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Published: December 21st 2007
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Hanoi is a crazy place!! In the early hours of the morning everyone seems to get up and there are motorbikes everywhere!! I've never seen traffic like it!!
I stayed in the Old Quarter, which seemed a really nice area. In Hanoi you seem to get hassle wherever you go, to buy something or to get a ride on a motorbike. Its crazy how often you get accosted!! However on the street I stayed on I got no hassle, which was nice. The hostel I was staying at (Hanoi Backpackers Hostel) was great!! A really sociable place where it was easy to make lots of friends.
I'm afraid I didn't really do much while in Hanoi as I always seemed to be exhausted!! When I arrived from Bangkok, I'd been up til 5am drinking on Khao San Road, so when I finally got there I just slept for about 14 hours!! The next day though I managed to make it to see the water puppets show, which was good. The ancient art of water puppetry is about 1000 years old and some say it started with rice farmers who saw the potential of water as a dymanic stage, although
others say it was started during a great flood, when they adapted conventional puppetry. Whatever the origins, it was really good. There were people playing instruments as the puppets danced around the watery stage, telling a story in Vietnamese. If I were a child I would have been amazed!!
I also tried my first two Vietnamese dishes that first day, nem (or spring rolls as we call them) and pho (beef noodle soup). Both were quite tasty, but when you've come from Thailand, the food just doesn't compare!! Thailand wins hands down. Oh well, I've got at least three weeks here, so I'd better get used to the new flavours. The beer, however beats Thailand!! Can you believe a glass of draught beer costs just 2500 dong, which in English money is less than 10p!! A complete and utter bargain!! I really liked the taste of it too. I don't think its very alcoholic though, which is probably just as well, as after leaving Beer Corner, a street corner where all the westerners go to drink Bia Hoi (fresh beer), I would have struggled with the traffic if I'd have been drunk. There are just so many motorbikes everywhere!!
On my return to Hanoi, after trekking in Sapa I went to Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, which is where the body of Ho Chi Minh, or Uncle Ho as everyone calls him is kept. When Uncle Ho died, they embalmed him (despite the fact that he wished to be cremated) and now his body is on display for 9 months of the year. I found the whole experience a bit creepy, seeing a dead body just lying there. Some people think that its a wax version of him there and that the real body is somewhere else. It was a very strange experience though!!
That night my hostel was having a party as it was their 3 year anniversary. There was going to be free alcohol between 5.30-6.30pm and free food all night, so you know me, I had to go where the free alcohol was. I ended up getting a bit too carried away - I blame the guys in the hostel, who were definitely encouraging me to get drunker!! They were telling everyone to down their drinks and make the most of the free hour, so I managed to down 2 very large (I think quadruple)
vodka & cokes. I also drank a straight shot of vodka and 2 beers in the free hour, which I think was very good going. However about an hour after that I don't remember much. I remember leaving the hostel to go to some Irish Bar, Finnegans, but have no memory of being there. Alarmingly I woke up the next day in a completely different hotel!! I must have forgotten where I lived, so just checked into somewhere new - quite sensible I guess - better than sleeping on the streets!! It was very scary waking up in a completely different place though. The hotel I stayed in was just at the end of the street that my hostel was on, so I nearly made it there!!!
I was going to stay in Hanoi two nights, but after such a mad night I didn't want to be tempted to go on the lash again, so I headed off to Ninh Binh, where apparently the scenery is a bit like Halong Bay. Should be nice.
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