Asian Adventure: Vietnam National Museum of Nature

Yesterday we visited the Vietnam National Museum of Nature (VNMN) and met with the director, assistant director, and head of the specimen collection department.  VNMN is a new museum, having only been founded in 2006.  They are state-owned and under the aegis of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology.  Within Vietnam, they are one of twelve like institutions and VNMN is considered the leading one.  Their scientists spend time in the field and have discovered some new species, mainly frogs.  Their collection is modest at 40,000 specimens, but their dreams and plans are big ones.  And they have the requisite dinosaur outside in front!

Their current exhibition space is 300 square meters (or about 3200 square feet) in size.  The exhibit here, Organism Evolution, focuses on the origins of life and the history of life with specimens from the collection highlighting biodiversity.  It just opened in May 2014.  The space is very well lighted and I found it to be warm and welcoming.  They have managed to fit in a lot of materials and content in a way that is attractive without feeling cluttered.  Also included is a very large interactive map on the floor that shows over time Vietnam’s coastline and oceans, earthquake events in the region, oil deposits, and the like.

The primary audience is school children from kindergarten  through elementary and secondary school with about 15 percent of their overall total being non-school visitors.  Admission is free and attendance is running at 4,000 visitors per month.

 

IMG_5285 IMG_5290 IMG_5293 IMG_5296

IMG_5309

IMG_5298 IMG_5302 IMG_5312 IMG_5313

 

For the future, the museum is doing long range planning for a new home in a district on the outskirts of Hanoi.  The site is large, 32 hectares or not quite 80 acres, and the proposed new museum building will be about a hundred times larger than the current exhibition room.  Over the next two years, work will be done on the master site plan with the goal of having the new building open and staff all trained by 2025.  This is a tall order as the economy is not as strong as it could be and resources will need to be found to make this a reality.  I’d be curious to come back in ten years to see the results!

 

 

Asian Adventure: Sunday in the park

After our morning of serious eating, we strolled around the nearby lake and enjoyed taking photos and just people watching in general. Since it was Sunday, there were lots of families and couples out and about, one bridal couple having professional photos taken, and just people everywhere, almost everyone with a smartphone and a few with real cameras.

I got intrigued by all the varieties of footwear you see today and so took a series of shots of people’s shoes in addition to other photos of attractive individuals.

IMG_8639

IMG_8570

 

 

IMG_8661

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_8660

 

 

 

IMG_8676

 

 

 

IMG_8662

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_8700

IMG_8621

IMG_8565

IMG_8560

Asian Adventure: Hanoi Street Food

We spent the morning with Tu, actually Van Cong Tu, who is a food blogger and tour guide to the markets and street food vendors in Hanoi.  We went on foot through small alley ways and side streets getting a different view of daily life in this city.  Tu carefully vets the vendors he chooses and makes sure that the food he recommends is fresh and cooked very hot.  We took his word for it because if you were a fainthearted type you might be put off by the cooking environs.  Tu was a marvelously knowledgeable guide and the morning was great fun and filling!

In any case, we began with Vietnamese coffee and ended with a steamed green rice cake with mung bean in it as a dessert.  In between, we sampled crab rolls with dipping sauce washed down with beer (at 10 am no less!), fried shrimp cakes (a dough made from wheat flour and sweet potato with a shrimp with head that is deep fried) served with another dipping sauce, fresh pineapple from the market, and a wonderful bowl of pork with rice noodles and lots of cilantro stirred up with a bit of hot sauce.

IMG_5140

IMG_5167

IMG_5230

IMG_5240IMG_5241

IMG_5244

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also walked through the market where everything is very fresh be it produce brought in from the countryside, fresh eggs–chicken, quail and duck eggs–fresh fish (live), live frogs, live chickens and other fresh meat.  You select your chicken or pigeon or fish and it is then killed and prepared for you.  The women vendors cut up and pluck all the feathers or hairs from the meat.  They will peel the garlic cloves for you too.  Bamboo was available in several forms as well.  Everything is prepared to your liking.  Quite a production and all very colorful.

 

IMG_5187 IMG_5191IMG_5221IMG_5183

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_5204

IMG_5200

IMG_5194

Asian Adventure: All about Ho

IMG_5072

Our day began early with a 5:30 am pick up by our local guide Thuan.  It was still dark and we each boarded a cyclo—a bicycle that has a seat on its front.  The driver pedals and basically pushes you along.  The streets were quiet for Hanoi, but there was still some traffic.   Since we were low to the ground and going relatively slowly, it was a unique experience as we nipped in  and around scooters and cars playing what felt like dodge-em.  But what a way to connect  with the city coming slowly to life!  Street vendors setting out their goods–chestnuts, peanuts,  cabbages, cuts of meat—noodle cafes arranging doll-size tables and stools on the sidewalk,  group after group of people young and old playing badminton on a continuous line of courts  and nets.

 

Our first destination was Ho Chi Minth’s Mausoleum to see the flag raising ceremony.  Before sunrise, the building is lit with a rosy pink light.  The plaza was still and serene and we watched the guards in their bright white uniforms check that the pulleys on the 29 meter high flagpole worked and then clean the platform around the pole.  At just before 6:30 am, martial music blared from speakers up high and soldiers and a color guard marched out in perfect formation.  To the playing of the national anthem, the red flag with a bright yellow star in the center was raised.  By this time, a small crowd had gathered to watch.

From the flag raising, we went to a small restaurant where we queued up for some traditional pho–Vietnamese rice noodle soup with slivers of beef, scallions and cilantro sprigs.  Wonderfully warming and tasty.  The hearty ones among us added hot sauce and or slivered hot peppers.  This was our first food of the day!  Next we sampled some Vietnamese coffee at a small cafe.  It’s made with condensed milk and served in a cup over a small candle and tastes a bit like hot chocolate, unctuous and rich.  The green tea we tried was also bracing.

IMG_5068

IMG_5078

We were allowed a short respite at our hotel before setting out again. this time by car. to return to the mausoleum and the Ho Chi Minh Presidential Palace Area.  The line to enter the mausoleum was very, very long, but moved quite quickly so the wait was bearable.  Ho died in 1969 and had wanted to be cremated with his ashes spread in 3 different parts of the country, but Vietnam was not yet unified so he was preserved instead.  A bit strange to see the body, but we did it.

From there, we toured the lovely grounds, a botanic garden really, surrounding  Ho Chi Minh’s house and also the Ho Chi Minh Museum which opened in 1990.  For the Vietnamese people, Ho is a real hero, the liberator of their country, and called affectionately in some exhibits,”Uncle Ho.”  For an American who remembers the 1960’s, he was the enemy.  But times change and nations revise their views; the U.S. has had formal diplomatic relations with Vietnam since 1995.

Other stops on our day’s sightseeing included the Temple of Literature, very Chinese in architecture with layers of gates leading in to a large statue of Confucius and slightly smaller seated statues of his four best students.  This temple dates back to 1070 and was, in effect, Vietnam’s first university which trained and gave exams to budding scholars.

After a very tasty lunch of fried rice with chicken and the beef roll sampler plate at Koto, which also runs a cooking school,  we then headed for the “Hanoi Hilton”  or Hoa Lo Prison where the French held and tortured Vietnamese political prisoners.  It is a dismal, depressing place to say the least.  It is also where American POWs, including John McCain, were held during the Vietnam War.  The two small rooms devoted to the American POWs portray how humanely they were treated—and, at least compared to how the French treated their prisoners, they were.  Senator McCain returned in 2000 to visit the prison.

The last stop of the day was the Vietnamese Women’s Museum which we chose partly because tomorrow is International Women’s Day (March 8).  The museum is only 7 years old and very nicely done.  It covers the significant contributions women made politically and on the home front during the struggle for liberation and the Vietnam War and portrays the other roles women play as wives and mothers.

 

IMG_5123

 

There are beautiful exhibits on marriage, motherhood, fashion, and the worship of the mother goddess.  An upbeat ending to what was a very full day!

 

IMG_5119

IMG_5122