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Published: August 22nd 2009
Ok. Its breakfast after my first night in Hanoi. All I can say is WOW. I don't even know where to begin. First off if Hell existed and there were 7 layers of Hell, The trip over here on the plane would have been the 8th layer. The traveling and sitting on the plane never ended. I did take a Lunesta and slept about 6 hours but that just left another 8 hours to get to Taipai. Thank god for the exit row or I would have gone insane. As it was my back was killing me sitting in that little seat.
While in Taipai though it was too funny. I met a young man in the terminal from CA and he was travelling from Bali. His name was Chuck. Great guy. He worked in construction so he could spend 3 months surfing in Bali. NICE! What was so funny though was that he was also a rafter. He had just done the Grand Canyon a few months ago and as of yesterday he had just watched the youtube video I posted of the flip at Lava from our trip last year. He remembered my name and everything. What a
small world sitting in Taiwan and talking to a guy that sort of knew who I was from the video.
The airport at Hanoi was my first intro into the culture. Every single official was wearing masks for the swine flu. They had a whole quarentine area set up. They passed out declarations asking if you had any flu like symptoms. If you did have a flu like symptom and you put it down you kind of deserve getting locked away in some sort of Vietnamese medical prison just for being stupid. It was pretty obvious you were not getting in the country if you told them you had the sniffles.
The baggage claim was unreal. 3 International planes all at one baggage pick up for over an hour because the airport staff had gone to lunch. You were lucky to have been able to even see the carousel. The best advice for my entire trip came from a German gentleman I met in line. He said that visiting Vietnam is a lesson in patience. So far hes been right and it will be my philosaphy to live by that for this trip. I am determined that
I am here to learn and observe, not to impose my ideals or ways of doing things. Thats part of the adventure.
Yay, the hotel came through! When I came out with my bags into a see of people I started looking around and found a man holding a sign with the name: David Poss. Close enough I said to myself. So I had a ride. I hoped in the back of my mind that a Mr Poss was not behind me somewhere but then I thought the odds were small enough to steal the ride.
Bang, First lesson. They tell you its hot and humid in Vietnam. Does nothing to prepare you for the reality. Within 5 minutes waiting for him to get the car outside I slowly melted into a large blob on the pavement. I instantly lost aboout 1/4 of my body fluids to sweat and was wishing I had brought several IV setups to combat the instant dehydration.
On the drive to our hotel, just the visual impressions of the city and homes is right out of every Vietnam war movie I had seen. Was so different. The thing that struck me the
most was the amount and flow of the bikes, scooters, motorcycles. Its a constant flow of machinery and people. There are no stop signs or lights in any part of the city. Its hard to believe. Traffic never stops flowing through the intersections and it flows through each other from all directions. I thought traffic in Rome, Italy was bad but here its so bad its fascinating. Every vehicle is involved in a close call yet I never saw one get hit or hit another. Plus, there appears to be no age restriction. We passed a school that was just letting out and several hundred teens on scooters pulled out in a cascade of near death collisions that would have made any Western Mother turn white haired and have chest pains if she new her child was even close to being involved with something like that.
The room at the hotel was very nice. Its about 6 fights of stairs up to it but its clean and the A/C works along with the wifi. The only thing I am adjusting to is the bed. At first I thought they had quarried a large marble slab then put a sheet
on it. but after pulling the sheet off to check the color of the stone I did discover that it was a mattress after all. The bed is so hard I have to be careful not to drop the laptop on it for fear of breaking it. I can bounce a quarter on it almost to the ceiling. As a 240lb side sleeper, hard mattresses are my eternal enemy to sleep as they make my hips cry tears of blood. Again, time to adapt. I found a pile of blankets and I built a sort of matress from that. It helped.
I walked around the city last night and the hardest thing to deal with is the number of people triing to sell anything to just make some money to eat. I just can't ignore people yet. My upbringing is to be polite but even saying no thanks is an invtation. I had one woman follow me around the lake for almost 20 min trying to sell me postcards and me saying no thank you. Its so hard because its only a dollar but you know if you do that once how do you do it for the thousands
of others in the same situation. They know how to get to you too. "you are so lucky. You are an American and can travel. I have 2 babies and want to eat. Its only one dollar." OMG, its so hard.
I found myself praying to god that it really is time for a change. We so need the accomplishment of Rev 21:4 "And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away" The world is so unfair and it is time for the change.
I had dinner about 6 stories up in a building overlooking one of the largest intersections in Hanoi and watched all the near death experierces and then I went back to the hotel. Crossing the street is as brave an event as anything I have ever done. You have to just start walking out in traffic and let the vehicles flow around you as you take a few steps to the other side whenever one passes. Anything loose or floppy on your body gets shaved off by the time you make it to the other side. There are no crosswalks and traffic never stops flowing. It was like playing frogger but for real!
I finished off the night with a massage for about 13 dollars us with a $6 dollar tip because the lady said my first tip was too small lol. And for the record it was a legit massage with no hanky panky!
Signing off till next time
Dave
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Joanna
non-member comment
Wow!!!
Hello! I just read your blog about Hanoi ... !!! I am travelling to Vietnam for a 3 week holiday at the end of September and have never been to Asia before. I live in London (UK) and have been finding out about what to expect. Your blog was fascinating reading ... keep it coming as I am very interested to read about your experiences! Thanks, Jo.