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Published: June 18th 2010
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Arrived in Hanoi on 12th June. It is the capital of Vietnam and still the centre of government, finance and culture, though at first glance it doesn't seem to be as commerce-driven as Saigon. It's a fascinating city and definately my favourite city in Vietnam - although Alice preferred the madness and buzz of Saigon.
We have stayed mainly in the Old Quarter, which covers quite a big area but is easy to navigate on foot. There's a central lake (Hoan Kiem Lake) which makes it slightly cooler as you get a break from the claustrophobic streets and a bit of a breeze if you're lucky. The roads in the Old Quarter are much narrower than Saigon, so there's not as much traffic and it's easy to cross the street!
There are lots of other pavement dangers though - pavements are the de facto parking area for motorbikes. They are also where many Vietnamese people cook and eat, mainly at street stalls, of which there are hundreds. This makes the streets interesting to say the least - there are open fires, barbeques and gas burners, kettles and braziers, woks, frying pans and huge, cauldron sized saucepans, all bubbling merrily
away at knee height and without any kind of guard around them. It would be very easy to knock into one and find yourself with a leg covered in scalding water or sizzling oil. Health and safety is not a concept that has reached Vietnam.
This also makes the streets smoky and atmospheric, especially at night. There's a night market selling clothes - it's impossible to buy clothes during the day, as we are always too sweaty to try things on! As well as the food stalls, street drinking is popular here, and lots of streets have rows of little tiny plastic stools for customers to sit on and drink bia hoi (fresh beer which costs 4000 dong - about 10p a glass).
Apart from just wandering around the old quarter, we visited the Temple of Literature, which is the oldest university in Vietnam. It's a pretty standard temple - gate, courtyard, building, courtyard, building, courtyard. I think I have temple-fatigue.
We also got on a bus (first city where there's any kind of visible public transport network) and went to the Museum of Ethnology, which was very good and definately worth visiting. It's a new museum
Statue in Temple of Literature
Think this is one of the emperors... with good a/c inside and a good cafe - both very important in any museum visit! It's about the history and culture of different ethnic minority groups in Vietnam, and has lots of interesting displays and photographs inside, especially some photos from the colonial period showing French soldiers, governers and nuns 'visiting' different tribal villages. Outside, the museum has replica tribal houses, including some long-houses and stilt houses that you can go inside. It's free to get in, but you have to pay if you want to take photos.
We stayed four nights in Hanoi, and then went on a tour to Ha Long Bay with Handspan Travel - v. good tour agency (all the staff were good, the boat and bus were clean, safe and most importantly, air-conditioned!). The bay is beautiful, and staying overnight on a traditional wooden junk was fantastic. I love boats anyway, and it was amazing to have a cabin. It was a nice sized group - 9 of us, plus 2 tour guides and the boat staff etc. We cruised for a few hours then visited a floating village - fishing communities live out on the bay, sometimes for their whole lives. There
was a floating school, small 'supermarket' boats which go around between different houses selling produce, and a small pearl growing industry (complete with obligatory pearl shop selling ropes of pearls for around $1000! Lots of the houses/boats have TVs, and apparantly they can get mobile phone coverage out there (they are still working on internet connections!).
After that we swam in the bay - the water was very warm but not the cleanest. Fun jumping off the boat though. The view was very nice as the sun went down. After it got dark, I sat up on the top deck with a cold beer, and watched the stars come out - does life get better than that?
The next day we visited a cave in one of the islands with our guide, Buffalo Joe. He never told us his real name, but he was a real joker. By the end of the tour, no one believed a word he was saying! He told us the cave was called the Surprisingly Amazing Cave. It was pretty big, but there was graffiti and litter, and the stalactites etc were nothing that special - reminded me a bit of all my
school trips to limestone caves in the Peak District.
Alice has been a bit ill this week, so we went to an international clinic in Hanoi last night and got her sorted out with some antibiotics for gastro-enteritis. She is feeling a lot better already. The clinic was high-standard - we only waited a few minutes - but we paid about 150 quid! We're looking at it as payback for all the travel insurance we have bought over the years and never needed until now. We don't know what caused it but we got a bit lazy with 'no ice, no salads' rule. Imposing this again more strictly, especially as... tomorrow we are going to Laos!!!
We have heard lots of good reports about Laos from other travellers, so really looking forward to it. We are flying to Luang Prabang tomorrow morning, and we'll spend about 6 nights there, then a couple of nights in Vang Vieng and a couple in Vientiane before heading to Malaysia and the last part of our trip. Vietnam has been great but we are getting itchy for another country now!
Love to all at home, sorry for extra long blog!!
J xx
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