Christmas ... brought to you this year by Heineken!

December 25

Christmas in Vietnam didn’t quite feel like Christmas at home … or Christmas in general for that matter. A relatively high percentage of Vietnamese people are Catholic. Catering to them and probably marketing to the Christian tourists, Christmas decorations abounded in both Hanoi and Saigon. Christmas trees (some even “sponsored” by Heineken!), fake styrofoam snow and skinny Vietnamese Santas with motorbike helmets under their clothes to create fat bellies abounded. Christmas tunes were in the air. Certainly the chilly air in Hanoi felt more seasonally appropriate than the heat of Saigon. But as with Thanksgiving, the real signs of Christmas were missing: being around my family, gift wrapping while picturing the smiles on my family’s faces as they opened my gifts (I had already sent gifts home from Bali and from Thailand), the smell of Mom’s amazing pumpkin bread filling the house, my brother making cheese and sausage balls in the kitchen while chatting about sports with my Dad. Through my travels I’ve discovered that holidays are only meaningless days on a calendar if I’m not with my family. So I enjoyed a fancy French dinner on Christmas Eve and, although it tasted delicious, it was simply a fancy French dinner completely unrelated in my mind to the holiday at hand.

Interestingly, walking “home” from dinner, I encountered thousands of Vietnamese celebrating like mad in the streets. They gathered in droves on their motorbikes and waived huge Vietnam flags. At the time, I thought they were celebrating Christmas Eve. I later found out they were going nuts because their soccer team had bested Thailand for the first time in ten years in the AFF (Asian East) Cup (a soccer cup played for by eight different Asian teams). With one more win (or even a tie, as it turns out happened four days later), the AFF Cup title would be Vietnam’s for the first time in history. Even though I didn’t understand the reason for the celebration at the time, I appreciated the festive spirit which, oddly, imbibed me with a bit of excitement about Christmas.

my Christmas Eve dinner ... rack of lamb

Christmas Day, however, was pretty “un-Christmassy.” Eric and I exchanged gifts (Coincidentally, we got each other the same thing: Hans Kemp’s “Bikes of Burden” book which we’d both been eyeing and enjoying in the bookstores. It’s the one I mentioned a few entries back with hundreds of photos of motorbikes in Vietnam and their interesting and humorous cargo). Neither of us could find Christmas paper to wrap the presents in so, on top of the general “day like every other day feeling,” the exchange didn’t feel quite as festive as we both might have liked.

I had read about some interesting alleyways in Old Quarter Hanoi where street kitchens (ranging from mobile food stalls to permanent “restaurants” where all the food is cooked outside on the street) specialized in a variety of traditional Vietnamese noodle dishes such as bun cha, bum nem cua be and pho bo, so we went to check it out for lunch. We found just such an alley and seated ourselves among a group of Vietnamese at a knee high table on the kid-sized stools and ordered two of whatever was being served (naturally, no one spoke English). We were the only Westerners in sight so it seemed we were on the right track. Turns out “what was being served” was fried tofu, chunks of fresh rice noodles (bun moc) and a plate of veggies served with shrimp sauce (mam tom).

a shrimp sauce lunch

Shrimp sauce is generally made the same way the Vietnamese make their infamous fish sauce (nuoc mam): by fermenting shrimp in vats of salt for six months to one year then extracting the liquid which, not surprisingly, smells pretty rank. The street kitchen owner showed us obvious newbies how to prepare our shrimp sauce by squeezing lime into it causing it to froth up. I dunked the noodles and tofu in the sauce as I saw the other locals doing and popped them in my mouth … eeeeeewwwwww! Shrimp sauce tastes nasty! (Just as you would expect the juice of rotten salty shrimp to taste!) I was determined to eat this Vietnamese specialty though, or at least give it a second try. Adding sugar, garlic, chili and every other condiment on the table to my shrimp sauce made it more palatable, but I was quite careful after that first bite to only nominally dip, not dunk.

After lunch, we spent the afternoon wandering and photographing around Hanoi’s delightfully intriguing Old Quarter where I observed the new trend in Vietnamese baby-wear: hats with locks of long blond hair flowing from the top like a ponytail. Seeing cute little brown-faced Vietnamese babies with long blond hair was pretty funny. Down the street, funerary shops cut and engraved the marble for headstones right on the sidewalk. In fact, it’s quite common for people to operate heavy-duty power tools and welding equipment within inches of where the public walks throughout Southeast Asia. Many times as I’ve been boarding or de-boarding a boat, the only walkway to or from leads right over a man welding some portion of the dock that’s only inches away from my feet. OSHA employees would be pulling their hair out over here!

a colorful little shop in Hanoi's Old Quarter

Other highlights of Old Quarter Hanoi were the food markets with beautiful fruit artfully displayed along with interesting fish and sea creatures for sale, both whole and chopped up, some still wiggling, alongside a myriad of pieces and parts of other animals just waiting to become someone’s supper. Asian markets, while fascinating, are not for the feint of heart or stomach.

Old Quarter is a riot of colors with shops carrying all kinds of handicrafts and souvenirs such as bright red Chinese lanterns, multi-colored bamboo rice bowls, bags and stuffed animals made by ethnic hilltribes of intricately stitched fabrics, gorgeous silk ao dais and jackets. Knockoffs of North Face, Samsonite and many other kinds of backpacks and luggage are on every other corner. On the corners where knockoff backpacks are not sold, pirated DVDs of the latest movies are, usually for as cheap as $1. I’ve learned that the newer the movie, the less likely the quality is to be good. On more than one occasion, I’ve been left holding my breath at the climax of the movie when the disc froze and flashed the message “Skipping damaged sections” … only to skip all the way to the the credits.

very cozy friends

Although the Vietnamese eat dog, particularly in the North (and winter is apparently prime dog-eating season … and I hear they’re served with shrimp sauce … double blechk!), dogs are surprisingly abundant in Vietnam as pets. Many of these pet dogs are dressed in shirts and sweaters, perhaps to keep them warm although I think it’s equally plausible that dressing them marks them as “not for dinner.” I got tickled by two such comical canines on the Old Quarter streets each wearing fleece dresses while playing, and eventually humping, in the street.

 I love the walls in Hanoi’s Old Quarter which are generally very old and picturesque yellow plaster cracked and peeling to reveal bricks underneath. Apparently, these yellow walls also double as Yellow Pages. Local handimen and movers stencil their names and phone numbers on them. At first I thought that one particular wall had the name of the same KH Cat Be Tong stenciled twelve different times with eleven different phone numbers. I just figured the man moved frequently or didn’t pay his phone bill. Turns out, the name “ KH Cat Be Tong” simply means handiman.  

advertising by many handimen

A popular way for tourists to see Hanoi is by cyclo - a chair placed on a three-wheeled bike push-driven by a cyclo driver from behind. It’s leisurely and enjoyable. You can sit back and take in the sights while someone else makes all the decisions about where to take you (an occasional nicety for an independent traveler). It’s common in the Old Quarter to see groups of tourists who have opted for the cyclo tour, but have decided to have one cyclo per person. Their twenty person tour group ends up looking like a parade. It’s comical for me to see, but I wouldn’t want to take a cyclo under those circumstances.

After wandering around the Old Quarter, we headed over to Hoan Kiem Lake, the Central Park of Hanoi. Many Vietnamese, young and old, gathered around the lake enjoying the pretty if chilly afternoon. Old ladies sat on park benches knitting, young lovers cuddled together, old men played Chinese chess, and young women did exercises by the lakeside. I laughed for a while at a dog jumping around oddly in a garden by the lake until I finally realized that he was hunting for vermin. In the distance, I saw a couple dressed up (probably for a wedding or do they have prom in Vietnam?) having their photograph made on picture perfect Huc Bridge - a lacquered red arched bridge that lead to a tiny island in the middle of the lake. Their photographer choreographed their poses while others on the bridge looked on. Eric and I headed over to explore. 

a couple of old men in what appears to be a heated game of Chinese chess

Old men were paired up all over the tiny island playing Chinese chess, usually with a group of five to ten other old men observing their progress and strategies. It reminded of a Little Havana in Miami where the old men gather and play dominoes. Chinese influences were readily apparently in everything on the island beginning with the bridge to get there as well as the entrance, each of which were covered in old Vietnamese characters which resemble Chinese as well as upturned tiled roof eaves.

Elsewhere on the tiny island, faithful Buddhists made incense offerings which perfumed the air in and around the ancient and interesting Den Ngoc Son Temple. Families strolled around and gathered under an Asian-looking pavilion which overlooked Hoan Kiem Lake where they took photos of their family outing. The atmosphere was relaxing, beautiful and very peaceful. I certainly enjoyed my time there.

It really wasn’t such a bad day. Not your typical Christmas, but not a bad day either. At least not yet ….

If you would like to enjoy Hoan Kiem Lake with me via video by clicking here. Experience the excitement of Christmas Eve in Hanoi - click here.

There are far more photos of lovely and interesting Hanoi than I have room to post here.  To see more of them, check out the “Photos of Her Adventure” page of my blog.