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Published: February 27th 2006
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Hanoi was a very cool place (literally. brrrr...) Very different from the rest of Vietnam, we think, but also very neat. It was a lot less "same same"... like, there were far fewer bun stands here than we were previously accustomed to, and faw fewer convenience stores. There was a heck of a lot more variety with regard to food, and it was also a lot more expensive! The landscape in the South is always the same - bright green rice paddies in the foreground, tons and tons of palm trees scattered everywhere, and large black shadow-like mountains in the background. Here... it's kind of the same... just more tree variety ? Hanoi is a lot less crazy than Ho Chi Minh City. While there is still the constant noise of motorbike horns at all hours of the night, crossing the street is a lot easier. Just walk right through and the bikes will go around!
Our first day here, after leaving the angry man and our guitar, we got our room in a nice, basic place that was reccomended by some Isreali's we met a while back. By the way... everyonnnne travelling seems to be from Isreal, Austalia, Quebec,
BC, or Sweden. Interestinggg... So it's nice here. Nice staff... free bananas. We like it. That day, we wandered around the city, which is very pretty... theres a lake in the middle, and some very nifty old buildings. We met up with Dan, our pal from Dalat, and went out a guy from New York, and a French dude whose life aspiration is to be a Canadian.
The next day, we met Dan and Suzie from Germany, and wandered again... We went to the food market, which served some delish coconut shrimp... We had a bit of a scare when we thought that that tasty meaty substabce Evan had been eating might have in fact been something else... Rats, dogs, snakes, turtles... anything you could imagine is on the menu at some places... After finding ourselves a translator, we discovered it to be veal. cool. That afternoon, in true Vietnamese style, we decided to have coffee and beer at one of the little alley-way tea-stands that are so pupular here... on every street, everywhere, there are a bunch of these little stands with plastic childrens furniture... Cheap coffee... and it was an interesting place to people-watch. Later that afternoon,
we went to Le Pub to meet Andrea Brown... she is an elgish teacher here, and her boyfriend owns the pub. What a cool place! It's a trendy bar for expats in the centre of town (we think), and it employs and trains street kids... how cool! It was really neat to talk to Andrea and her friends who live here... and, as it turned out, she had lifeguarded for birthday parties that Evan used to go to! What a small world... so that was fun!
After Le Pub, we and Suzie went to the Night Market... loads of cheap, tacky, awesome things... so many people, also! We ate our share of street food, which is amazing. Meat sticks, doughnuts on sticks, popcorn, corn, deep fried bananas... yes! Unfortunately, though, while were looking around in the maze of stalls and people, Evan's camera got stolen. Right out of it's case, on his moneybelt, under his shirt... and he didn't even notice! They're so sneaky! So that was horrible... how, in a sea of that many people, can you possibly know who it was who took it... It was a silly situation, and nothing could be done. That was very,
very unfortunate, though it does seem to happen to a huge number of people here. The only ones he didn't save were pics from Hoi An. So, unfortunatley, no dress photos! haha... and by now that dress is on the slow-boat to Dundas. The very sloooow boat... as in 3 months! Wow...
The next day, we set off for Ha Long Bay... a gorrrgeous bay in which a billion tall, thin islands portrude out of the sea... it seems to go on forever... so cool! We went on a big junk boat, on which there were only like 10 other people... It was so nice! Would have been nicer if we could have put the wooden lawn-chairs on the deck to some use... it was COLD! and WET! and rainy... but that just seemed to make the islands look even more mysterious... ooooh... ahhh.... We saw the "surprise cave", which was spectacular... except for the neon lights everywhere! The Vietnamese seem to think foreigners are into that sort of thing... so funny! We spent the night at Cat Ba Island, which was also littered with these giant tacky lights... there were Christmas trees, too... Actually, there are a lot
ha long bay houses
people live on these floating houses in the middle of nowhere... they paddle to school every morning, and their homes have television! wow... of "Merry Christmas" and New Years banners around here. Right.
Sunday night, we got back to Hanoi, and Andrea and her pal took us out to a Buddhist Vegetarian Restaurant... So nice! they have perfected the art of making fake meat. Everything we had was delish! Evan sort of approved... It sure beats the heck out of President's Choice meat balls! It was that good.... a fun dinner. We got home that night without getting too lost - the street names here change every block. Can get confusing in the dark!
Today, our plan was to see Uncle Ho (yeah, the dead body of Ho Chi Minh! fab!), and then the Temple of Literature, but, unfortunately, Mondays are bad sight-seeing days... everything's closed! Bah! So we went camera shopping (got Evan the same camera as before, plus card... slight lower price), went to the insane market, walked to the lake, saw a Giant Stuffed Turtle on the little island... it actually is rather huge. Then, we shopped a bit, got some street pho to eat in an alley... apparently, it's the best in Vietnam! We're now awaiting our bus to Laos! It'll be a bit strange, I bet,
going from crazy Vietnam to one of the least developed countries in the world... we can't wait! Vietnam is amazing we love the strangeness of the place... like, how you can't wear your shoes inside, but motorbikes in the living room are A- OK! And how the shopkeepers will hork and pick their nose while trying to sell you things... haha... so random. but LAOS!!!! We're so excited! Just hope we can still get our visas at the border... eek!
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Cathy
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Turtles
Wowzah, this month flew by! Vietnam sounds like so much fun, I'm interested to hear about Laos next. I liked the part about the giant stuffed turtle on the beach, but hey, I'm partial. I missss you sooo much Srah, keep the updates coming!