Cafe Hopping

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Hanoi, though completely chaotic, seems like a peaceful oasis when compared to Saigon. Though there are crazy numbers of honking motorbikes on the streets dodging through cars and pedestrians, the city has a decidedly more tranquil feel - buoyed by its cafe culture and more laid-back population. Both of us agree that we could easily spend more time here, but in four days we've managed to soak up a number of Hanoi's many sights and sounds.

Our first day in Hanoi, we met up with our friend Jenny, in town for a summer internship and a great source of suggestions for local places and activities. She took us to a cafe near her work, where we relaxed with iced coffee on a terrace a few stories above the street. Vietnamese coffee, which we have been consuming throughout our time here, is delicious. It is sweet and often arrives with a small filter perched on top of the coffee glass, resulting in an incredibly fresh brew. It is also served with condensed milk, which sits thickly on the bottom of the glass until you mix in the desired amount with a spoon. Delicious! There are few things nicer after a morning or afternoon of hot and humid sightseeing weather than sitting and relaxing with an iced coffee.

Our first day in Hanoi could be summed up as the "day of the rat." Sitting in a cafe just after we got in, we had watched as two shopkeepers kicked a maimed, but very much alive, rat back and forth. Neither of them wanted it in front of their shop, and their tempers were obviously starting to rise. Finally, a compromise was reached when one of them sent it squealing into the middle of the street, where it was gradually put out of its misery by the waves of passing motos.

And that was just the beginning. Hours later, our hopes for a good night's sleep were shattered when we realized that our hotel room was perfectly situated below a large and dysfunctional family of rats. Conveniently, their focal point was the section of the room directly above the head of our bed. There seemed to be quite a few of them, and we could hear them scampering, scratching, scurrying, fighting, squealing, and--most unnerving--chewing the ceiling tiles all through the night. It was absolutely disgusting, and needless to say one of our most unpleasant travel accommodation experiences. We also slept very little.

Unsurprisingly, we decided to change hotels after returning from Halong Bay, and after a half hour or so of searching we stumbled upon a brand new hotel with new furnishings, a flat screen TV, great shower/bathroom - and an in-room computer! It was extremely cheap, centrally located, and a drastic change from our earlier stay.

Later that evening, we met up with Jenny, her boyfriend John, and her friend Raphaela for dinner at a delicious French-Vietnamese restaurant where we sampled frogs legs (the verdict: not awesome), "ethnic minorities sausage" (we still don't know what that means), papaya salad, grilled duck, spring rolls, and many other new and tasty foods, all washed down with local beer.

The next day, we once again met up with John and our expert tour guide Jenny to head to Ho Chih Minh's mausoleum, a must-see Hanoi attraction. "Uncle Ho", as he is referred to by the Vietnamese, lies embalmed in a massive structure open a few hours each day to tourists and homage-seekers. For two months of each year, the mausoleum is closed for Ho's makeover, as even he can't look good forever. Ironically, Vietnam's favorite son actually specifically requested to be cremated, with his ashes scattered in various regions throughout the country, but it appears that this particular request was overlooked.

When we arrived the line was massively long, but it moved quickly, and within 20 minutes or so we shuffled past Uncle Ho, who looked remarkably good given the circumstances. It was a short visit, as the line was forced to keep moving, but it was well worth it. We then checked out a number of other nearby Ho Chih Minh attractions, including some houses that Ho was rumored to have lived in and a museum that featured somewhat bizarre exhibits on "progress" and "independence". It was tourist central, with people swarming in orderly and shepherded queues for one attraction after another. Most visitors were Vietnamese, and it felt strange to see sights with so many people.

After that, we headed to a cafe hidden behind an art shop and sipped more ice coffee on the upper story, overlooking Hanoi's central lake. Then we headed to Jenny's favorite bun cha joint for one of the best lunches of our trip so far.

Bun cha is a Hanoi-ese specialty that consists of a base of rice noodles accompanied with pork meatballs, grilled pork, mint, garlic, chilies, broth, and spring rolls. Except for the pork, you are served everything family style, and you fill your bowl with noodles and add ingredients in whatever proportions you like. It is absolutely delicious. As we crammed our mouths full of bun cha, the man sitting next to Jordan complimented him on his use of chopsticks and asked how he learned how to use them, which both of us found amusing given that we do not consider ourselves chopsticks experts. After stuffing ourselves we paid our bill, which came to about $3 per person. It was incredible how much food we consumed, so much so that we ate almost nothing for dinner that night.

Exhausted from the amount of food we had just eaten, we relaxed at the hotel until the evening, when we headed up to the big lake in the north of town to meet Jenny and John for beers and conversation in a bar/cafe crowded with locals enjoying lake views.

The next day, Jordan was feeling under the weather (but if it was the bun cha, it was worth it!), so Lindsay struck out on her own to explore the rest of Hanoi. Speckled with French colonial style buildings, Hanoi feels very much like a city that has been influenced by many different cultures and civilizations who have often competed with one another. Most of Hanoi is similar to the rest of Vietnam, with tiny shopfronts and a mish-mash of styles. However, as in Saigon, some of Hanoi's buildings, like the opera house or the famous Sofitel Metropole hotel, are built on a grand scale in true colonial fashion.

That afternoon, Lindsay headed to see Hanoi's most famous arts performance - a water puppet show. The stage is a pool of water with screens in the back, behind which pupeteers stand chest-deep in water, directing puppets who play out various vignettes that are narrated by musicians to the left of the stage. Each of the vignettes is a song, and most relate to some type of water-activity, including rice harvesting, fishing, hanging out with ducks, and dragons (of course!). It was a very innovative show that has apparently been popular in tours throughout the world.

The next morning, with Jordan feeling marginally better, we set out for the notorious "Hanoi Hilton." Built by the French to imprison anti-imperialists, and then repurposed in the Vietnam War to hold American pilots, what remains of the prison has been modified into a flashy but ridiculously one-sided tourist experience--a drastic change from what we felt was an even-handed display in Saigon's War Remnants Musum. Much is made of a supposed contrast between the French treatment of Vietnamese prisoners and the North Vietnamese treatment of American soldiers. While the French practices were clearly barbaric, the displays on the American experience are infuriatingly contrived: you see photos of soldiers decorating a Christmas tree, playing basketball, and relaxing. Absent are the electrodes and various torture devices that the term "Hanoi Hilton" connotes. And John McCain's internment in the prison is exploited to a sick degree, as if it is a source of national pride how well he was treated there. We left feeling a little disturbed.

We made our way back to the hotel through a market known as a source of dog meat--and sure enough, encountered a snarling pile of cooked dog heads. Check! The one truly Vietnamese experience we had left.

At the airport, leaving for Laos, we were disappointed when the immigration official physically ripped our visas from our passports, leaving only a solitary staple. Interestingly, this means we have no official record of our trip here. Our only conclusion is that this practice is a hold-over from a time when Americans were not allowed to visit Vietnam, under American law.

Hanoi is the last stop of roughly two weeks in Vietnam, and while here we have had time to reminisce about the country. All in all, we have enjoyed our time in Vietnam immensely - it is full of beautiful places, both natural and cultural, and overall we have enjoyed interacting with most of the Vietnamese people that we have met. More so, however, than any other country we have visited, we have felt constantly on guard against being taken advantage of as tourists. Both of us are extremely accustomed to and comfortable with paying a "tourist tax" in the form of slightly higher prices when we travel, and in poor countries it seems perfectly reasonable to charge wealthy visitors more. However, the degree to which these scenarios are aggravated in Vietnam is quite remarkable. Almost every exchange we had involved some kind of scam: incorrect change, lost reservations, involuntary upgrades, surprise shopping stops on tours. Shopkeepers constantly quote prices two, three, or four times higher than average, making shopping around and knowledge of correct prices essential. More annoying is the constant haggling and need for verification of arrangements and negotiations, which more often than not change after you have agreed upon them, or are deliberately misleading. Although travel around Vietnam is quite easy logistically, constantly trying not to get fleeced makes travelling here a mentally draining exercise and an experience that is definitely not for people who want an easygoing place to visit. All of the fellow travellers we have spoken with have felt the same way, and at times it gets quite frustrating. We go back and forth on our feelings, however, because at the same time we have felt overly conscious of our presence here as Americans, and at times it seems like a small price to pay given the tragic history of this place.

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Photos

Vietnamese Coffee
You can see the condensed milk separating at the bottom - so sweet and refreshing!

Tortoise Tower, Hoan Kiem Lake
A pavilion with a name referencing a legend in which a turtle from this lake was sent by the gods to reclaim a sword used by a hero of Vietnam.