Around Town

- This is one beautiful [French] City

Here is a shot of the Governors' Palace, a beautiful French Colonial building that Uncle Ho said he didn't use.  He probably wasn't even in town.  The Army Museum has an excellent diorama showing the battle of Dien Bien Phu in spine-chilling detail. The peasant army mounted a brilliant and disciplined operation against what European experts called an impregnable fortress and methodically reduced it, one piece at a time. 

John and I walked for three hours in the afternoon with map and compass, looking for St. Joseph's Cathedral. We walked back and forth for miles and never found it, but it was a beautiful walk. Later we were looking at another map and found it and many other sites are placed on the map sort of at random. The cathedral was about 6 blocks from where it was indicated. 

There was another object of our quest: peanut brittle. It is excellent when available. Finally, we found it in a little street front shop staffed by an elderly couple. We purchased two large packs for 5,000 Dong each. John spoke to the old man in French for some reason, and the gentleman smiled and replied in fluent French. We ended up going back each day for brittle and water, and became very attached to the family, finally having a photo taken with the entire extended family. 

In late afternoon, we visited the Temple of Literature, and I am sorry I left my camera in the hotel. It was beautiful and ancient. It was founded in 1070 to train the Mandarin Class for civil leadership in the country. There is a stele erected for each graduating class for a number of years until the college was moved to Hue when the Nguyen Dynasty chose that city as the capital in the 15th Century. I asked again about school and was told by Nga that only "preferenced" families children received free education, that is those who fought for the North in the war. 

The driver dropped us off a bit early for the Water Puppet show, so John and I dangled our legs off the bank of the Lake of the Restored Sword. Legend says that in the 15th Century, the gods gave Emperor Ly Thai To (Le Loi) a magical sword, which he used to drive out the Chinese in one of their frequent invasions. After the war, the king was boating in this lake and a giant tortoise appeared and seized the sword, carrying it into the depths, back to the gods. It turned out to be the feature story in the Water Puppet show a bit later. 

The Water Puppet Theater features an indigenous form of entertainment. The puppet characters appear in a pond, operated by skilled people in the water behind a bamboo screen. A millennium ago, this was a popular diversion for village folk whenever a troop visited. One of the folk stories portrayed was the return of Le Loi's sword to the gods. It was interesting, sort of, and the live music quite strange to a western ear.

Let's go:  West to visit Montagnards of Hoa Binh