Getting There Is Half The Fun...

Van Mieu (Part 1)
All right, so we didn’t visit the place until after we’d spent a weekend at Halong Bay but how does one not feel excited about a place devoted to Literature? I love that there’s something like this in Vietnam. You can’t have a temple devoted to any of the arts/ humanities subjects in Singapore without someone giving it a “what’s profitable about this” treatment and turning it into something horrible like what was done to Haw Par Villa.

(Deep breath. Rant mode off.)

OK, focus (or how Madame Ivanna says it in Kevin Smith's ‘Mallrats’, “fuckus”).

The temple was some distance from the Old Quarter where our modest 7-storey hotel was, so it was an interesting walk.

The plan had been to stop by the Army Museum first, but it was closed the whole time we were there (first for Tet, then for maintenance, I guess). I did get a shot of the Hanoi Flag Tower though. That’s supposed to be some sort of Symbol of Hanoi – built between 1805 and1812 and one of few things not destroyed by the French as they fled. Across from it though was a little park dedicated to Lenin. He used to have a huge park named after him (over 50 hectares, according to the LP) to the south, but it had been renamed Liberation Park some time between 1999 and now. So this little nook, formerly known as Chi Lang Park, unofficially, is his now. Poor guy. Shafted again.

Then there were the AK-47-toting embassy guards at every intersection of Embassy District. I would have taken a photo of them if not for the fact that most Vietnamese are a little more touchy about having their photographs taken. These guards didn’t look older than the National Servicemen back home, so their judgement is somewhat suspect. No sense rubbing them the wrong way – I’m pretty sure they carry more than just 5 rounds of ammunition in their magazines.

Just before we rounded the corner to the main entrance of Van Mieu, there were calligraphers in shops across the road or at street stalls propped up against the walls that ring the temple. Quite appropriate, I thought.

There were more touts, streets vendors and souvenir sellers loitering outside Van Mieu than we’d seen the whole time we were in Hanoi. I had to fend off a rather persistent postcard seller who eventually saw me off at the entrance to the temple while trying to extract a promise from me to buy something from him “later”.

Yumei says it’s how I would actually look at the wares that gives them hope. Interest is a bad thing. Apparently, hope is too. I suppose I ask for it sometimes because I feel guilty about it and all. But this was after I had met two very enterprising old men just outside the temple grounds. I have the feeling they’d done this before a million times, judging by how quickly they went into action. I swear, not even the SOF commandos moved as quickly during the demonstration when we were at their camp for a National Education visit just before we graduated from teacher training.

We’d walked right into a group of French tourists at that time. We didn’t feel like pushing past them so we’d ambled along in their midst. To our right were two barbershop chairs set up along the road, and their owners were standing by them watching our approach with some interest.

“You want photo?” one asked, when we got within earshot. “Photo?”

Sure, why the hell not?

Immediately, Old Man #1 grabs a pair of scissors and a comb and gets into position. Old Man #2 hops into one of the chairs and throws the sheet over himself. It took them less than two seconds to do that. Snip snip. Snap snap.

“That’s 2 dollar please.”

What?

“U. S. 2 dollar.”

Man. That’s a first. Most expensive photograph I’ve taken so far. I present that to you here. At least I wasn’t the only one who fell for it.

Ehh-nyway…

Next post: Inside Van Mieu (Part 2)