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AHHHHH this is the trouble when you don't write a diary for a while... you forget what you did and when you did it!
so, i'll summarise my main highlights of vietnam and let the photos do the rest of the talking!
in a nutshell, hanoi is CHAOTIC to say the least! the traffic occupies 4 lanes (when there are only 2 painted on the road!) motorbikes are everywhere and move in any direction - there is no sticking to the left side of the road here! crossing the road is also an experience... traffic won't stop for you even on red lights - you just have to start walking into oncoming traffic and close your eyes so you can't see how close you are to the motorbikes! you can only hope that they see you and swerve around you! the noise was crazy as well... car and motorbike horns beeping every few seconds even when there's no need to beep! as for the people... well after the kindess of the japanese, the vietnamese people came as quick a shock! foreigners are looked at as being quite well off (certainly in comparison to the measly amounts which a lot
of locals earn) so people in the street would stick their hand out and say nothing just expecting us to throw money at them, workers at tourist hot-spots would bump up the price of admission when they saw a tourist coming... seriously! one day we walked into a park and the woman on the gate turned to a page in her notebook and scribbled down 10,000 dong - when we didn't look shocked about this, she then told us that this was the price per person. i was sure that seemed too expensive and sure enough when we left the park out of a different gate, there was a sign saying that the price was only 2,000 dong each! still we couldn't get too angry considering that 30,000 dong is only about 1 british pound! trying to haggle with the cyclo drivers was also an experience... on our first day, we had absolutely no idea how much to pay for a journey so when the driver offered us a trip for 120,000 dong we negotiated the price down to 90,000 dong and thought we'd done a good job. later on, i flicked through my invaluable guide book yet again and
realised that we should have only paid about 20,000 dong! we probably fed this guy's entire family for a month! after that, we got very strict about how much we'd pay and would walk away if cyclo drivers wouldn't accept our offers! we always felt very silly though as we were haggling over pennies basically... but it was just the principle of it!
so my highlights were... visiting some of the beautiful pagodas and shrines - very different to the japanese versions that i'd become so accustomed to seeing...
...seeing uncle ho in the ho chi minh mausoleum - very creepy but i wouldn't be surprised if it's actually a waxwork!
...visiting the national university of literature - beautiful building and gardens
...learning about the prisoners who stayed at the creepy prison, known as the 'hanoi hilton'! it was interesting how the vietnamese managed to tell tales of the appalling conditions and how badly they were treated by the french, yet simultaneously paint it as a reasonable place when the vietnamese were holding the american prisoners of war there - hmmmmm!
...eating some delicious meals - very expensive, posh restaurants in hanoi were reasonably priced for us!
...watching the
world-famous water puppet theatre!
...the absolute highlight was staying overnight on our own boat in halong bay - a world heritage site. stunning views of over 3000 cliffs in the water... we ventured into caves, chilled out on a beach and went kayaking through the caves - incredible!
i absolutely loved vietnam - the noise, the people, the chaos, the corruption... it all contributed to vietnam's exciting vibe and made it a place like no other i've ever been to!
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helen
non-member comment
That poor woman with the fruit I can't believe you didn't offer her a carrier bag. The traffic sounds scarey, good job you wasn't on your push bike after been to the pub! The views are amazing, if everything is cheap over there to us then why didn't you buy the boat? You could travel the world in a 180 days! Where are you going next? Enjo and try not to get run over or ripped off with fares. Love Helen xxx