City of the River

Hanoi has water all around it. Two large rivers flank the city, the Red River and the Nhue.  Many people make their living from the river, and fish is a staple of the diet.  Fruits are fresh, transported daily by small boats or grown on islands in the Red river right in the middle of the city.  

We had the chance to walk over the Red river on a rusty old railway bridge.  The train went on a track down the middle, and on either side of the tracks were two narrow traffic lanes just for motorcycles.  Right up against the railing was a really narrow walking path, made up of inch thick, 2-foot wide concrete pavers with gaps that went straight down to the water.  Motorbikes barreled past us as we walked out over this huge muddy river.  The walk itself was pretty intense, but it belied the fact that the river was calm and beautiful, and the islands were almost entirely green.  We started on the bridge in an old slum area, slowly rising up over it to get a view down into the twist of shacks and piles of garbage.  Then we walked out over an island that emerged as thick lush green, with banana trees and areas with corn and guava and other crops.  It was like a gorgeous mirage of nature, with the bustling city on either bank and the constant rush of the motorcycles right beside us.  

We climbed down a steep concrete stairway onto the island and entered this improbable paradise.  The islands are mostly owned by the government and people are allowed to farm there.  The island we visited was several miles of wild greenery and carefully tended plantation gardens.  At points as we walked, the leaves from banana trees arched over our heads like a tunnel.  Some people had set up a small informal cafe outside and there were a few small roughly built one-room houses tucked into the trees and fields.  We walked through the interior of the island coming to a small very old shrine that had been erected centuries ago in honor of an ancient river God.  Recently burned incense sticks in front of the pagoda shrine suggested it was still very much in use today.  

Further from the bridge, we got to the river bank where there were a number of small hand-built floating houses.  The families who lived there were undocumented.  Not that they weren't Vietnamese people, and not that the government didn't know about them, but rather, somehow a generation or two ago, their birth certificates were done incorrectly or not done at all, which means that they and their descendants are permanently consigned to living outside the system.  Their kids cannot go to school, they cannot get government assistance, they cannot legally hold a job, and they are living entirely on their own hidden right in the middle of a major city.  

These families live by fishing and gardening, and some of them take cash jobs in the city--washing dishes in restaurants and such.  They are very poor.  We had the chance to visit one of the families on their houseboat.  It was basically one large open room, reached by walking a rickety plank from the shore.   It was a multi generational family of a grandmother, a daughter, a daughter in law, a teen girl, and a busy little boy about 4 years old.  There were woven mats on the floor and some short raised platforms along one wall.  Two walls opened directly out onto the water.  A slight breeze came through, cool and pleasant despite the fact that we were packed into the small space.  We had brought some toys and some of the students gave the little boy some colorful toy airplanes and a matchbox car.  His eyes got wide and he smiled and laughed and he immediately lost all interest in us as he began to play.  

Later we visited another family and they served us a home cooked lunch with bowl after delicious bowl of food they had grown themselves.  Aside from rice and tofu, which they buy, everything they eat and everything they served us was something they had grown or caught.  We had bowls of greens, leaves and stems of some kind of squash plant served with whole cloves of garlic.  We had little fried spring rolls, pork back pieces that were fried like large blocks of bacon.  There was platters of vegetables, most of which we couldn't recognize.   There were eggs with onions, and tofu in a delicious tomato sauce.  And of course it was served with rice and homemade fish sauce, which is the main condiment here.  Homemade fish sauce is better than anything you can buy.  It's savory and salty, with the tang of ginger and the bite of garlic, and it's used to accompany many dishes.  It was so good.  After lunch we had small little flavorful bananas, the sort that are grown right on the island.  

After lunch we walked out of the greenery and climbed back up to to heat and the noise of the bridge and walked back over the river into the buzz of the city.  It's amazing that these green islands are so hidden right in plain sight!