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Published: February 4th 2007
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"Uncle Ho's" Mausoleum
The magnificient tomb in which Ho Chi Minh's body rests, very well preserved I might add. Holy Hanoi!
We arrived in the early morning from our overnight bus ride (during which I didn’t sleep for a minute) and quickly searched Hanoi for Trevor, whom we hadn’t seen in a few weeks. His hotel wasn’t hard to find and we woke him up from his post-China recuperation sleep.
After some catching up and a change to a new hotel (with mini fridge private bathroom) we hit the town in an effort to celebrate Trevor’s belated birthday. Not too long later we were in the full swing of the night and trying to party hard with our reunited group. Unfortunately as per communist rule there is a moderately strict curfew for all establishments, especially those selling alcohol. At 11pm the night was still young and luckily we found a rooftop bar that was more than happy to house our festivities. Lured by the intriguing description, we ordered a bottle of snake liquor made from 5 snakes, and things just went downhill from there. After more cocktails, and some upchucking from members of the group, we wandered back to the hotel. Confidence was high when leaving the bar though, and many attempts were made at completing a 3-person
Happy Birthday - Ryan
We start the night off with some shots. The crew + Graham and RJ from Alberta piggyback, though we never succeeded until we had the help of the hotel room walls.
Another day was spent hanging out around our hotel area checking out the streets of Hanoi, which can only be summed up as busy. Not simply people walking around but the goings-on of everyone and everything. People working, playing, eating and sleeping. The sidewalks are impassable with thousands of motorbikes filling the path. One has to walk with the traffic to get anywhere, which is quickly aggravating because a one-lane street has to accommodate 2 directions of cars, motorbikes and bicycles, tourists and locals walking around, and the dozens vendors with huge baskets of items to sell. In addition to that you have to endure the constant horn; a never ending and irritating honking that drives you crazy. It’s as if honking your horn allows you to drive as fast as you want, anywhere you want, forcing everyone out of your way - pure mayhem!
Aside from the above rant, the city is great! We took a day trip across town to visit the tomb of Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam’s most famed political leader. Inside the impressively built granite Mausoleum lays the man
Birthday Bar - Trevor
After the communist's curfew at 11pm, we managed to find this late night bar for T-Bone's celebrations. himself; entombed within a glass and wood casket, he’s guarded by a dozen or so militaries. Once we got our cameras and possessions back from security (very tight around the mausoleum) we toured his palace, lakefront house and the national museum. All of which were very interesting and offered some more light into Vietnam’s deep history. We also stopped at the Canadian embassy and it was nice to set foot on some home turf!
With Ryan’s birthday on the 31st, we decided to celebrate on the night of the 30th to bring in his 26th, which we depicted as his “sixth hand in life” (each hand counts 5 years..). I hope that people start counting their years with this method! Anyway, we started off pretty early, which is the only way Ryan would have wanted it. By mid-evening we were under the influence, to say the least, and I found myself running around the streets yelling, “I love lady boys” as per the rule of the card game, which I lost. Deciding that we should keep our entertainment a little more hush-hush, we headed to a street side “beer garden” where we enjoyed our first taste of the local
March! 2..3..4
This throng of military guards marches through the grounds during the changing of the guards. beer. For a mere 12 cents per mug we found our true calling. After an hour or two…or three… we made our way to another local bar with some newly acquainted Mexicans and Quebecois. More fun was had before we continued on to the Funky Monkey bar, which was mysteriously open after curfew (no doubt because some police guard was bribed). By late night we had more or less partied ourselves out and took to the streets for our long walk back to the hotel.
One night, though I can’t remember which, we visited a legendary rib restaurant where we challenged ourselves to eat “the” full rack of Jumbo ribs. Having seen photos from Jordan’s blog, we had been preparing for this moment since early Vietnam, and it didn’t disappoint! A half-pig each later, we still had room for banana splits and some celebratory high fives. Though during the night we experienced the strange ‘cramp’sequences one endures after eating a few pounds of pork without any accompanying food.
Our last day was spent browsing the town, shopping, eating and playing countless hours of Nintendo, care of Jason and Trevor. With the 3 nearest Laos/Vietnam borders closed for climatic/political
Snake-a-licious
5 different snakes in this crazy liquor; 2 cobras, 2 kraits and a grass snake... mmmmmmmmm! reasons, we had to book a 20-hour bus ride from Hanoi to Vientiane (capital of Laos.) After my terrible sleep, or complete lack thereof, on the last bus ride I’m not excited about this one. But I am looking forward to the last new country of the trip!
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britt
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good-bye to vietnam
glad you all successfully made it back together! seriously though half a pig? is that really necessary? yugh. xo.