Hanging Out In Hanoi

If we haven’t mentioned it before, it takes a really long time to get anywhere in Vietnam by bus or train. Of course we could catch a flight, but what would be fun about that? We arrived in Hanoi on the overnight bus, it took about 15 hours! It was really early in the morning and we weren’t quite awake yet, we look out the window and see lots of barbequing, big rotisserie cookers with… pork? Well, another look at it and we realized that it was the pet pooch, not small ones either. Note to self…read menu carefully here!

Well, now that we are awake and at the bus station it is time to be mobbed by taxi drivers and touts all shouting at you and grabbing for your stuff saying “ Taxi mister? Where you go?” As we have said, we prefer to find a place on our own and walk but sometimes the bus station is so far from the center of town you have to take the taxi. You never know how much the ride should actually be and you are sure they are yelling “overcharge the Westerners!” but we got lucky this time and found a guy to take us exactly where we wanted to go and for the meter fare, amazing!

We did our usual walking tour, checking out all of the tourist sites. We passed some really amazing buildings as well as many historic buildings whose facades are now covered with something much less attractive, old French Colonial mansions now used as Embassy buildings, designer boutiques, small tourist shops, etc. There are great restaurants and coffee shops here but very pricey compared to the rest of Vietnam. One of the best places we discovered served different types of fried snacks; they had the best meat pies, just like in New Orleans!

Perhaps the highlight of Hanoi was a visit to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Complex. We joined what seemed like thousands of people lined up and marching two by two to see the body. It seemed like people were almost frightened by the experience (he did look pretty real) and there was a lot of pushing and crowding as folks were trying to get past him as quickly as possible. There were guards to move people along, there was no stopping allowed, no talking, no phones, and no photos. It was incredible.

Even with the hundreds of school children that were visiting that day yelling “hello - goodbye” to us every second, we had a great visit. Got to see where Ho lived and worked and visited the Ho Chi Minh Museum and learned about the “American War”. We also visited the nearby Temple of Literature, the first university in Vietnam. It was in a beautiful garden setting, well preserved and a nice place to spend some time.

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