Hanoi Rocks?

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Suzanne here...

The Reunification Express to Hanoi was an experience. The journey was about 13 hours so we booked a sleeper berth. They don't do private berths but we went for the more expensive 4 person soft berth. Even so, it turned out to be a bit... basic. The guys in the bunks above us seemed nice enough, but without a common language we didn't chat at all. So we sat down to play Scrabble. This fascinated one Vietnamese chap who came in to watch for a while. We then played cards for a bit and had cheese baguettes before turning the light off and settling down to sleep. About five minutes after we turned the light off we were joined by a mouse, which ran across the cabin and perched on our backpacks. I could live with it. Then we were joined by a couple of cockroaches. This I was not happy about. I had two options. Sit in the corridor all night, or ignore them and go to sleep. I chose the sleep option. In the morning when I sat up a couple of them ran away from underneath me. A few years ago I would have freaked. Now... well, I really didn't like it but we're on a budget and sometimes you have to put up with these things.

We arrived in Hanoi at 4am. Of course it was pitch black, so we decided to stay in the station waiting room and read rather than wander around a strange city in the dark. We actually read until about 7.30am. The time passed quickly and now it was light we went on the hunt for some breakfast. Once we'd had breakfast it was still only 9.45am, but we made our way to the hotel anyway. Luckily they let us into our room, so we could shower and change before heading back out. The hotel (Hanoi Old Centre) was really nice, but at $25 a bit over priced. We'd heard a couple of horror stories about Hanoi hotels though, so wanted to get something reliable booked. The decor was nice, the staff friendly and the bed turned out to be almost too comfortable and hard to get out of. At $5 less it would have been a great deal.

Hanoi had one thing in its favour... I was desperate to love it. Our original plan didn't even include Hanoi. We had to re-jig our plans, and drop in an extra flight, to accommodate it. The reason? My favourite band is Hanoi Rocks. The thought of spending a month in Vietnam and missing out Hanoi was just too much to bear.

The weather was a bit grey so once checked in, we headed out to the Fine Arts museum, which was well worth a visit. I really liked the Buddhistic statues from the Tay Son period. Different to anything else we have seen, quite realistic and stylish. I'd have guessed at 1980s, but they were actually from 1794. We then stopped off and the Women's museum, which I probably enjoyed more than David. Interesting to see how much Vietnamese woman have achieved. That evening we'd arranged to meet up with Liz and Armel, a couple we'd met in Laos. We had a long list of places we wanted to eat in Hanoi, but as they'd been here a while we deferred to their knowledge and went to Linh Phung on Dinh Liet Street. Very tasty, and cheap. After that we headed off for some bia hoi. By now it was chucking it down and pretty cold. We huddled under what little cover there was, what we won't do for 10p beer.... When the bia hoi ran out we switched to bottles, still only about 50p. It turned out to be a really fun evening. We drank too much and talked crap, but had a great time doing it. We've met some nice people on this trip this was the first time we had the will and opportunity to meet up with anyone again. We really got on well, hopefully we can persuade them to come and stay with us once we're all back in our 'real' lives.

Day two was mainly spent doing the Old Quarter walking tour. The Old Quarter is interesting, but chaotic. As usual in Asia, pavements are a rare luxury and scooters rule the streets. We did most of the tour, taking a detour to 'Bookworm' on Ngô Văn Sở (NOT the address given in the Lonely Planet) a great shop with 100s of books where we traded some of our books and replenished our stock. I must admit that we didn't quite finish the tour. There are only so many shops you can look at. Clearly the row of rope and straw mat shops was the highlight.... After a light lunch we spilt up to buy Christmas presents for each other. I failed, and got caught up in rush hour traffic. The road was gridlock, so the scooters just used the pavements which were also gridlock. It was almost impossible to pass, so I was a bit weary by the time I got back to the hotel.

We also managed to pick up a Lonely Planet for Malaysia. I really don't like the LP much. We've found the Vietnam one very painful. Out of date, inaccurate, slightly patronising, lacking essential info, not to mention they are so ubiquitous that everywhere it recommends you turn up to see a dozen other people all clutching the same guide, stumbling around in a sheeplike manner. Still, we need a guidebook and Rough Guides seem hard to find. Because I was so reluctant to part with my money for a LP, we managed to get the guy down from 520000 (£17) VND to 140000 VND (£4.60). Mainly because we were clearly not bluffing and willing to walk away. He didn't seem pleased.

For dinner we went to Quan An Ngon. Kind of a 'posh hawker stall' experience. Decent enough. David did manage to flick half his chicken kebab across the floor trying to get it off the skewer. A nice Vietnamese man leaned in and said 'don't worry, we do that too'. We then set of to search for a rock bar we'd read about. It had gone. They story of our trip so far. Oh well, at least we have our trusty MP3 player.

On the last day it was lovely and sunny. We visited the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum complex. sadly the mausoleum itself was closed. Oh well, still an impressive monument. That evening we went back to Linh Phung, probably the best food we've had in Hanoi. We then had a last few bia hoi's. We bought some doughnuty type cakes from a street vendor and the cow ripped us off. We got a handful of change which we quickly counted and realised was less that half what we were owed. She had vanished into thin air by then. It was only about £1 and I'm sure she needed it more than us, but it's not a nice feeling to be scammed. Oh well. We then caught the late water puppet show. Be warned - book well in advance as it does get booked up. It wasn't the show of a lifetime, but was worth our time and the price. Maybe helped along by the number of bia hoi's we'd had. The traditional music was the highlight for me. We resisted the temptation to have another beer, early start tomorrow to get to the airport to fly to KL.

So did Hanoi Rock? Well.... not exactly. Still, it was a fun stop and I'm glad I can say I've been there. Bye bye Vietnam, and on to Malaysia.

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Photos

Hanoi Sleeper Train
Scrabble....

Hanoi Sleeper Train
....followed by cards

Hanoi
Us with Liz and Armel

Hanoi
Market stuff

Hanoi
Gridlock...even on the pavements

Hanoi
Ho Chi Min Mausoleum

Hanoi
Hotel sign. Had to have something with Hanoi on it.

Comments

[kate]

liz and armel
Hi, I was searching on google for my sisters blog so typed in Liz and armel, and your blog came up and saw that you had in fact met liz and armel !! great picture thats so cool, Have great travels, greetings from Dublin , hopefully will be getting to meet up with Liz and Armel too soon in India !!!

[SuzanneandDavid]

Liz and Armel
Hi there Kate, good the hear from you. Our travels are going great. We hope that you do get out to meet up with L&A in India. Pass on our greetings to them, though we are in email contact with them still and reading their blog. Take Care, Suzanne and David