Hanoi, Vietnam in my heart

By: Hoa Nyugen & Phuong Nyugen, ISOSU

Posted: 2/19/08

Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam. It is also the place I grew up and lived since I was very small. I was not born there, but it has become a part of me with a ton of memories of childhood, of sadness and of happiness.

Now, when living millions of miles away from Hanoi, I miss it more than ever. Sitting alone in my room, I feel so lonely. I wish to have my friends, "naughty girls" (the nickname, which my neighbors often call them) here to talk and laugh together.

Sometimes, I do not have to talk - they sometimes were just able to understand me. Sitting silently together in a café beside the West Lake, we can leave our thoughts to flow with the water waves and think about our dream lands. I wish to have my mom here, so I can feel safe and protected. I would like to cry with my sadness and fear, however, I could not.

Looking through the window into the blue sky, I start thinking about my homeland, where all my relatives and friends live. I can see the flow of motorbikes moving slowly in crowded roads, images of women who carry bread baskets walking through many long streets with a hope they can sell all of their bread today, so that their children can have a delicious meal instead of having leftover bread.

I can smell flowers from the "bicycle flower shops," which move around the city. It is starting to rain now, and the images of Hanoi during raining season come back in my mind.

It is also the winter now in Hanoi. The weather is very cold and raining a lot. I can still feel frozen down to my bones when the winter comes in Hanoi.

It is quite different from here, as we have higher humidity. Even though the temperature is 10 degrees Celsius (around 50 degrees Fahrenheit), I still feel it is much colder than here.

No clothes can prevent that cold from going into your body, through to your bones. However, I love that cold; I love to sit on the pavement enjoying a hot and spicy broiled chicken leg in the cold. The heat of the chicken goes into my throat and rolls back all the coldness caused by the weather. I love to sit on the pavement drinking a cup of hot tea and chatting with friends, looking at people passing.

I love to drive the motorbike through many lakes with my best friend.

Hanoi is named as "a city of lake," as we have dozens of beautiful lakes inside the city. We often drive from Hoan Kiem Lake to West Lake, and then stop at the "Pho Ran" (fried noodle) restaurant to enjoy a hot meal and forget the cold outside.

I love to see Hanoi at night. At night, Hanoi seems to be more beautiful and peaceful. Colored lights from shops along the streets make Hanoi sparkle at night. It becomes more fanciful and bizarre. Everything seems to be not as visible during day time.

It is an antique picture, and the images of nine hundreds and 90-years-old is coming back. A song about Hanoi composed by Pham Duy that we sing on the Vietnamese New Year suddenly came to my mind, reflecting exactly what I am thinking now: "Although you come around the world, you still miss Hanoi, Hanoi is in your heart and every step you go..."

Yes, even though I have lived away from Hanoi for a long time and don't have the chance to go back often, the images of Hanoi are still somewhere around me, reminding me about the beautiful homeland where I come from.

Thang Long - Hanoi - Land of intelligent, gourmet and exquisite culture. Another look inside Hanoi.

Many Americans know Hanoi as a capital of Vietnam, but not many people know Hanoi by different name. In the 11th century, the Ly King saw a rainbow color cloud, which looks like a flying dragon on the sky, when he was traveling by boat on Red River.

Considering it a good sign, he decided to move Vietnam's capital from Hoa Lu, Ninh Binh province to this new land, and named it "Thang Long," which in Vietnamese means "Flying Dragon."

Being the capital of Vietnam since 1010, Thang Long is a famous land of intelligent people, gourmet food and oriental exquisite culture.

The first university in Hanoi was built in 1070 when the Ly King decided to encourage education and intelligence in the country.

Since then, every three or four years, the King organized national examinations to select scholars for the country's administration.

At this time, Buddhism and Confucianism had large influences in the Vietnamese society, so examination was designed based on the Confucian philosophy.

Rich families sent their children to famous schools, but the majority of farmer families could not afford their children's education fee, so they worked very hard to send them to the village's schools or pagoda schools where the teachers were teaching not for money.

Many poor students just lived with their teacher's family and helped them with farming. When the King opened the nation-wide examination, all students across the country traveled to Thang Long and drew a huge migration wave toward the Kingdom's capital.

Most of them walked months because they didn't have enough money to hire a horse.

They traveled along with clothes, ink, papers, food and money to Thang Long castle. Despite the strong will of examinees, only a limited number of students were chosen.

The rest of them had to come back to challenge themselves for the next examination after three to four years. Some of them just could not go back to their hometown because they didn't want to embarrass their family and relatives.

Those students stayed in the Hanoi area to work. In an agricultural country like Vietnam, the only way you can be rich was either become a merchant or be the administrative officer.

However, based on the Confucian philosophy which Vietnamese people strongly believed, being a merchant was not the nice way to be respected or promoted in the society. This circumstance added more pressure on young people to pass the national examination to be recognized.

Following these students were craft men, service vendors and of course good chiefs. The noble class in Thang Long increased very quickly and had very wealthy lives.

The best food and cooking materials were provided from all over country. Although normal families could never have chicken or beef for their daily meal, in Thang Long castle and surrounding areas, people enjoyed luxurious food with art work and medical herbs.

The dining culture was developed to a high level of enjoying flavor. One of the most famous Hanoian cuisines is "Cha Ca La Vong," in which they use a particular type of catfish, seasoned with turmeric powder, onion, pepper, dill, shrimp and fish sauce to cook in medium heat in a small pot.

Besides this dish, Hanoians also enjoyed "Cha Nem," which Americans call "Egg Roll" and noodle soup with chicken or beef, which you might know as the name of "Pho." The best Pho you can have is in Hanoi. An interesting thing about this is the custom of leaving something in the dish.

For citizens of Thang Long castle, you were considered high class if you didn't eat everything in the served bowl. If you did eat everything, that meant you were so hungry. The nobles in Vietnam would never suffer hunger. So for a long time, people always left a small amount of food in their bowl to be considered a Thang Long citizen.

However, nowadays, people became more practical in dietary practices. They think finishing everything in the bowl is the way of respecting the chief and the people who planted rice and food material. So you would not see Thang Long citizen leave anything in their bowl in today's society.

Although Hanoi has a more diverse population from all over the country, some of the customs have still remained until today. People who live in Hanoi are still proud that Hanoi has most of the universities in Vietnam. The cuisines in Hanoi are considered very healthy and contain a high level of royal culture.

Hoa Nguyen is a graduate student in women studies and Phuong Nguyen is a masters student in business administration and both are part of ISOSU. The opinions expressed in ISOSU's column, which appears every Tuesday, do not necessarily represent those of the Daily Barometer staff. They can be reached at forum@dailybarometer.com.