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Published: March 13th 2006
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The journey to Hanoi was always going to be a long one at almost 800km. During the daylight hours though it was a pretty impresive drive. In fact, although the buses have always been uncomfortable, it is impossible not to be impressed by the lushness that is Vietnams countryside. Rice paddy after rice paddy sit comfortably against a mountainous backdrop. Taking journeys during the day seems like such a waste of time but it gives you a great opportunity to see what goes on in a country. A few observations we have made over the course of this trip through Vietnam are that all the manual labourers are women. They cover themselves from head to toe to disguise this and avoid getting the "darkness" which signifies dirty poor workers - explains why westerners have such a bad reputation when we bake ourselves in the sun at any given opportunity! Also, there do not appear to be any grave yards in Vietnam. People just lay graves and headstones wherever - road sides, rice paddies, front gardens - really weird to see. Anyway...
18 hours after getting on (it should have been 16 but we stopped to wash the bus near the
city???!!......clearly a priority!), we got off of a very chilly bus - the bus driver had obviously thought his passengers were perishable and, therefore, needed to be refrigerated. Unfortunately, Hanoi was not much warmer - it was bloody freezing and raining. Clearly flip flops were not going to last the distance here. Shame that I left my trainers in the last hostel - oops.
Hanoi is a lot less "same same" than other areas of Vietnam. It is a weird place. A more confusing, labarynthine mess of narrow, crowded streets has never called itself a capital city. We can now proudly say that we have been hopelessly and irreversibly lost only 10 minutes from home... whilst reading a map! In fact for fun and just to make himself feel better Andrew stood Lara outside our hotel and asked her to find her way back. She walked in the opposite direction - twice! As tempting as it was to let her go on I realised that I stood even less of a fighting chance in this place alone! The only way to remember your way around is to remember which district you are in. Our hostel was in the Kitchen
district. That is, the street we lived on sold kitchen appliances in every street. Other notable areas include the religious district, the gravestone district, the bra selling district and the shoe district ( Andrew tactically maneuvered us away from this area at all costs - see previous and no doubt future blog entries!)
The old quarter of the city is crowded and busy. Fruit sellers, book sellers, cyclo drivers and rickshaws line every street corner. There are a lot less convenience stores, however, and the place does not have such a commercial feel. Oddly enough, although this would fit in with Uncle Ho's communist ideals, for such a communist country they seem fairly happy to undercut each other with everyone in business on their own account. Everyone is out for themselves and something which stuck out to us about Hanoi is how willing to rip you off the locals are. Combined with the overcharging on everything, it is a far cry from the rest of Vietnam.
Hanoi is a city where wandering aimlessly around the old quarter of the city will cover all the tourist attractions. We visited the Temple of Literature (an old teaching monestary), the gate
that remains from the time the city had walls and out to Halong Bay. Pretty but uninspiring. The disused prison, called the "Hanoi Hilton" by the US POWs, was interesting because the shoddy exhibits say alot about how appaulingly the French treated the Vietnamese revolutionaries in this horrible dungeon and how wonderfully respectfully the Vietnamese treated the Americans in this comfortable temporary accomodation. The Vietnemese are a very patriotic race and very proud of their history. It is just diffiult to ascertain how much is true. However, with a past like theirs it is easy to see why they adopt this line of reasoning. The best part of the city is Hoan Kiem Lake, right in the middle of the old town. This is a focal point for the inhabitants of Hanoi who can be found doing their morning exercises or just relaxing. We also visited Lenin Park where we were able to watch Hanoi wake. Elderley gents play badminton whilst others do aerobic classes or Tai Chi. Watching the city in such relaxed surrounds is a stark contrast from the hardness which seems to belie Hanoi.
We also managed to squeeze in a visit to see Uncle Ho.
This was a rather strange and macabre spectacle to see Ho Chi Min's glowing body embalmed body in its glass disply case. Note to self...if embalmed choose your outfit carefully, it does not compliment your natural skin tones. The whole Mausolium complex is surrounded by armed gaurds who suffer from paranoia. They would allow no speaking, hands in pockets, bags or cameras and I was dragged out of queue only to have my wallet inspected. How embarassing!
So that was Vietnam. A whistlestop tour due to our deadline in Hong Kong but was enough to give a flavour for the place. Sapa was great and we loved Hoi An but perhaps there are other areas that would have been better to see. The weather up north definitely put a stop to the other stuff we wanted to do....I can feel another holiday coming on....
So all thats left to say is "Good night Vietnam"...sorry....I couldn't resist.
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