| The Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam had denounced the infidelity to ideals of humanism and justice. The Vietnamese people had been oppressed and, sixty years later, the city billboards and the official biographies on Hô Chi Minh kept on displaying the struggle of this citizen. The nationalist and paternalistic statesman had saved his homeland from imperialism. |
| Without caring about propagandist talks either from colonialists or from communists, the merchants kept on walking along the lakes, between the workshops in the streets of Hanoi. Under their conical hat made of young leaves of palm tree, they proposed us gently and nicely exotic fruits and strawberry wine. Their heavy pendulum consisted of two baskets in rattan suspended from each extremity of a resistant and flexible stalk of bamboo. Real symbol, it behaved as the reed of Jean de la Fontaine: it bent but did not break. |
| Pineapple, papayas and litchis showed coolness and maturity, so did the delicious but controversial durian. This big fruit presented a bark of hedgehog and its pulp was white, creamy and smooth. But the smell which exhaled from it under 40 degres Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), seemed improper even fetid to our western nose. Convinced that a country should be appreciated by drinking and eating it, we crunched the sweetness of this flesh despite the intense and horrible smell. We became truely aware that sensations were not universal but strictly connected to cultural habits. |
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vietnam
rickshaw in front of Ho Chi Minh museum
Hanoi traffic jams
watching over one of the last statues of Lenine
the art of lacquer
the warehouse wine shop
anniversary of independance