There is no doubt about Hà Nội’s centre, it is unambiguously Hoàn Kiếm Lake. And the Lake ensures that Vietnam has one of the most delightful hubs of any capital city. It is a green lake, very much the same green as the trees which weep beside it and skim its surface. Presumably this is an algae, like our blue-green variety, but the green is somehow comforting. The lake has two islands, a large northern one with a pagoda complex on it, and a small southern one on which is the Turtle Tower.

A young couple probably not looking at the Tháp Ràu (Turtle Tower) on Hoàn Kiếm (Returned Sword) Lake - the heart of Hà Nội

In length it is a short half mile and half that in width, the edge is richly lined with many types of tree that offer shade and flowers as the cycle of the year turns. Around the trees is a wide paved walkway planted with seats and lights and flower beds and cafes. It is a model of context sensitive design, widening to offer shaded spaces, or an open area beside bus stops, narrowing at other points to slip in a straight line between a building and the water, only to curve gently out and offer seating for a café or a fine view. It could not have been thought out and imported; it had to grow like this and be unified by the sensitive use of paving and furnishings. To keep it in its pristine condition the whole is tended by scores of gardeners, lake sweepers (who skim the debris from the water) litter pickers, cleaners, lighting attendants and police who between them, against the odds of Hà Nộians amazing litter loutish behaviour, keep the place wonderfully clean.

Hoàn Kiếm Lake at Night

While it is a Mecca for sightseers, as it sums up the delights of Hà Nội; easy paced, friendly and exotic, the locals far out number any tourists and so stop it seeming like simply another ‘visitor attraction’. It is a major centre of social life, an exercise area both for bodies, and for the endless and incessant arguments, gossip and conversations of the folk of Hà Nội. The ease and friendliness that they exude when at their chatter adds the human dimension to Hà Nội’s greatest asset.

The legend behind the name links the return of a powerful sword, used to resist one of the perennial Chinese invasions, to the Lake where it was received by a turtle. Turtles, as in the Turtle Tower, are important mythic creatures who bring, out of hidden depth, the wisdom we need, and so sightings of these creatures in the middle of this rambling urban fauna-free metropolis are regular, for to see one is good luck.

Kingfisher by Hoan Kiem Lake in Central Hà Nội

Last year a large turtle was found when the lake was being dredged, it was in poor condition and sheltered from the public, but photographs revealed that it was very large, but you can often see the small ones, which look like a pet tortoise in the U.K. Fish are apparent both from the water disturbance and from the fact that Kingfishers live around the lake and can be seen searching and diving for their food. That there are Kingfishers here is something of a wonder in itself, birds are scarce anywhere in Vietnam and although house sparrows are resident, there is nothing of the vibrant wild life that India boasts – for here everything is eaten and accordingly everything keeps clear of humans. Turtles are revered, before being eaten, and the tower remembers their importance. It is square and stepped, with sides of about 20 feet, each side having two arches. It appears to be an old Chinese building and is so iconic that it often seems to stand as a very symbol of Vietnam.

The view down the length of the Lake showing the pagoda and bridge

In one of those twists of history this is very strange as it was built in memory of the wife of a French collaborator. Boats and swimmers are not allowed on the lake so this islet remains unvisited, its greatest use is as a backdrop for wedding photographs.

In contrast the northern island has a bridge to it. The bridge and pagoda offer the visitor all that they could wish for in terms of oriental beauty: red paint, pan tiled swept up roofs, flags, trees, and quietly milling visitors enjoying the slight cool of the air movement that the surrounding water induces. The bridge, which gently curves across 50 metres of the lake, is like those we see on 'Willow Pattern' plates, and brings a flow of visitors who stop on the arch, and who look down to see nothing, in the un-transparent waters, except their own shadows.

Of course there is a snag with being at the heart of this great city and that is that the oasis is ringed by a four-lane one-way road, a major hub of Hà Nội’s ‘transport system’ (i.e. the millions of motor bikes) which keeps up a level of activity that cannot be ignored.

Dawn mist enhancing the view of the Turtle Tower on Hoan Kiem Lake

From 7 in the morning to 10 in the evening the pressure of noise is constant, although at night it still quietens, rather as cities used to go quiet in the UK. The noise and fumes can make contemplation, and even conversation difficult, and then also there is the agility foreigners feel they need, to gain access across this seething mass of vehicles, to the haven of the Lake. And yes, nevertheless, it is a haven. Sitting with the lake’s lapping green water at one's feet, in the welcome shade given by the branches of the bending trees above, and looking out across ripples to the upturned corners of the roofs of the pagoda in its muffler of foliage, there is an extraordinary sense of well being. Added to which the strolling, standing, sitting Vietnamese imbue all with their laughter, talk and gentle interactions, creating at the centre of their country, a very human peace as deep, in its own way, as the peace of the Scottish hills.

Go to the previous 'most recently added page'