Two Marchies in Ha Noi

So, my brother Luke arrived in Ha Noi late Wednesday night. I figured I would give him a proper Ha Noi welcome by picking him up from the airport on my motorbike. The airport is a bit removed from Ha Noi, so it takes about 45 minutes to get there from my house. The amount of little bugs attracted to my headlight was dreadful, and I found a good many in my shirt once I got home to shower. Riding a motorbike here can be a dirty business especially on construction roads, which happen to be most of them, but once again, it's all part of the experience. Luckily, all the lights from the 1,000 Year Celebrations are still up, so we were able to take Luke down some decorated streets. He got to meet a lot of my friends over the weekend, despite his jet-lag induced early evening naps (the term "nap" is a bit of an understatement here). But, I recall the intensity of my jet-lag upon arrival (Ha Noi and NYC have a 12 hour difference), and the body literally needs to reverse its sleep cycle, which is no easy feat.

This past Saturday, Luke, Son, and I all went to Hoa Lo prison, located a few blocks away from my house. It was a rainy afternoon, which made the experience all the more sombre. The American pilots who stayed here as P.O.W.s referred to the place as the Ha Noi Hilton Hotel (maybe some of you from home have heard of the prison in this regard). The treatment of Vietnamese prisoners was absolutely atrocious by the French, but once the Vietnamese took over they apparently did a better job of keeping the prisoners comfortable (if that can be possible). There are multiple images of the American pilots playing basketball, carving Christmas turkeys, putting up Christmas decorations, playing billiards, playing guitar, etc. It painted a very rosy picture of the whole ordeal, but given my ignorance concerning the actualities of their stay at "The Hilton", I wasn't sure what to believe. Either way, the preserved prison was very interesting, and despite all the hardships associated with the place, ironically beautiful. Constructed by the French at the time of their arrival to house political prisoners, it resembles a sprawling French mansion from the outside (but upon entering, the scene obviously turns a bit grisly).

In the evening a bunch of my friends all got together to go to snake street, since I wanted Luke to experience something tooootally different. I already posted about my snake village experience so I will spare giving the details yet again, but a very authentic experience was had by all. We left the village to go to my friend Nico's house, as he was having a bunch of people over. We were there until midnight, when the police showed up and tried to get everyone to leave. Given the midnight curfew, this happens all the time and at almost every venue, be it a bar, a house, or even the street. So for the most part, people headed outside, pretended to leave, and came right back in again once the police boarded their truck and were off. Sure enough, about an hour later, they were back again. This time they were serious, and would not depart until we were all dispersing on our motorbikes. I took this opportunity to drive Luke around and head to a local watering hole that tends to disregard police curfew (or pay them off...) and stays open late. Due to his jet lag, I was the more tired between the two Marchies, but it was fun nonetheless. Luke is getting to know a bunch of my Ha Noi crowd, which he agrees are pretty neat people. After hearing from all my friends the ridiculous amount of money people get paid to teach English, I think he is considering what it would be like to live here.

On Sunday, I insisted that Luke come with me to the market, despite the fact he was begging me to sleep off his jet lag. Instead of relenting, I forced him out of his makeshift bed and off we went into the Sunday market craziness. Although he was in a bit of a stupor, I was able to show him around one of the oldest and most famous markets in Ha Noi. We grabbed some spring roll supplies (no surprise here) and headed back to my house to cook them. Well, I cooked them... Luke got a bit bored after rolling his second spring roll. We met a couple friends for Bit Tet (which I know I constantly talk about but I have definitely developed a bit of an obsession) and got to bed around 8:30 PM, in the hopes that his jet lag would be cured by Monday.

Now that it's Monday, he seems a bit on the mend. Tonight I am taking him to another favorite cuisine of mine, seafood noodles. This is only a block away so we don't have to cope with any rush hour traffic since we can just walk it. Luke has been very lazy about using a camera, but I am forcing him not only to get out and take pictures, but to write a blog entry too, so everyone can hear about Viet Nam from his perspective. Expect something written by Luke in the next few days. :)