biking the soaring dragon city

legend has it that in the 15th century the gods sent emperor ly thai to a magical sword to defeat the chinese, who had ruled viet nam for one millenia. once victorious the emperor was met by a golden tortoise who took this sword from ly, descended into the lake, and returned it to its divine owners.

today, ho hoan kiem (lake of the restored sword) serves as a focal point in ha nois charming, 1000-yr-old, french colonial-style old quarter. magically, giant tortoises (rafetus leloii) (supposedly) still lurk in the big pond. a dead 250kg specimen was found in 1968 and a 2000 photo provided more recent 'proof,' loch-ness style. legend aside, today the lake is a central gathering place for this bustling capital city of 3.5 million. while jogging this morn, i saw gobs of locals in the midst of various fitness regimen, like badminton (with and w/o racquets), fan dances, stretching, and the occasional shirtless upside down man doing reverse situps with his legs dangling up in the air.

a haphazard exchange of narrow streets with oft-changing names like 'roasted fish st,' 'bamboo lattices st' and 'clam worms st' (translated, of course) lead away from the lake. unlike saigons district 1, the old quarter boasts heaps of campy french architecture that, at first glance, doesnt complement the citys undeniable grit and crumble, nor the ubiquitous, brightly colored, child-sized plastic stools where pho eaters and coffee drinkers compete with mopeds for a slice of the narrow sidewalk. sure its visual overload, but everything magically fits into creating a charismatic urban jungle.

kris and i rented bicycles (holy sheet!) and gambled with our lives in order to see more of the old quarter en route to tourist traps. innumerable wrong turns and side swipes later, we had visited the temple of literature (viet nams first university built in 1070 dedicated to confucius), the weird and difficult to navigate ho chi minh complex (the mausoleum featuring his glass sarcophagus was closed on mondays) and had lunch at koto, a nonprofit restaurant and vocational training program for ha noi street youth. the food was ok, the staff so endearing. the menus use of dollar $igns instead of ampersands was humorous tho problematic since it subconsciously made everything seem pricey.

one of our final ha noi stops was the roi nuoc thang long theatre. water puppetry is an amazing folk art indigenous to northern vietnamese farmers that incorporates traditional song and music with beautiful and agile fig-wood puppets. the human and animal dolls are manipulated by puppeteers who stand waist-deep in water hidden behind a screen and an elaborate backdrop (thankfully rubber waders mean they no longer die of water borne illnesses). im easily distracted when it comes to this sort of thing but was enthralled the entire 90 mins.

ha noi in an enchanting place. smaller and less hectic than saigon, its busy narrow streets lined by skinny 4-6 storey french-inspired facades. all of this is thankfully interrupted by the soaring dragon citys many lakes and the great red river.
more viet nam photos here.