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In my last post I reminisced about my first real traveling experience out of the USA – to Hanoi, Vietnam. Of all my memorable experiences there I enjoyed most meeting the Vietnamese people and eating the amazing food.

After traveling half way around the world I met up with a friend who had been in Hanoi for several months already. Not one of the rare western-style hotels for me; I lived in the local dorm of the National University, which was less impressive than it sounds. The small room in a stark building down a narrow street in a corner of town not usually seen by tourists meant that I spent most of my time in the midst of the locals and experienced Vietnamese life first hand. That included the local kids begging for money (one 4 year old put on her saddest looking face for my benefit) and the occasional swarm of 10 year olds competing to offer their shoe-shining prowess to me.

Many of my meals took place on the streets. And I mean this literally – squatting on the sidewalk eating Bun Nhan (duck noodle soup), Bun Oc (snail and noodle soup) or Bun Mum Tom (noodles dipped into a ghastly smelling shrimp paste). The proprietor would grab a handful of noodles, throw them briefly in boiling broth (with the chicken or duck bones still swimming around), and then ladle it into a bowl. You grabbed your own chopsticks from a cup holding a dozen or so (making sure you wiped them off before using, if you’re smart). Clean up is easy, you just throw everything on the ground. Generally an open sewer ran along the curb and everything went into it, including children relieving themselves as their proud parents looked on. As startling as this may seem to westerners, it was a normal occurrence. It also emphasized what was Vietnam’s greatest resource at the time – its people. There were so many people in Hanoi that each evening an army of men and women came out with large straw brooms and swept up the city. They even separated out usable materials from materials that have unquestionably reached the final state of being trash. Quite amazing.

Here’s a quick look at the street food in Hanoi posted on YouTube by uncorneredmarket. Note that this looks exceptionally upscale compared to most of the spots I ate.

Though my time in Vietnam was way too short I didn’t just stay in Hanoi. Hopping on the back of one of the Xe Om motorbike taxis I had rented for the day ($20 for two, a month’s income for the drivers), I ventured far out from the city to two of the small villages. Bach Trang specialized in making pottery, most of which was brought into Hanoi on bicycles or carts pulled by an ox or pony. The other village was called Nhing Heip, which was reached by an extremely bumpy Xe Om ride over rough roads. Nhing Heip is where they make fabric, and was the location of one of my fondest memories from the trip. Because very few westerners ever make it there, my oddly pale face attracted a great deal of attention. This was especially true with three little girls of about 4 years old who would run up to me and then run away and push their friends toward me, all the while laughing hysterically. My companion informed me that they kept saying “Look how white he is.” The commotion they were causing led to one of the girls’ grandfather seeing us and inviting us into his house for tea.

The house was actually a single room that resembled more a garage with a simple fabric covering the large opening. Over the course of the next 20 minutes or so we drank many cups of tea while he chatted away in Vietnamese about how America is rich and Vietnam is very poor but they work very hard (he was obviously proud of his culture). Of course, most of this I found out after the fact from my companion since I had learned only about 10 words of the language in my four days in Vietnam. I had no idea what he was saying but I enjoyed it immensely. It was a most delightful and memorable experience and one that I will treasure forever.

A conversation I didn’t understand of which I would be reminded years later when I engaged in another discussion where neither I nor the gentleman I was conversing with had any idea what we were saying to each other. More on that event in a later article.

More on my travels.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, now available. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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[Daily Post]

I admit that I grew up a rather sheltered child in a small New England town. After many years where world travel was defined as an occasional weekend jaunt a stone’s throw into Canada, I suddenly found myself flying halfway around the world to Vietnam. And not just any place in Vietnam – Hanoi, the former capital of the Communist North that became the new capital of the reunified Socialist Republic of Vietnam. To provide even more perspective, this was in late 2000, before the United States opened up trade relations and long before Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization to become part of the modern world. It was still the period where memories of the “American War” were still toggling around in the minds of every surviving 50 year old male. Yes, I went to Hanoi before going to Hanoi became cool.

It was in these novel surroundings that my first taste of world travel gave me some of the fondest memories that remain with me today.

Bigger than I expected, Hanoi itself was incredibly busy. Thousands of people on motor scooters and bicycles crowded every street. Many of them wore scarfs over their mouths and noses because the air was so polluted. As I rode around town on my Xe om (a kind of motor bike taxi), it was interesting to contrast the many tiny streets teeming with people doing business on the sidewalks with the ornate mustard-yellow official buildings left over from the many years of French occupation. The mausoleum of Vietnam’s revered former leader Ho Chi Minh (called “Uncle Ho” by the locals), had a prominent place in a large square. Usually visitors can see his preserved body there, but at the time of my trip he was in the middle of an official face-lift, so to speak, so a visit to the adjacent museum had to suffice. Within its halls I wandered into a back room where local musicians played traditional Vietnamese instruments and sang haunting melodies. After the show one attractive musician handed me, the lone westerner in the small room, a ravishing red rose and a seductive smile.

One interesting feature of Hanoi was that shops were clumped by item. By this I don’t mean just that each store sold only one type of item; I mean all the stores on entire streets sold only one type of item. In the US the norm is to find strip malls with one drug store, one shoe store, one clothing store – one of each type of item you might want to buy on a single trip. In Hanoi, one street was dedicated to selling shoes and every alcove on that street sold shoes and nothing but shoes. Other streets were designated to sell coats or silk or “gifts for the tourists.” If you didn’t like one store, you merely walked next door. To this day I still don’t completely understand the concept but I can say that I feel the warmth of the pullover jacket I purchased there.

On another street I ordered three silk shirts. The proprietor of the shop let me pick the colors from a room stacked high with bolts of the finest silk, then measured me every which way you can possibly measure a man’s upper torso. This was late one afternoon. After lunch the very next day I returned to find three perfectly handmade silk shirts that fit like they were made for me. Which of course they were. Overnight. I don’t recall how many Vietnamese dong the shirts cost me, but I do remember that it was equivalent to about $20 each.

I learned a lot while in Hanoi, but what really amazed me was the warm welcome I received from the people. Well, at least the ones that weren’t trying to charge “the rich American” three times the price paid by the locals. In my next post I’ll have more on the people – and the food – of Hanoi and an incredible tea party I had in a village outside the city. You won’t want to miss it. See Part 2 here.

More on my Travels.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

David J. Kent is the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, scheduled for release July 31, 2017. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricityand Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time andAbraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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