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Published: March 20th 2007
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First off I'd like to apologise for the length of time it's taken me to update this. I got back from Vietnam over a month ago but I've been so busy with everyday stuff that I haven't really got around to it.
Anyway, so we went to the train station in Nanning at around 8pm where we met up with Wulf again who'd just got in from Guilin. We then got on our train bound for the Vietnamese border and off we went. As it was already dark there wasn't much to see so we spent our time drinking tea and playing cards.
We arrived at the border in the middle of the night and had to spend quite a bit of time changing trains and filling out forms etc but before too long we were on our scummier Vietnamese train headed for Hanoi. I found it difficult to sleep so I was awake to see it get light and to see the scenery as we sped past. It was stunning and while, on the surface at least, it was quite similar to China I really felt like I was in a different country. The buildings were totally
different. Most of them were in a colonial style but were often also very tall, narrow and painted in pastel colours. I would have taken some photos but the train window was too dirty to take photos through.
We arrived in Hanoi at about 9am and from there we set off walking towards the hostel that Wulf had booked for us. I was immediately bowled over by the sheer volume of traffic on the roads especially as most of it consits of mopeds and motorbikes. Crossing the road requires a certain amount of bravery, luck and blind faith. When we got to the hostel we checked in, changed some money, had some breakfast and then went for a kip as none of us had really got a decent amount of sleep on the trains.
Once we'd rested up a little we went for a walk around the Hoan Kiem Lake area where our hostel was so we could get our bearings. We visited the Den Ngoc Son temple which is in the middle of the lake. According to the legend of the temple a Vietnamese fisherman Le Loi found a magic sword in the lake while he was
fishing and he used this sword to give the Chinese a good thrashing for ten years or so before returning to the lake as a King. When he reached the lake to give thanks there was a thunderclap and a giant turtle appeared. The King gave his magic sword to the turtle, who then disappeared back into the lake and built a temple on the lake to give thanks for his victories.
After visiting the temple we wandered around the shops and had some amazing Vietnamese coffee which they serve with condensed milk. I was struck by the number of foreigners in Hanoi even though it's a capital city. I guess I'm just used to being one of the few foreigners in my part of China. That evening we went for a few drinks and some food. They drink a local beer here called Bia Hoi which is brewed fresh and isn't pasturised so it only has a shelf life of 24 hours. It's riduculously cheap and tastes really good. The food in Vietnam is awesome too. I guess it's best described as Chinese food but with heavy French, Thai and Indian influences.
The next day we had
planned to go see the preserved body of Uncle Ho but we slept in and he only viewable in the mornings. So instead we wandered up to that part of town and walked past the embassy district with it's impressive buildings until we got to the Military History Museum. Vietnam has a lot of military history going back centuries. They fought against Chinese and French rule and of course the Americans. I don't really want to say too much about the war museum, I'll let these pictures speak for me.
As the next few days were approaching Tet (Vietnamese New Year) a lot of things were closed so we spent most of our time wandering around and soaking up the atmosphere. We did get to see a lot of Kumquat trees flying around the city on the back of bikes, apparently they form a key part of the New Year's decorations.
We set off early on the morning of the 15thbus for our two day trip of Halong Bay to the east. Stay tuned.
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