Borrowed Sword, Bloated Fish

Hanoi would be our base for the first two weeks as we planned to visit the northern areas of Sapa and also Ha Long before heading south on the bikes.  We decided to go and have a look around the Hoàn Kiếm Lake.  Its name translates as the 'Lake of the Returned Sword' and the story is basically about Lê Lợi, a fifteenth century leader of Vietnam, returning a mythical sword.

On our way down through the busy streets of the old district we passed a shopfront selling freshly pressed sugarcane juice.  We stopped to buy some and I told my brother how our parents had bought a similar machine after the war to make ends meet and also my memories of playing on the floor amongst green lengths of sugarcane.

It was the weekend and around the lake we saw plenty of young Vietnamese sitting with their friends, girls walking arm in arm and young guys introducing themselves coyly and asking where they lived, what they did and how old they were.  Here, age hierarchy is very important and dictates how you address somebody.

For example, anyone older than you by up to say 20 years would be 'anh' (male) or 'chị' (female).  Beyond that, for people you estimate to be a generation older than you, it would be 'chú' or 'cô' (literally 'uncle' or 'aunt' and also used as these familial terms).  Those older than your parents would be addressed as 'bác' and for the elderly, 'ông' (male) or 'bà' (female).

Anyone younger of either sex is generally addressed as 'em' (also used for your girlfriend or wife and considered a term of endearment, whilst 'anh' is used for a boyfriend or husband).  The lake was an obvious meeting point and it was amusing to watch guys chatting up girls Vietnamese style.  On first dates girls often bring a friend so it is not uncommon to see threesomes walking about, but definitely not the kind of threesome some might think of!

Peering into the lake as we walked, there were no signs of life.  Apparently, a few (claimed to be no more than five) giant soft-shell turtles are left living in the lake, but upon seeing a few dead bloated fish floating on the surface, it was obvious that pollution poses a hazard to their existence.  The lake is a main tourist attraction for domestic and foreign tourists alike with the Turtle Tower and also the Ngọc Sơn (Jade Mountain) Temple which is on a small island linked by the red Thê Húc (Rising Sun) Bridge.

The Tháp Rùa (Turtle Tower) in Hoàn Kiếm Lake

It was frustrating to see the neglect of this historical site but the authorities claim to have plans to clean the waters and make greater efforts to maintain the lake environment.  My dad had also visited the lake at some point in his youth and asked whether the trams were still running there.  I told him all the tramlines had been paved over.  They were probably removed long ago to facilitate traffic flow.  We sat   at a balcony cafe overlooking the lake and witnessed Vietnamese road 'rules' in action.

It is a kind of chaos which somehow works.  Everybody seems to go where they like but all the vehicles find gaps and slow down to pass each other without collision.  There are no emergency stops, it is like watching the ebb and flow of a tide.  The waves of traffic come from all directions but each finds its own channel in a seemingly telepathic fashion.  I took mental notes for when we would eventually have to ride out of Hanoi.

Orderly traffic on the northern side of Hoàn Kiếm Lake