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Published: December 7th 2008
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The hotel puts on a incredible multicultural breakfast spread with Indian curries, Asian noodle dishes, and more western breakfast choices. We were well fed and happy when we finally boarded the airport shuttle.
With the airport recently build, the shops in the departure area were not yet done so we had a bit of a dull wait at our departure gate.
The flight to Hanoi was a smaller plane (just 3 + 3 seats across) and with no entertainment. We are not terribly impressed with Malaysia airlines. Our first glimpses of Vietnam while landing were of farm fields, but unlike fields I have seen from the air in other countries, these were many very small fields all in a patchwork like pattern. Joshua says “Did they have a lot of rain? There is water every where like giant puddles.” I could see farmers in classic triangle shaped hats on the fields as we landed.
Being my first time in a communist country, I wasn't sure how difficult customs and immigration would be. In the end, it was a quick process.--no questions whatsoever!
After passing though customs, we spotted our driver holding up a sign with my name.
Evy and the boys followed him to the car while I made a quick trip to the ATM to get out some local cash. I hadn't quite thought this one through and had no idea whether to take out 250 000 dongs or 2 000 000. I ended up taking out 500 000, which later turned out to be about $36 Canadian.
Up until now, most of what we had seen of Vietnam was not all that unusual. That was about to change. As we left the airport terminal, we entered a stream of car and motorbike traffic that seemed to flow organically, with no attention to road lines or any other discernible rules. Cars honked constantly as if to say “ I am here on your left” as they squeezed narrowly past packs of vespa like scooters. These scooters had two, three, or even four people riding them, including whole families. Some were piled impossibly high with packs of cloth, building materials, and even eggs (a disaster waiting to happen if you ask me). The smog was thick in the presence of all these scooters, and it burned our throats and eyes. Many of the people on the
scooters, biking, or walking were wearing surgical masks to fight off the smog.
To the sides of the road we saw people walking cows, plowing fields with oxen, and old ladies carrying balance twin baskets with a stick in between so that they resembled an over sized old fashion balance scale.
The “highway” never move faster than 40 km/hour as we weaved through bicycles, scooters, and cars. The streets narrowed as we entered the city and I was conscious of the faded colonial glory of the buildings, many seemingly frozen in some other era. Buildings were half occupied and half under construction or skeleton like. There seemed to be a lot of construction going on, many sites with bamboo scaffolding and huge mountains of earth or huge piles of dumped construction refuse.
Our hotel is on a very busy narrow street in the old quarter. We took the lift up to our room, which is pleasant enough, though the “city view” turns out to be the other side of our narrow street. I think we were all a bit shell shocked, but I thought it better that we head out and explore soon so that we didn't
end up feeling stuck in our room, fearful of the world beyond.
The hotel is a few blocks from Hoan Kiem Lake (Lake of the Restored Sword) so we thought we would head down that way to take a look. The streets though, were terrifying to the uninitiated with a steady stream of motorbikes barreling down them, almost like you walked into the Tour de France on a tight corner. Since Joshua has a tendency to not look where he is going, we were holding tightly onto him and clinging to what ever side walk we could find (though usually it was full of parked motorbikes).
When we finally got down to the area of the lake, we realized that we needed to cross a large multi lane road to get to it. There appeared to be no traffic lights or traffic rules. We watched as locals would slowly and fearlessly wade out into the chaotic sea, trusting that the traffic would flow around them. We watched for one who was about to cross and tacked ourselves to their shadow. Once across, we walked around the lake until we found the bridge to the small temple on an
island. There was an entrance fee, but a quick calculation and we realized 10 000 dong was really only 66 cents, so we paid and headed over. There is a pagoda on the island with a temple of sorts, as well as a giant preserved tortoise. The legend is that the King took a sword from the lake to fight off the Chinese invaders. Later, he returned to the lake and the sword was reclaimed into the water. The turtles, of which there are supposed to be some still in the lake, are guardians of the sword. That said, it is hard to think the green water of the lake could support any life, much less a giant tortoise. It's lime green and thick with algae.
After touring the island, we began to walk around the lake. The lake is in the centre off the downtown, so multiple lanes of traffic run all the way around it. At one end is another small island, not accessible, which has on it a small stone building.
We decided to try to cross the road on our own this time, and the traffic magically parted around us (though without slowing down)
and we made it to the other side. It was a bit like the scene in the movie “The Princess Bride” when they master the dangers of the fire swamp ! Shops and restaurants line the roadway around the lake, so we picked a upstairs patio for dinner. We ate our dinner 5 floors above the road way, but with a bird's eye view of the merging of two roads and the traffic below. We heard only one small crash during dinner but saw two ambulances go by. I don't think we will be renting a car here.
On our way back to the hotel, we passed a store with dvds. Joshua spotted “Madagascar 2” in the window, and we asked the price, thinking it was for rent. It was for sale for 15 000 dong which translates into $1 Canadian so we bought it but I suspect if may not be entirely legit ! We watched the movie as we digested both our dinner and the sensory shock of our first day in South East Asia.
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