Part One of Vietnam Redux I mentioned all the decadal anniversaries of our visit; from Vietnam's defeat of the French in 1954 to the end of the Vietnam war and Reunification in 1975, Reconciliation in 1995, through my first visit to Ha Noi and Ha Long Bay in 2005. This last post will look at the changes in the twenty years since my first visit.
Ha Noi
Much of the local street scene in Ha Noi looks very much the same over the past twenty years.
2025 - and still do today
The local markets are also very basic.
2005 - Fish mongers carve up their goods on streets
2005 - While chicken sellers manage their flocks (during the height of SARS)
2025 - Vegetable markets still occupy streets
The historic French architecture is still in various states of repair.
2005
2025
The legendary 1901 French colonial Metropole hotel was affordable when I stayed there.
2005
Today it is over $300/night. The exterior is pretty much identical with a larger porte cochere, However, the interior has gone through several renovations and additions to upgrade for the high-end international traveler. While we didn't stay here we walked through the lobby and various bars to have a cocktail in their lovely garden room, following in the footsteps of author Graham Green.
2025
Some areas of the city are noticeably different responding to their growing economy and tourism. The two pair of photos below are taken from the exact same spot twenty years apart. Buildings adjacent to the railroad tracks that ran through the city were once in disrepair and blighted; today they are a tourist attraction. Restaurants and shops line the tracks, and several minutes before a train is scheduled to pass hawkers solicit tourists to sit at their restaurant within inches of the blaring train. There are police men and barricades to assure safety, but it would never be allowed in the US.
2005
2025 - exact same location today.
2025 - Train passing through in glare of its headlamp and protection of police
There was also evolution of my own education. When walking around in 2005 I came across the Hilton hotel and recalled the Ha Noi Hilton that was the prison for American airman. Naively thinking they housed them in a hotel I took the photo below.
2005
During our 2025 visit we toured the French prison Maison Centrale, built over a hundred years ago to imprison, torture, and execute Vietnamese political prisoners who fought against the French occupation. Over the years it was expanded to retain about 750 but eventually housed over 2000 prisoners in subhuman conditions. When the Vietnamese defeated the French in 1954 it was renamed Hỏa Lò prison, but the American prisoners mockingly called it Ha Noi Hilton. It is embarrassing that Americans remember it for the few years our prisoners of war occupied it, who were treated relatively well, but don't know it was built and occupied for decades to cruelly subjugate the local population.
2025 - Entrance to Hỏa Lò prison
2025 - Exhibit of built-out of Hỏa Lò prison
The mausoleum for the embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh looks identical, including the flowered wreaths either side of the entry. You can see them make the wreaths along the "flower street" in Ha Noi. In 2005 there were long lines to pay homage to Ho Chi Minh's so I did not wait hours to see the dead man. In 2025 they were just as long, and again we didn't wait in line.
2005
2025
However, we did explore more of the presidential grounds than I did previously including his residence while. Like George Washington, Uncle Ho, as the population called him, never married or had children and is called the father of their country. He was very humble and refused to live the opulent life of a president, preferring a small cabin to replicate what he had in the mountains when fighting the French. Every morning he'd take a cold shower so not to get used to the "good life".
2025
Some historic monuments I saw in 2005 we did not visit.
2005 - Tran Quoc Pogada
Other temples we visited in 2025 I didn't see twenty years before including Bach Ma Temple...
2025
... and the Temple of Literature. This 1000 year old temple ground is dedicated to Confucious and was to educate and examine potential mandarins during feudal times. Appropriately, while we visited it was the ceremonial grounds for graduations.
2025
2005
2025
Ha Long Bay
In 2005 I had limited time before my business meeting in Sai Gon so I signed up for a one-day tour of Ha Long bay. This UNESCO site in recognized for it's outstanding geologic features and beauty. Like much of SE Asia it is a karst landscape formed millions of years ago from layers of marine animal sediments that were transformed into limestone, thrusted, and eroded into fabulous mounts and caves. In the hot and humid environment they are capped with tropical rainforests which have been inhabited for millennia.
My 2005 tour included a van transit from Ha Noi to Ha Long city and overnight in a hotel, a full day boat tour of the bay, and overnight again before my ride back. Since I was a single traveler I was booked on a three generation Vietnamese family outing.
2005 - The grandparents and aunt on the far left, center and right are two sisters with their kids and one husband.
I'm the tall white guy. The grandfather was a general during the war.
Our 2025 tour with Intrepid also included transportation to Ha Long from Ha Noi for a boat tour, but this time we stayed overnight on the boat. Friends we know booked with a local company years ago in 90 + degree weather with equal humidity and no air-conditioning, so buyer beware. Since this was booked with a western tour company we were confident of our accommodations.
2025 - Robin in middle on left. We were the sole Americans, the others being Canadian and Australian.
2005
2005
Today the harbor has been relocated outside the main city due to many tourists, but particularly China just across the nearby border. The former countryside has been developed with condominiums for mostly Chinese. While they still have the traditional locally made tour boats those are being phased out by law. Individual pleasure craft, some quite large, are common.
2025
Traveling with a local Vietnamese family in 2005 was a great way to see Ha Long bay. While the tour I booked provided a lunch it was pretty basic. But the family brought along their own cook and vegetables. While heading out, we stopped at a floating fish market to buy live fish. The family invited me to join them in a fabulous multi-course meal while cruising.
2005 - Floating fish market
2005 - Husband and wife selecting lunch
2005 - With a whack on the head you don't get much fresher than that.
2005
Our 2025 tour also provided an excellent lunch cooked fresh on board. However, the floating fish markets are now banned.
In 2005 I had beautiful sunny weather, the waters were clear, and we hardly saw any boats while cruising.
2005
The grey skies and mist in 2025 added a contrasting mysteriousness to the karst formations that we appreciated. However, a large number of bigger ships replaced the smaller local vessels that were now inescapable. It's being loved to death.
2025
2025
One stop in 2005 was Ti Top, one of the smallest islets in the bay with a beautiful beach and hike to an overlook at the summit. The family and I went swimming at the beach and the general and I had a wonderful conversation. I told him of my experience protesting and escaping the draft, and he made a surprising comment that the US student protests did much to help end the war, as we saw in the Sai Gon museum in 2025.
2005 - The general and I bonding. I was kneeling while he stood.
In 2025 the weather not conducive to swimming. Robin attempted to hike to the top of Ti Top I people watched. She gave up after being pushed and shoved on the steep trail while I observed the beach filled with people taking selfies that I did not experience twenty years before.
2025
Because we had an overnight stay on our boat compared to my first visit, we had additional time for other exploration. We pulled into a small bay that included a floating kayak rental facility and all of us elected to give it a go. While it was enjoyable to get out and paddle around, it was not the nature adventure I'm used to. It gave us a close up view of the flotsam and jetsam that tourism leaves along the shoreline.
2025
A key stop on both tours is Sung Sot cave. This millions year-old limestone cave with its stalagmites and stalactites you'd think is physically unchanging (stalagmites might reach the top, while stalactites hold tight to the ceiling). However, in the twenty years since I was last here a typhoon ripped off the vegetation from the face of the cliff below and to the side of the cave opening.
2005
2025
During stops in 2005 all the boats crammed into the bay to access the cave.
2005
While today they have to drop off and move away to allow others in.
2025
Other aspects however, haven't changed. Having stayed overnight on our boat near the cave we were the first in line. Shortly after, the crowds formed replicating my previous crowded experience.
2005 - Husband and son ahead of me hiking up to the cave.
2025 - Shortly after being first in line the crowd soon formed behind us.
The cave formations are also still unchanged. Being the first to enter we had the pleasure in seeing it empty. However, although we were the first inside by the end of the 45 minute walk several Chinese visitors rushed passed us be the first through.
2025
2005
Back in Ha Long city for the night in 2005 I found a street side Pho restaurant. In the morning before I caught my van to return to Ha Noi I asked a local food hawker if he served eggs for breakfast. I was assured no "ploblem." A few minutes later I watched him run down the street to return with an egg from a neighbor business to cook for me.
2005 - Pho dished up
2005 - Thumbs up after my egg breakfast
Finally, before leaving in 2005 I could see the future of the region. Two huge pylons were being constructed either side of an inlet to support a suspension bridge. You can see the distant shoreline is still covered by natural vegetation.
2005
Today the bridge is completed and the shoreline is fully developed. The road to the Chinese boarder is approximately one hundred miles. It's a different place.
2025
Next, and last, post of Japan/Vietnam will be Part Five - Laos. I hope you stick with it.
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