The Fan Store of Hanoi

 

 Fan repair shop on Hàng Bồ, Hanoi

One afternoon, my wife and I were walking down Hàng Bồ in Hanoi's Old Quarter, and we came across this amazing little corner store full of fans. The old gent who ran the shop generously let us look around. I would not be surprised if some of his fans and parts date back to the Indochine Française era. He might have dated back to the French era, too.

Walk up and down the tangle of streets, and the French influence on the architecture is all around you in the form of mouldering buildings, some with impossibly ornate decorative elements. As noted in the StarTribune, "The past lives on in the tree-lined avenues, grand villas and sidewalk society of the Paris of Vietnam."

Well, possibly the wiring lacks a bit of the elegance that the French might have preferred. But the internet worked.

What to do after visiting the fan shop and the Hanoi Hilton? Select one of the hundreds of small restaurants or snack shops and eat lunch. The cook will stir-fry your fish and vegetables on the table right in front of you. It does not get much better than this. 

In Season 5 of Bizarre Foods, Andrew Zimmern dined at a restaurant where you can choose your own snake, and they skin it for you right there. We missed that place. 

An afternoon at Tạ Hiện, Hanoi

Snacks and a WiFi signal at Nhà Chung, Hanoi

Cafe society Hanoi style. My back could not handle the low chairs and tables, but the youngsters seemed unfazed.

Hanoi is a fascinating and fun destination. The city is thriving. It looks much better than many mid-continent US cities. The people are energetic and busy with small shops, repairs, banks, restaurants, and restoration projects. Go there.

If you want to see an epic and beautifully-filmed movie about the war for independence in colonial Vietnam, watch "Indochine" (1992, in French), starring Catherine Deneuve. 

And if you want to read how we slipped into war in a post-French Vietnam, read Graham Green's The Quiet American. Mr. Pyle is the naive young American who thinks he can bring "democracy" to Vietnam by backing a certain general. “He was impregnably armored by his good intentions and his ignorance.” The 2003 movie version stars Michael Caine.

I took these photographs with a Fuji X-E1 digital camera. I do not use it often, but when I revive older files, both jpeg or RAW, I am pleased with the optical quality and the uniform performance of the Fuji lenses. 

Our Man in Havana 4: Habana Viejo in film

Habana Viejo, or Old Havana, is one of the most amazing displays of architectural and decorative wealth that has slipped into urban decay that you are likely to see anywhere. I rate Havana up there with Rangoon, Detroit, Palermo, and Kathmandu as extreme examples of what happens when you neglect your infrastructure for decades (Republicans in USA: are you paying attention? Do you comprehend?).

Because of the contrasts and ironies, Havana is a visual delight. I highly recommended it for photographers - but do it the real way, use a film camera. For the pictures below, I used my Leica M2 35mm camera with Kodak Tri-X film to simulate a 1950s photojournalist look.

Let's take a semi-random walk through Havana Viejo. We have already briefly looked at the waterfront in a previous article (click the link). The photograph above is the Terminal Sierra Maestre, where cruise ships unload.

This is a block of somewhat rough apartment buildings on the Avenida de Bélgica, across the street from the Estación Central de Ferrocarriles (the central train station). To get there, I took a tricycle rickshaw, pumped by a very friendly driver. One of my maps showed a home of Jose Marti, but I am not sure if it is in the scene or on a side street.

On Teniente Rey, we saw school groups being taken to museums. All through the country, school children wear neat, clean uniforms and are mostly well-behaved. Education has been a high priority for the government.

At the Plaza de San Francisco, plenty of local folks hang out along with tourists.

Near the Casa Oswaldo Guayasamín (an Ecuadorian painter who was a friend of Fidel), there were interesting patterns of light and shadow.

Empedrado is a major road that leads west from the Castillo de la Real Fuerza at the waterfront as far as the Prado. The people-watching is great, and, as you can see, selfies have come to Havana.

Brazil (also known as Teniente Rey) also runs east-west and ends at the neoclassical El Capitolio. These people were waiting for a pharmacy or possibly a clinic.

The Ballet Nacional de Cuba is in a big hulking building on the corner of the Paseo del Prado and Colon. I heard tap dancers through the windows. 

The Paseo del Prado (also shown on maps as the Paseo de Marti) is a tree-shaded boulevard with a broad pedestrian walk in the center. Everyone goes there to be seen and to watch. I saw mothers with their little girls in tutus, nuns, guys on skateboards, chess-players, and musicians. A 10 or 12-piece orchestra was set up on chairs and playing first-rate rhumbas and dance music. Elderly couples were gliding across the paving blocks. The grand architecture that lines the Paseo is a visual treat.

Some hints: Havana appears to be completely safe for walking and exploring. We did not feel any bad vibes. Everyone we met was friendly. Beware of difficult walking conditions on cobblestones and bumpy sidewalks. Watch for holes (sometimes big ones) in the sidewalk or street. I recommend low hiking boots. If you are a tourist, you can use restrooms in the better hotels, and if it is hot, sit and enjoy the air conditioning.

Camera notes: I took these photographs with a Leica M2 rangefinder camera with 35mm and 50mm Summicron lenses using Kodak Tri-X film. I developed the film in Kodak HC-110 developer, dilution H, for 10 min at 68° F. I scanned the negatives with a Plustek 7600i film scanner using SilverFast software.

Movie note: Our Man In Havana is Graham Green's 1958 novel, which was set in Cuba before the Revolution. It is about a vacuum cleaner salesman who may be a British spy, or maybe he isn't. The movie version (directed by Carol Reed of The Third Man fame) was filmed exactly as the revolution was underway. Fidel visited the set, and there is a rumor that he tried to get a date with Maureen O'Hara. He liked American actresses, and apparently many of them liked him.

Maureen O'Hara in Havana during filming of Our Man in Havana in 1959 (from IMDb)

Fidel with the cast of Our Man in Havana