Advertisement
Published: October 13th 2007
Vietnam... finally
((c) image purchased from iStockphoto)
On day 13 we visit the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and Museum. The Mausoleum houses the remains of Ho Chi Minh, the founding father of unified Vietnam (note: the mausoleum and musuem are closed October-December) During the afternoon visit Tran Quoc Pagoda, the Temple of Literature, the Museum of Ethnology or take a walk through Hanoi's Old Quarter - a maze of street, each one traditionally devoted to a different product or industry. In the evening attend a performance at the famous Water Puppet Theatre. Friday 12th So, another early start as we want to be on the road by 730, so 7am for breakfast. Shower was surprisingly hot, maybe too much so! Breakfast is typical - omelette, white bread/jam, but the fruit is OK - the green bananas turn out to be pretty ripe, and we see a first for us - a siamese banana!
Back onto the bus as the driver takes us to the Vietnamese border. We have to get out at the Lao side where Kym sorts out all the departure passes whilst we get rid of our KIP (you can't change it outside Lao) and change some dollars ready for the next currency - the Dong, about 15,000 to the $... Although we'll probably get a better rate later on we need some for now. Back on the bus and into no man's land where we head for Vietnamese immigration - more form filling (no, I don't have a cough..), $1 processing fee and a surprisingly short wait (after wondering whether flirtatious or militaristic guards are better... Appears flirtatious are faster) we're through security and into Vietnam where our passports get checked another couple of times. The landscape and culture feels surprisingly different surprisingly quickly... There's more concrete, the houses are more ornate and a lot have this really strange style where they look like they should be part of a terrace but are just a sheer concrete wall... The drivers are all manic - blaring horns at each other as they overtake willy-nilly - and one of the first things
we come across is an accident - can't see any damage but one of the drivers is being beaten up by a group of others... It appears that he has caused the accident and if he doesn't have the money for repairs to pay on the spot (unlikely) then he gets beaten with sticks etc. That was all very disturbing and we were told not to interfere so it was a relief to be past that!
The journey continues in the same scary horn-blaring way as before (and we see lots of ex-military vehicles in use, particularly in the first few kms!)... The driver was supposed to stop in Vinh for lunch but after 2-3 hours we've not even stopped for a toilet break... Finally he pulls into a service station when Kym says to STOP but it's NOT NICE! Some can hold it, expecting lunch in next 30 mins or so but no, we just keep going until finally he stops at a really nasty looking place - heaving with men, doesn't feel safe and we can smell the toilets from so far away we don't want those either.. Fortunately is so busy Kym tells him it's not
Been some severe flooding here...
Think this is on the edge of the typhoon area! good enough... About 20 mins later we all spot somewhere that looks like it might be OK and we yell... So quick bit of reversing and finally - we stop for lunch and find a couple of 'western' toilets - well - one's missing it's door and the other has a bit of a whole but that one is good enough! Lunch is choice of chicken, beef or vegetable... Comes out - all looks pretty good although the chicken is just random chopped bits so difficult to identify much meat - but I've already started eating someones beef by that point - is difficult to tell what it is!! After an hour (and another toilet stop) back on the bus - Hanoi is still another 150km+ away and because it's now teeming with rain we're going to have to slow a bit... A lot of us dozed off yesterday but with the horns blaring and the loud noises as we hit puddles there's not a lot of restfulness on board!
OK - we keep on going, think we may have had another toilet stop but it just seemed to go on and on (well, the journey, including lunch, was
12 hours!) until FINALLY we hit Hanoi and wow, is this city even more frantic than the roads (for which we seemed to spend over 50% of the time on the wrong side of the road) - traffic, light and colour everywhere. Kym does a bit of orientation on the way through - a big lake to take as a central point, leading to the Old Quarter which we are just north of in (Thit Nahn) Hotel. We pass through some of the Old Quarter - notably Shoe Street... Imelda Marcos eat your heart out... Racks of shoes of every conceivable type!
Onto the hotel, which looks really nice (or is that just compared to the past 24 hours), so we check in, quick shower (we have no idea what we have trod in today!) and then all but Cassandra head off for our meal in (Classic Vietnamese) restaurant. That was nice food but expensive (well, for Asia!)... Restaurant is full of ex-pats and Colonials. I decide to have a cocktail - an Acapulco is 65000 Dong (about $4.2) so just the one... And it turns out to be green to match my shirt! Spring rolls for starters... That
would actually have been enough but we've already ordered mains so those arrive - have beef noodles... Tastes pretty good but not really hungry so don't finish it - just gollop down a load more water (on the street 1.5l is about 4-6000 Dong, in the restaurant 37000!) and then we walk back to the hotel... I was going to find an internet café but sore throat still dragging me down so sleep seems more important! Crash out by 11pm!
Saturday 13th Wow, a lie-in - no alarm clocks til 8am! Even that feels too early. Shower and get down for breakfast 845 - no one else in there but I spy some wholemeal bread (every time we see this we get so excited - there's only so much French stick you want!) so toast it is, with some fruit (once again watermelon, pineapple and banana). I spy some back but it appears to be just the rind, so, nah, I'll stick with this thanks. Others soon appear - someone had been told at 830 that breakfast was finished but we were eating it so they still got some!
By the time finish faffing around it's 10ish and
take a deep breath ready to head out - I'm not sure I'm ready for Hanoi! Downstairs Cassandra and Lise are on the (slow) computers... Cassandra wants to wander by herself but Lise is up for an Old Quarter buddy, so having dropped off my washing (and established that it is twice as much for speedy washing!) we dive in... Via the ATM where I make myself an instant millionaire... Think that's about GBP50 but not sure!
We almost instantly have to put into practice the art of 'crossing the road'! Kym has explained that gaps in traffic are few and far between, and traffic goes in all directions - but it's mainly Motos so you look for a minor break then start walking at a steady pace across the road and the motos are used to avoidance! First few goes that's pretty terrifying but you start to get used to it! We're looking for some interesting streets... They're all named after the type of produce that street is known for - e.g. shoe street, mat street, flower street, etc. We're not quite sure where we are on the map but just keep going... It's all interesting - and
frantic! We go down a street in which pretty much all they're selling is garlic, ginger and limes! We find a beautiful display of flowers - very intricate, and think we may have found flower street, but as we turn down we find we seem to be on fish street - all kinds, some swimming, some in parts, some eels, some turtles, some frogs and who knows what else. It's all fascinating but a couple of turns later we comes out by 'Le Pub' which Lise's guidebook says is a top pick. We get a card and keep walking 'cos it's only about 11am. Find a propaganda poster gallery, have a quick look, buy a postcard and bump into John and Noleen. Soon after see a sign for the Internet - Lise wants one with Skype and this has it... Interesting journey to get to it, down a narrow alley past a number of different rooms (which seemed to have a different family in each) up stairs and into a room with new looking computers running Windows Vista! Lise gets to make her call but I can't get my USB to function so after half-hour we head back to Le
First sight of Hanoi
(and the sounds were unbelievable!) Pub for lunch. Honey and yoghurt smoothie ordered along with Le Pub Hamburger Deluxe - home-made bun, extras and all with potato wedges! That was all delicious (and they are clearly catering for the ex-pat market, but after a week or two of rice you just want something different!) and I savoured every mouthful. Lise wasn't quite so sure about her Margerita pizza which seemed to have a wafer thin base and a tonne of cheese and not a lot else - nice but not what was expected! Then it's time to find our way back to the hotel and we decide to have a go on the Moto (although we've not checked our insurance for this yet!) and negotiate for just under $1 each - climb on (seperate bikes), hold onto the seat and off we go. Thought we'd just be in the backstreets but, oh no, here we go, out onto the main road. It's actually really fun but not sure quite how safe it was! Time to quickly use the hotel internet - slow but managed to upload text if not pictures and we all meet back in the lobby for our afternoon of culture.
For
a change we walk to our venue - and it was really enjoyable as we found ourselves walking down a wide boulevard, very European in style (the French influence again), past the Catholic church (apparently a high proportion of Vietnamese are Catholics and there's notably less Buddha's around), and round towards Ho Chi Minh's Palace and Mausoleum. Ho Chi Minh has gone to Russia for his (annual?) re-stuffing so we can't see him, but we see his palace, his cars, his house on stilts, some grapefruits, some carp, and have an ice-cream before checking out the Ho Chi Minh Museum which is pure propaganda in architecture of the grandiose style. Was really surprised to see so much of his life presented in an abstract artistic way, and to see parts of Picasso's Guernica on display... I always associate late-Communism with straight representational/statuesque art! Interesting but we're done in 40 minutes... Check out the Pagoda on one stilt and then - after the guys have walked off without me for a couple of heart-stopping minutes (when I spot John's bright yellow t-shirt) we grab a taxi (about $2) across to the Water Puppet Theatre. Bit too much like 'It's a Small
World' for me and 20 minutes, not an hour, would have been interesting but still... Should have been near the door like Cassandra and Lise who snuck out early!
We come out, and are near to Shoe Street - Amanda and I head off together. Go there but it really doesn't look as interesting as it did from the bus last night! Keep wandering, keep finding ourselves doing loops or finding ourselves where we'd been earlier in the day. Found the tourist office and a free map, which was helpful, avoided all the motos and cyclos, but found our way into a few shops. Bought a set of 3 rice paper cards which can frame one day! Amanda bought a small piece of laquerware - having found that the piece she'd bought earlier had been swapped by the shop for cracked pieces.. Annoying but wasn't even worth trying to return it! Thought we were heading back to the hotel then realised had made the classic mistake of heading for Hang Boung Street not Hang Bun street, so realised needed to go straight to the restaurant. Taxi wanted 50000 so we headed for a cyclo and negotiated 15000 to the
restaurant - quite a nice way to travel actually - and turn up at Le Cyclo. Lise has just got there and 5 minutes later everyone else, including the new guests, have turned up. John, Noleen, Amanda and Lise are finishing their part of the trip tonight, and we have Oliver & Nick (New Zealand?), Danoushka & Helen, Jeff & Lucy (UK), Chris (Canada), David (Belgium) joining. A big group so our order takes some time - during which it tips down again - so we see the waitresses going between the undercover bits with a combination of umbrellas, trays and triangle hats on themselves and the orders to keep dry! I'm not really hungry and my throat is more raw than it's been for days so I order ice cream as my main, and it all takes so long to arrive that that's it!
Heading out about 10pm, half go to the pub, half back to the hotel. We hail a taxi but despite saying he'll go on the meter, when we get in he starts bargaining a price. 4 million he says - well that's like GBP200 so obviously not. We realise he's not going to put
the meter on so we get out, and then think well maybe he meant 40000 which would still be an expensive fare but $2.50 rather than hundreds of pounds! Anyway, Cassandra decides to hop on a Moto (and we find out she's been better at bargaining than us - 8-10000 per ride, rather than the 14-15000 we paid earlier), 3 girls get a taxi for 40000, and Amanda bargains 40000 for 2 cyclos taking 2 people each. The cyclo has been given the hotel card, but checks it halfway through when he re-reads and he and his friend, who he's fetched for this fare, have a frantic conversation about Hang Boung and Hang Bun and it appears the locals make the same mistake as us! He starts to make gestures indicating that the distance is longer than he thought - don't know if this a common trick but he agreed a price so has to stick to it. We play around with some photos too then give him a bit more once he gets us to the hotel. Up to the room to pack for Halong Bay tomorrow - daypacks only... We're only going for 36 hours so... Try and
sleep early as need to be up for 7, but Cassandra and I end up chatting and then throat, etc kicks in so not the most restful of nights...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.066s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0235s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
