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Published: November 22nd 2006
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So this is a very late entry - written from Darlinghurst in Sydney rather then Vietnam - but screw it, its worth filling in the blanks, if only because I have drank that much there may be no other way to remember it!!
So, we hauled our asses out of our deluxe suite at the Bangkok Marriot Hotel and Spa (hardcore travellers!!) popped a couple of immodium, said a prayer that Air Asia would have no delays and soft toilet roll and then grabbed a tuk tuk to the airport. We both started to perk up on the plane and the views coming into Vietnam where absolutely beautiful - I've stuck some pics on here. We arrived at a very new, flash and seemingly empty Hanoi airport. It was by no means a precursor for what was to come. We caught a cab to the narrow streets of the Old French district in Hanoi and when we got there it was clear why it had a reputation for being SE Asias' craziest capital.
Vietnam is similiar to the rest of Asia (surprisingly - duh) but at the same time very different. With a history of major wars that nearly
wiped out their nation since 600 AD, a communist party that encouraged very large families and an innate desire to sell, trade, barter, bargain, haggle and make money - it is absolutely frantic.
Hanoi was no different, traffic lights are more decorative then functional, when they turn red - nobody stops they just kind of drive around you when you cross the road, you can tell the newbies because they are the one's that take 20 minutes to cross the road - or just close their eyes and take a leap of faith. There are millions of motorbikes on the roads and paths going in all directions - I heard a statistic that someone dies every six minutes!! Its nuts and the closest that we came to a culture shock so far.
Our taxi took us to a back packers place on Hang Manh (after trying to scam us by going to three other places where he got a percentage first - I guess everyones out to make some mula) in the french quarter, he took a wrong turn at the end and so instead of going around in a big circle he just wacked the car in
reverse and reversed about 200 metres up a one way street. I know I've said its manic - but it really is; the clatter starts at about 5am or as soon as it gets bright with all the mopeds and their horns going off, the traders setting up on the street and people generally shouting and talking very fast, and it doesn't calm down till about 11 ish when they all head off for Bia Hoi (cheap local beer).
It takes longer to see the charm in Hanoi then the rest of Asia, its a polluted, buzzing metropolis with moto drivers, taxi drivers, traders, kids, beggars constantly trying to sell you something at a massively inflated price. The people also seem harder to get to know and a bit colder to westerners - inevitably. But after a couple of days you get to know your way around, you can ignore the begging and traders constantly cajoling and you come to enjoy the banter a bit more - right down to having to haggle in every shop, restaurant, stall, hotel, taxi, cyclos, train station over the price of everything from water to paintings!
In our few days in Hanoi
we spent all of it either eating at oldly world, run down french style restaurants with fantastic crepes, shopping (we had a couple of paintings made for us, bags and loads of other stuff) and sight seeing at Uncle Ho's Mausoleum, which is really bizarre.
We turned up at the Mausoleum on an average 38 degree day with trousers and long sleeve shirts on (as required) and got into a two mile queue, which is apparently a daily occurence. A nice policeman pushed us through a bit faster (I think he felt sorry for us, because the Vietnamese don't do queuing they just walk past you looking guilty!) - Anyways the Mausoleum is very Soviet, as are all of Hanoi's public buildings - big, open, austere, seriously unglamorous square that lead to a big square building with lots of soldiers wearing white gloves and oversized hats. You are not allowed to take a camera and they really enforce it, I was pulled out of the queue and patted down three times by the big hat wearing soldiers! When you get in you file past the embalmed Uncle Ho, he is so white he looks like a lump of marble.
There is a rumour that he is really in Russia! The strangest thing of all is that these queues are a daily occurance and its all Vietnamese people - they really really buy into the cult of Ho Chi Minh and it means a lot to them, standing in the queue you stick out like a sore thumb, for being over 5"8' and sunburnt! Tourism is still new enough that some people are fascinated by you, and it can turn into a human zoo - they really don't know what to make of Dulce!
Anyways after going to lots more markets and starting to feel better we booked ourselves onto a trip to the Halong Bay for the next day, went and picked up a couple of paintings that we had
commisioned! and then went to pack up the overgrowing mass of belongings.
Halong bay was great. We joined a tour with the Kangaroo Cafe - which was cool, generally we've tried to avoid tours - but there is not much else up there and its all about staying on the bay in a traditional junk boat for a couple of days, so you have to go with
someone. In the end we were with a sound group of people and we had a fantastic time. The weather wasn't great but the scenery was stunning. Basically you board your junk boat, sail around the bay a bit - get off and go see some very impressive caves (but a bit touristy), then the best bit of all, you sail around some more then jump off the side of your junk boat into the warm, beautiful waters of Halong Bay - just floating around looking at the giant Karst rocks and mountains all around was brilliant. That night coincided with Tonys heart surgery in the UK so we made sure that we got absolutely hammered playing drinking games before jumping back into the bay for a star light swim.
The next day we swam our hangovers off and travelled back to Hanoi, were we stuffed our faces on cheese and potato pie at the kangaroo cafe (well I am a paddy on tour afterall!), before catching our sleeper train to Hue.
Hanoi was a real experience and somewhere were I would go again, but its not as friendly as the rest of Asia or Vietnam for that
matter. HaLong was a bit touristy - but still well worth a visit and a real wonder of the world.
We got a really good pic of these little boys in hanoi - they were burning money (for a dead relevant) and when we showed them their picture on the camera they went nuts and wanted more and more taken, but they wouldn't stay still long enough for the pics so they are all a smudged! Cool kids though
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