Tag Archives: Hanoi
DAILY PHOTO: Turtle Tower by Day & Night
DAILY PHOTO: Vietnam Military History Museum
POEM: Hanoi Epiphany
I strolled the streets of Hanoi,
-past Starbucks, McDonalds, and American fast-food joints I thought had gone belly up decades ago.
-past young lovers on park benches sneaking affections,
-past vendor carts selling banh mi in brightly colored wrappers,
-past the stock exchange,
-past incense-wielding worshippers at the temple,
-past a dancing Minion selling electronics,
-past Christmas LED lights shaped like pine trees,
and I couldn’t help but wonder how it would look if we hadn’t sent 60,000 off to be killed, 2-and-a-half times that number to be shot, stabbed, mutilated, or fragged — not to mention the three million dead among civilians and enemy forces.
Hindsight may be 20/20, but I hope we do at least 50-50.
POEM: Hanoi
of egg coffee and banh mi
to rocky islands in the sea
tiny, tidy market stalls
to the mammoth shopping malls
once a town in ruin and rubble
I saw not an ounce of past troubles
maybe a bullet-pocked citadel
though it be true that war is hell
it’s also a terrible liar
as if the world could be remade through blood and fire.
DAILY PHOTO: Hanoi Street Scenes
DAILY PHOTO: Door-to-Door Durian Delivery
DAILY PHOTO: Mythical Beasties of Hanoi Staircases
DAILY PHOTO: Hanoi Hilton, i.e. Hoa Lo Prison
DAILY PHOTO: Egg Coffee, Hanoi
Egg coffee is a Hanoi staple. It’s made with egg yolk, condensed milk, and sugar so it’s not exactly low-cal, but it tastes delightful. The scuttlebutt is that it was invented when milk was in short supply during the war. The beverage is said to have been invented at Giang Cafe, but I couldn’t say for certain that it’s the same Giang Cafe we were at (shown above.) However, the place did have the feel of a local institution. Imagine people huddled around tiny tables on stools, the floor coated with sunflower seed shells, and nary an empty stool in the multi-floored establishment.