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Hanoi 6-9th May
For anyone who has ever visited Vietnam, the title will make sense. For everyone else, read on!
So, Hanoi it seems, is a hard place to get to from Hong Kong. The night bus, although evidently designed for people of Chinese and not Tom-ese stature, was comfortable and uneventful enough. We arrived at Nanning at 6am, and with the help of an English family who lived there (and were fluent in the language) managed to get to our hotel. From there a short bus ride into town got us our bus tickets to Hanoi for the following morning, the 6th of May. We pottered around Nanning for the day in the drizzle, it doesn't look like the kind of place that sunshine would improve sadly, and then waited till departure time. All went well on the Chinese side, including a stop for lunch that was part of the ticket. Customs was uneventful too, if a little drawn out. The Chinese side was all professionalism and stern faces, whereas the Vietnamese side, after another walk through no-man's land, was a little less well organised, and well frankly a bit more in the socialist spirit. In total there were
four customs officials working at the Vietnamese border. One to collect the passports. One to check they all had a valid visa. One to stamp the visa. One to collect the passports and hand them back. This last guy clearly knew he had the bum deal, as he came out with a stack of around 20 passports he caught my eye - I was the only person over 5'7 and the only Western male- and he smiled at me. Then he proceeded to read out the name from the first passport, for arguments sake let's say Li Fang Dong, then he held the passport next to my face, closed one eye then the other, and shook his head "is not you". Everyone laughed. Then again. Again we laughed. Then again. The groans only really started after about 35 passports, after all I wanted to cross the border and he was the man with the power.
Once through the border we jumped on another bus for the 4 hour ride to Hanoi. Ipod on. eyes closed and zzzzz.....I awoke with a bang, or rather a smash, or rather a Toyota Minivan shaped bump in the rear driver side section
of the coach. Quite how it happened I don't know, and thankfully there were no injuries, but it did rule out further transport by coach for a while. You see the problem is that, although small and light compared to a coach, the minivan managed to crash into the engine, smash the housing and cause some fairly terminal damage. We spent an hour or so at the roadside, joined by a crowd of onlookers and more police than could possibly ever be required (again, socialism, the world's largest employer!!). Eventually a small fleet of minibuses turned up to take us the final 50 odd km into Hanoi, and we made it to the hotel safe and sound, although beginning to wonder if this travelling lark might not be a touch more dangerous than we had thought previously. That being said, throughout our trip round China we had both said that the real adventure would begin once we were on our own and over the border. Nostradamus has got nothing on us!
Hanoi first impressions? You wouldn't want to be a car salesman here that's for sure, motorbike repair man definitely. There are lots of motorbikes and mopeds and
scooters in Hanoi (and Vietnam in general). In fact "lots" doesn't quite convey what I really feel. There are essentially nothing but motorbikes in Vietnam. It is a bit like some kind of futuristic world where man no longer walks around on two legs in traditional bipod fashion, but rather his lower limbs have been surgically attached to the engine of a Suzuki or Honda for ease of movement. You can't walk down the pavement for all the parked scooters, which means you have to walk in the road, and run the gauntlet of even more scooters. They ride them everywhere, on footpaths, in parks, over footbridges, round the markets, everywhere. And when they are not riding them one handed, eating a sandwich, talking on the phone and transporting half a ton of machinery on the back, they are lounging on the bike on a street corner, in an impossibly relaxed pose, shouting out to all passers by, "hello, motorbike?". It seems that everyone in Vietnam, and Hanoi in particular, has at least two jobs. The day job, and motorbike taxi man. And with the motorbikes come the horns. I am becoming something of a connoisseur in the different uses
of the horn in SE Asia, here are just some of the different uses (and sounds) that I have noticed:
Regular short blasts, usually on a main road - I'm alongside you, don't move
Regular long blasts, usually on a main road - I'm in a bigger vehicle than all of you, so move
Short sharp, staccato blasts, usually at a crossing or junction - I ignored the lights, if you hit me it's your fault
Long drawn out blast - I have four people on here and a pot plant so I can't really see, move aside
3 short blasts - Pedestrian, on the pavement, idiot!
There are countless more, and I daresay over the next few weeks I can add to my list, but if you take nothing else away from this blog, remember this. Each motobike rider uses their horn each and every second of every single day, and they are LOUD! So, first impressions of Hanoi, jeeez it's loud.
That evening we wandered around Hoam Kiem lake, which was near the hotel, and grabbed some food. We also learnt how to cross a road in Vietnam, because as well as
ignoring all other traffic signals, the bikes ignore zebra crossings too.
It works like this. You step down from the kerb when safe to do so, and pick a gap roughly twice the size needed to fit a human in, and walk slowly into it. And keep walking, slowly, slowly, and rather like I imagine Moses on the banks of the Red Sea (of course, one must imagine....) the seemingly endless stream of motorbikes part, allowing you to proceed. The key is not to stop, and not to make any sudden movements. They will miss you. Honest.
In total we spent three nights and hot, sticky days in Hanoi, visiting the Temple of Literature among other places along the way. For the most part we just wandered around, no destination in mind, exploring the old town and adapting to the heat and change in pace. We also did some planning for the rest of our trip, and we have decided that instead of heading to Australia by October, we are going to stay in Asia till Christmas more or less, getting to Sydney on December 22nd. So, generally we relaxed and caught our breath after our whirlwind tour
of China, and spent a lot of time walking and trying not to get run over.
On the Monday (9th) we checked out of the hotel and boarded the night train to Sapa, which deserves a blog of its own.....stay tuned!
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Birk Junghanns
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Motorbikes
I can only recommend watching BBCs TopGear Special in Vietnam...all three on tiny motorbike through the whole of the country. Anyway, all the best and SAFE trip!