for figuring out the ingeniousness of this post's title.  That's right.  I'm really clever.  Thanks for noticing.  ;)