Hanoi, Hanoi, HANOI!

We drove back to Hanoi, and as we drove into the city, we saw this mural along the road

and along the road,

along the road

along the road,

and along the road.  Apparently it goes on for 8 kilometers, and it is just full of light and color and cheer!

This afternoon I walked to the Temple of Literature, and along Phunmg Hung I saw these delightful bird cages, some with twittering song birds inside them.

In one of the alleys there were train tracks leading absolutely NOWHERE.

These turtles hold the stele with the names of the scholars who passed their examinations back when the temple was built and in full swing in the 1070s or so.  (Please don't make me go back into my notes and check the EXACT years...)

What I love is the different expressions on each of the turtles faces, some looking indifferent, some glum and some grinning like Cheshire cats. 

I am not certain what this says, but I believe Hoa is the word for Chinese.  It is the time of year just after students have taken their entrance exams to qualify for university, and only 25% pass!  Everybody is in those temples with incense sticks, shaking them, bowing, supplicating and praying like mad for positive results; I even saw parents in there with their young scholars!

This woman is on her knees, praying.

This fellow even had smiles lines and must have been a little older than the other turtles.

I found this poignant as I left the Temple grounds, all of which used to be a university itself, and here was the woman sitting on her plastic stool, doing the weeding, clearly a woman who had not been able to get an education and could not hope for a life beyond that of laborer - this in a communist country!

As I left to find the Fine Arts Museum, the afternoon light flickered on the feathers of this little rooster, rooting in the gutters of the street.

Some work is being done at the Fine Arts Museum, and I noticed that one whole outside wall has been used to sample paint colors; blocks or browns, oranges and blues are up as if on display for comment.

I am reminded of the smiling face I photographed in HCMC's museum, and this fellow has one heck of a set of chompers!

I loved this painting "Moon in the Early Morning."

This one seemed very Matisse to me.

Even though we all laughed when Professor Thu in HCMC referred to "fairies," these lovely ladies proved he was right as they ARE referred to as fairies.

More of the mural along the road into Hanoi

I just LOVE, love, love that ALL major cities in the whole, wide world seem to have a Goethe Institute, and here is the one in Hanoi, right down the street from the Fine Arts Museum and the Temple of Literature.

Light on open door

Dinner - a form of Pho that promised not to have meat even though meat WAS cooked in the broth; mine has tofu, and I did sit on one of those wee plastic stools you see in any photo of street life.

This is not a plastic bag of veggies, but it IS the cook's wallet where she keeps her money!  And that's the end of today's adventures.  Tomorrow  we have a lecture and then I shall hit the history museum, which I also loved.