Good Morning, Vietnam!

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Rain greeted our arrival into Hanoi ensuring our plane landing was a bit of a white knuckle ride. Descending into a thick black cloud we couldn't see anything out of our windows until the plane fell out of the sky about 20-30 feet. Thankfully we finally landed safely and our airport pickup met us and we drove into the city. It was quite evident that the monsoon had arrived as torrential rain hammered our car and turned the roads ahead into rivers.

We were staying in a part of Hanoi called the Old Quarter. It is the oldest segment of the city and is situated by a lake called Hoan Kiem Lake. The Old Quarter is a complete maze, there is no structure or order to it at all. Most maps are near impossible to decipher and we frequently got lost. Courtesy of the French, a lot of the buildings within this area have a colonial look (soot-stained yellow paint and green shutters like something from a small french village) and it also appeared they left their mark with good coffee and cheap baguettes on every street corner.

Each road in the Old Quarter is named after a particular craft, with the whole area being a warren of skills, crafts and shops selling countless goods. One street sold only jewelry, the next sunglasses, the next clothes etc etc. As well as this there is a large market in the Old Quarter that sells an enormous amount of goods from toiletries to textiles.

The old quarter is boot-leg DVD heaven - and they're all so amazingly cheap. We bought countless box-sets of whole series for 90,000 Dong - about £1.50! The whole series of Sopranos for example - all 6 seasons - was about £2! We took advantage of this and stocked up on a few series and film compilations to keep us company on the upcoming lengthy train journeys.

Mopeds are the transport of choice for the locals - and there are hundreds of them buzzing up and down the roads, crazily weaving in and out of each other. Hanoi is a city that likes to use its horn. The beeping is a constant noise that we had to get used to throughout the country. Crossing the roads is an art form here. We have learnt to walk into a wall of mopeds. As we walk through them they adjust their path and simply (but scarily) zipped around us, as if the whole move is choreographed. This has led to one or two close encounters and this simple task has become quite a hair-raising experience. We expect to come home and get run over on the assumption that vehicles will now make way for us!

At night, things generally quieted down in the Old Quarter and impromptu food and beer stalls spring up on street corners. The beer stalls were great and consisted simply of a big keg of beer and a few mini plastic chairs. The beer here is incredibly cheap - 3,000 dong per glass, which is about 10p! It's so cheap because it's fresh and there are no preservatives in it so it all has to be drunk pretty quickly. Which was fine by us. The restaurants were also of good quality with lots of traditional Vietnamese dishes such as Pho (noodle soup - which is event eaten for breakfast here) as well as spicy east-west fusion staples aplenty.

The lake next to the Old Quarter is the largest in Hanoi and is very tranquil. Many locals can always be seen just sitting and watching the deep green waters lap against the side. There are a few scattered temples and monuments around the lake also which make it very atmospheric. The calm water creates a very stark contrast to the traffic racing around it.

We visited a few sites whilst we were in Hanoi. The first of these was Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum. Ho Chi Minh is everywhere in Hanoi and is a fiercely respected figure and seen as the Father of Independent and Unified Vietnam. He was also the man who brought Communism here. Against his wishes of being cremated when he died, the Vietnamese embalmed his body and he is lying now on show for all to see. Apparently he goes off to Russia each year for touching up.

It was quite an eerie experience though, and the first dead body either of us had seen. Although he did look more akin to something you would see at Madame Tussauds. The Mausoleum itself from the outside is a beautiful stone edifice surrounded by manicured gardens. At the front, the Vietnamese flag flutters proudly in the breeze.

The line to see Ho Chi Minh was quite long, but moves at quite a pace. Once inside the air-conditioned mausoleum we shuffled through to see him. He was lying in a glass coffin, a guard at each corner in white uniform. Behind the coffin were two large glossy stone tablets - one of the Vietnamese flag, the other the Communist symbol. We were not allowed to talk, stop walking, put our hands in our pockets, fold our arms, wear shorts or show our shoulders in his presence. After the hustle of the line and the stifling heat outside, being in the cool dark chamber with Ho Chi Minh gleaming in the centre was quite a contrasting experience - one which, unfortunately, due to guards pushing us along, could not be enjoyed for long.

Whilst in Hanoi we also visited the Temple of Literature, which is meant to be the best preserved traditional Vietnamese architecture in Hanoi. It really was an oasis of calm in the city and was a good place to escape the traffic. Unfortunately though, the traffic noise prevailed. Within its historic walls are delicate gardens, lakes and holy temples with large bunches of incense creating a scented haze over the proceedings.

We also visited the Hanoi Hilton, not the sparkling 5* hotel, but the prison. It's real name is Hoa La Prison and it housed Vietnamese troublemakers when the French were in town and then American Pilots (including John McCain) shot down during 'Nam'. It was a really interesting place to walk round, looking at the cells and shackles. It also introduced us to the propaganda that appears to be plastered around many museums in Vietnam.

The French colonial museum artifacts section focuses on how cruel and barbaric the French were. How they tortured and punished inmates, or 'patriots' as they were called. Whilst we had no doubt that conditions were pretty poor, the text and descriptions were written with venom and real bias that we didn't feel was particularly warranted so long after these events took place.

The side of the museum that focused on the American inmates was a complete contrast. It almost felt it was trying too hard to demonstrate how the US pilots were treated. Whether it was to put emphasis on how badly the Vietnamese were treated by the French or show how merciful they were to the Americans that were hammering Hanoi with bombs is unclear. There were countless letters and photos showing how much fun US pilots were having laughing, playing games, celebrating Christmas etc. It was shown to look more like a holiday camp than a prison. None of the pictures looked quite genuine and the false, uneasy smiles were quite easy to spot.

Communism, whilst not particularly evident in the way people conduct business in Vietnam, is very evident in Hanoi. From the speakers all over the city which preach every evening, to the flags and statues of Lenin. That said our early contact with the Vietnamese portrayed them in our minds as very helpful and polite people. They're incredible well organised and business savvy but without being too forceful.


We left Hanoi for a couple of days to visit Halong Bay - one of Vietnam's World Heritage Sites. Halong Bay is a large and incredibly beautiful body of calm water with approximately 3,000 islands - stunning karst hills of varying sizes protruding from the turquoise water. It was also another James Bond location.

Our trip included some sea kayaking and a visit to a nearby cave. The cave was very impressive, we both agreed it was Batman-worthy. It was called The Surprise Cave and sections of it had been impressively lit for tourists. At the top, we were treated to a fabulous view of the bay below. Wooden piers snaked out into the clear waters with tourist boats docked and dotted over the bay.

The sea kayaking trip lasted about an hour and was quite tiring in the hot sun. We made our way to an isolated part of the bay, which was only accessible via an narrow passageway under a large hill. The area we arrived at was incredibly calm. The blue water was very still and only the peaceful chatter of birds could be heard. It was nice to just relax and float around in the kayak for a while before a water fight - Victoria insisting that I kept splashing her with my paddle. In actual fact I was just rowing so hard it created a splash!

We spent the night on our 'deluxe' boat and after a sumptuous seafood dinner we watched the sunset, which was stunning in those surroundings. The bright orange sun slid behind the karsts, bathing the bay in a soft glow. Everything soon turned black and all that was left were the twinkling lights of the many tourist Junks gently bobbing on the water. The next day we made our way back to the mainland and to Hanoi.

After the calm and tranquil waters of Halong Bay, Hanoi felt even crazier than before. Prior to our trip we had booked a train down to a city near the centre of the country called Hue. We kept telling people we wanted to go to Hugh, until we realised that Hue is pronounced Hoo-ay.

There were no sleeper berths available so we opted for a couple of seats on the Reunification Express, which runs the entire length of the country. The journey was slow, and not particularly comfortable but the hilly scenery showcasing Vietnam's exquisite greenery and gazillion's of rice paddies kept us entertained. That and Total Recall from our new found DVD collection.

We used Hue as a base to explore the DMZ (Demilitarised Zone) and some of the famous Vietnam War sites. The DMZ was where Vietnam used to be divided before re-unification in 1975. We organised a tour of all of the sites which could be done in one very long day.

Our bus took us first to the Viet Minh tunnels, which were really impressive. Due to the constant US bombardment of this area (apparently when they were finished, it looked like the surface of the moon) the Viet Minh (Northern Vietnamese Soldiers) dug an extensive network of tunnels deep beneath ground. Here they lived in cramped and dark conditions for 3 years. We aren't the tallest of people and we could barley stand upright in these tunnels. The network is deep, claustrophobic and complex with the Vietnamese giving birth and being schooled in the cramped conditions.

We also visited other sites where important battles or American Fire bases were situated. It is very difficult to imagine that the roads we were travelling on and the jungle and hills that surrounded us had witnessed such intense fighting just a few decades ago. Only various monuments, museums and clearings gave evidence to what vicious battles took place here. Our guide was great at pointing out where various bases had been and what important battles were won and lost in the region.

Whilst we were at Hue we also visited the main citadel. Unfortunately, due to Hue's proximity to the DMZ, it was also a scene of heavy fighting and aerial bombardment. Much of the historic citadel was flattened in the violence. It is still a peaceful place to wander and some of the main temples and gateways have luckily been preserved. Much of the rest of the citadel is still being rebuilt and piles of rubble are littered across the area. Within the citadel area also lies Vietnam's tallest flag-pole, some wonderfully ornate and heavy looking canons and captured US Army tanks. We got up close with all of these and spent time just admiring them from the citadel walls.

Half of our Vietnam adventure is sadly over, but much more awaits us as we journey further south with our next stop being a small town called Hoi An.

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