Visit to Vietnam

Writing from Hanoi. Currently on a weeklong International Business Fellowship programme organised by International Enterprise Singapore to encourage businessmen to do business in Vietnam.

I spent Sunday afternoon walking around Hanoi. According to my phone pedometer, I walked over 20,000 steps (20km), around town. Walking around really gave me a good feel of the city, its life and its people. What strikes one is the chaos of cars, scooters and bicycles. Not quite sure how I figured how to cross the roads. But managed to do so without being knocked down.

I visited the Temple of Literature, a university set up in 1020 by the earliest emperors in Vietnam. Consisting of 5 courtyards, what was amazing where these stone steles (86 of them) that showed the names of the lauretes that were chosen from these 3-yearly Confucian exams in the 13th to 15th century. The innermost courtyards also had statues of Confucius and his 4 disciples showing the reverance that Vietnamese paid to Confucian ideals.

Also managed to swing by St Joseph's Cathedral-- with its grey-washed and bleak exteriors. The interior however was richly decorated with red and gold. In there, there a group of ladies singing the rosary.