As I drive through Gulshan road 24 everyday, the big posters of vast paddy fields, a winding bridge held by two gigantic palms and a water body with sprouting mossy hills allure me to visit the places. They are all displayed on the boundary wall of the Vietnam Embassy. I'm intrigued to visit the country. I hear that the landscape is somewhat similar to Bangladesh because the country produces a lot of rice. It is a war-torn country which gained independence in 1945 from the French; but immediately afterwards it went into a civil war that was between the communist North Vietnam supported by Soviet Union and China and the anti-communist South Vietnam supported by the United States. The war ended in 1975 and the country united under communist rule. So, when my favourite travel guide Wander Woman offered a trip, I immediately signed in. In September 2022 a group of 12 women travelled to Hanoi, the thousand-year-old capital of Vietnam. The city is abundant with architecture of South East Asia with influences of French and the Chinese. In the city I found a statue representing the war. Ho Chi Min is the revolutionary leader and President who led Vietnam on the path of freeing it from the grip of imperial power. The fact that he seemed to be alive in the psyche of the Vietnamese people is reiterated when we visited his mausoleum. Ho Chi Min was the Chairman of Workers' party of Vietnam till he passed away in 1969. But his remains were embalmed and preserved till date. This was the first time I saw an embalmed body apart from the ones on television that is. It looked as though person was asleep and not like the Egyptian mummies. We walked inside the freezing cold chamber where Ho Chi Min's body is laid in a glass chamber that is surrounded by four guards on four sides. The Mausoleum is in the Ba Dinh Square which is the biggest square in Vietnam with 250 different species of trees which have been collected from different parts of the country. We were told that the mausoleum was inspired from Lenin's Tomb in Moscow.
Next we went to see the oldest university of Vietnam, it is called the Temple of Literature, dedicated to Confucius, other sages and scholars. It was built in 1070. It has three courtyards and as students passed each exam, they were allowed to go the into inner courtyard one by one. The students were taught Chinese philosophy and Chinese history both in Chinese and Vietnamese languages. There were some stelae with inscriptions on them. The students had to memorize these inscriptions in order to be promoted to the next level. The examinations were open to all young men of property except criminals, musicians, singers and those in mourning. Just before the Vietnamese new year celebration, calligraphers assemble around the premise and write wishes, which are then given away.
We visited Hoa Lo Prison, which is another tourist spot that stands a witness to Colonialism. The prison was made in 1896 by the French. It is one of the unbreakable prisons in the world with walls 4 meters high and .5 meters thick. There are some dummy prisoners with iron shackles. There is a guillotine and other brutal torture instruments for display. The conditions of the prisoners must have been unbearable as they were huddled together with handcuffs and chains on their feet. It shows how brutal human race can get against one another.
Our next destination was the ancient city of Hoi An. It is a well preserved South Asian trading port that was famous in 15th to 19th century. Vietnam celebrates Full moon Festival on the 15th day of 8th lunar month, and coincidentally we were present there on that day. It was swarming with people, rickshaws and bikes, it was difficult for the local people to walk around and we were just overwhelmed in the crowd.
There are many canals running through Hoi An city and there is a lantern festival where the inhabitants light handcrafted paper lanterns and float them away, wishing to drive out all the negative elements from their lives. UNESCO declared the city as a World Heritage Site in 1999. In respect of the tradition some of us floated some paper lanterns while going through the canals on boats.
The Vietnamese rickshaws were available to go from place to place. Unlike our rickshaws the rickshaw puller sitting at the back of the passenger seats made it an interesting ride. Even though they produce rice, the favourite food for the Vietnamese is broth and noodles. Danang is a commercial and educational center of Vietnam, it is situated near the River Han. One can observe amazing sunset views from different parts of the city. We visited Ba Na Hills which is nestled in the Truong Son Mountain range at the height of 1400 metres, we rode on cable cars to go there. It is 30 km away from Danang. Here we experienced what they called 'four seasons' in a day. It was cold, then it was sunny and then it rained and we felt hot later in the day. We were advised to carry umbrellas and a change of clothes. This was the place where we found the famous Golden Bridge made in 2018 with its gilded railing frames held in gigantic palms. There is a face, nose and ears made of stones in different parts of the complex, it is abundant with flowering plants and numerous trees. It is a tourist spot with every sense of the words.
Ha Long Bay was exceptionally breath-taking with its limestone mountains, pristine beaches, mysterious caves and grottos. We took an overnight cruise on a ship and visited the Surprise Cave or Sung Sot Cave which has a small entrance but huge interior with many different shapes and forms of limestone structures. One has to climb up the rock stairs to get inside the 10,000 square-meter wide and 500 meter long cave, it is as high as 30 meters. It was first discovered by French travellers in 1901 and called Grotte Des Surprise. There is a royal garden with a pond and landscape of small mountains with birds and living plants. The sunlight filters from an opening above and magical rainbow coloured ambience is created from time to time. We went to the most primitive cave called the Thien Cung Cave or Paradise cave. It has a lot of stalactite structures and droplets of water drip from different places of the structures. Even though the inside of the caves has breathtaking views and there were many interesting structures; the inside is unbearably hot and once the tour ends the cool breeze of the Bay is a refreshing welcome. We visited the caves with small rowing boats from our cruise ships and saw cute little monkeys roaming around the caves. We had some green coconuts on the beach which was a final place to see for that day. There were many visitors from all over the world. Even though it seems like having similar weather and topography of Bangladesh, the country is a fast developing one with everything kept in an organised way. The people are hardworking, friendly and very optimistic.
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