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LENIN'S LAST PARK
Cong Vien Le Nin is known and cherished by Hanoians of all generations. Even though its official name has been changed to "Cong Vien Tong Nhat" - The Renufication Park - everybody still call it the Lenin Park.
A couple of years ago an official name switch turned the original Renufication Park (a small marble dominated structure with Viet Nam's only Lenin Statue) into the new Lenin Park, and vice versa. But try and explain that to a taxi driver in Ha Noi!
Some of my Vietnamese friends still carry pleasant and terrifying memories from the park during the 'American War'.
"I remember when Kem (ice cream) first came to Ha Noi in the late 1960'ies. We lined up for hours in the heat just to taste a little of a strange new thing. My mother was very much concerned about me eating ice cream. She and many other grown ups believed that it was dangerous to eat something cold," Phuong told me one day, when we walked around in the park, reminiscing her childhood.
 "Over there at the new playground the anti-aircraft artillery were camouflaged. I was so frightened one Sunday, when the alarm sounded, and there was no time to run home. My mother shoved me into a shelter, made from a sewage pipe and left me. There was no room for her and my older sister. I was alone in the dark, and I thought of rats and big spiders. Then the canons boomed, the earth shook, and I cried and cried in horror. I was 5 years old and so afraid to be alone."
"We never heard the American airplanes, because they were flying so high. The bombs seemed to drop out of the sky from nowhere. The next day my sister and I were taken to the forests north of Ha Noi, where we spent the rest of the war. My mother did not tell us that the whole Kam Thien Street near our house was wiped out that day," Phuong says.
40 years later Cong Vien Le Nin is a fascinating place. It has re-emerged from a very gloomy decade as a refuge for Heroin addicts and prostitutes. For years no parents would let their children play there. There were just too many used syringes left around among the trees.
But a major clean up action has brought the park back to its former prominence as Ha Noi's biggest green haven.
Every weekend - especially during Ha Noi's beautiful, cool autumn - the people of Ha Noi go there for exercise, fun and gossip. Few foreign families find their way to the beautiful trees, but those who do are rewarded with polite curiosity and loads of cheap candy.
I join the crowds on a regular basis with my youngest daughter Anna Cecilie and her friends, and it really is a great place to hang out. If you have a weekend off in Ha Noi, you are sure to have a great time there. It is a unique opportunity to join the gracious and friendly Vietnamese in jogging, badminton, yoga or just hanging out.
"Never too old to work out!"
Recent rumors have it that private investors from Korea may be allowed to turn the Lenin Park into a modern - Korea style - amusement park. Angry letters have appeared in the Vietnamese press, asking the authorities to scrap any suggestions to replace the ancient trees and dilapidated merry go-rounds with more stylish entertainment monsters.
Some hundred people from the neighbourhood have had a good living on the proceeds from the worn out merry go-rounds, the dragon train, the water balls in the lake, the octopus and the other facilities - I am not entirely sure they would survive a European safety inspection, but they seem to be in fair condition in spite of decades of operation.
The rides are very cheap - 30 cents per turn - and the operators make more than 100 USD a month.
"We are very concerned that we will lose our income. I took over this merry go-round from my father 20 years ago. And I do not know where to find another job, if new investors take over. Maybe they bring their own staff," one operator told me.
Another Vietnamese friend refuses to believe that the Korean investors will be allowed to go ahead.
"This place is sacred for Hanoians. The Koreans can get their own amusement park in Southern Ha Noi, where most of them live."
"Will there be a job for us, if the new investors take over our park?"
But so far nothing have changed apart from a newly renovated playground, sponsored by a private company. Here are some pix from a Sunday afternoon in October 2007.
Please meet below amazingly fit Vietnamese grandparents and youngsters at play - all of them among the breath taking beautiful old trees of Ha Noi's biggest park:
"Yoga keeps me young and fit at 77!"
"I am retired and 60, but I can still do 15 of these!"
"This Sunday could have paid better". Old betel chewing ladies have a less than meager income from donations of other Sunday visitors.
"I do 100 push-ups before the children train comes back".
"Why does everybody say it is so difficult to stand up in these water balls?"
"Oi Troi oi" - not that easy to get it right!
"I made it" (in about 15 minutes).
"Mua balloons cua em!" - Please buy my balloons. Anna Cecilie and I have become major customers in the Lenin Park. We have learned to accept to be over charged - USD 1 a piece.
LENIN'S LAST PARK
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