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Published: July 18th 2006
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Now that the travelling has slowed down a little bit, Brian and I are really soaking up a bit more of what its like to actually live here. Our hotel is out of the tourist area, which is nice for a couple of reasons: the constant pleas to buy something don't happen over here, and we get to see a bit more of what the city is like for most people. Brian has also made good friends with a guy from work, Trung, who is taking us out and showing us 'the ropes' a bit.
Today I started my volunteer work at the orphanage, teaching english to teens. It's pretty challenging, but it's really nice to have something to occupy myself with. Poor Brian's seen very little in the city, beyond a 1 km radius around our hotel and the strip on the way to work, but I've been roaming a couple of hours a day, and I've seen quite a bit.
Favourite museums include:
The Women's Museum: it chronicles, pretty much as the name implies, the role women have playing in Vietnamese society over time. Especially interesting were the exhibits on the equal role women had in the
American War, and the work of women's organizations all over the world to protest that war. It's amazing to see how gender equality has risen and fallen in the past 50 years.
The Fine Art Museum: Beautiful displays of Vietnamese art over time, I LOVED the modern revival of laquer painting, just beautiful.
There are temples and pagodas everywhere, and its nice to be able to step off the street and into a calm, serene courtyard for a few minutes - everything is chaotic everywhere else. The sidewalks are pretty much unwalkable in some areas, because people just set up shop on them, and also park motorbikes, bicycles, even cars and trucks on them. Women just carry their restaurants in on their backs - stove, pot, stools, bowls and food. You buy your meat off the sidewalk too, there's a few in front of our hotel who have their big chunk of raw meat sitting open on a mat on the sidewalk in the sun, and when you want some they pick their knife up off the ground and just chop it off. Mmmm. Luckily I didn't take science so I don't know a lot about bacteria!
Because
The Temple of Literature
The stelae have all the names of the men who graduated from the ancient university that sat on this site. we stand out quite a lot, it's not very often that more than 2 or 3 minutes pass without someone asking us to buy something, but actually, people are less persistent in Hanoi than other places we've been, which is nice. However, we get ripped off a lot. We mostly don't mind paying more than locals, but the part we hate is asking the price and getting told, say, 15 000 dong, and then once the hair has been cut, or beer been drunk, etc, all of a sudden the price is not what we agreed upon originally but about twice as much. It's a really crappy feeling, and sort of ruins the experience. It also doesn't serve them well, because we won't go back there or recommend it to anyone else, so they lose out on 2 months of business from us. This issue has been our main complaint about Hanoi.
Our mothers would cringe at the thought of us crossing the street, but we've become immune to the fear (probably not a good thing). The cars are a bit more nerve wracking, but they aren't all that common. The motorbikes are much more manouverable though, so you
The French Quarter
This is the opera house, you can see how the french quarter looks very different from other parts of the city! just step out and let them flow around you - like the eye of a hurricane. Also like a hurricane are the masses of electric wires that hang off the poles - dozens attached to each pole, and some hanging down to about head height. And speaking of storms, we had one last week and the street in front of our hotel turned into a 2 foot deep river for a couple of hours - and the hotel started to take on water (luckily we're on the second floor). Apparently its common and not a big deal.
The heart of the downtown is Hoan Kiem Lake and early in the morning (before 7) when it's slightly cooler it's an amazing place to be. There are people everywhere playing badminton, doing tai chi, running, walking, even weightlifting. I guess no one has space to do this at home, and people are much less shy than we are about doing things in public. As runners, we're expected to go on the road instead of the sidewalks, which is okay because the motorbikes expect it and don't drive too close to the edge.
Really, we can get access to pretty much
One Pillar Pagoda
A famous pagoda built to look like a lotus flower. anything we could ever want, its just a bit more stressful because you have to find it first, and then bargain for it. Stores are grouped according to what they sell, so if you don't know what street to head to, you'll have a really hard time. There are a few western style grocery stores, but they're pretty basic.
Last week I started to volunteer in an orphanage teaching english twice a week. There are 110 kids, and they're organized into "families" with about 6-8 other kids of varying ages and a "mother" to take care of them. The government provides about $10 a month for their care, and the centre takes some of that to pay for schools, and gives the rest to the mothers of each family to buy food, clothing, etc. The children range from 4 months to 18 years old, and are taught a skill like motorbike repair or sewing, as well as going to school. They're pretty uninterested in learning english at this point, but it's cool to be there and see how things are done, and hopefully teach them something. My class has about 15 kids, between 12 and 16 years old. The
Old Quarter
All the streets in the Old Quarter are named for the product the stores sell. centre is quite a way from the hotel, but Brian and I are enjoying the city bus because no one wants you to buy anything, and there's a set price! It's a quite good system too, and pretty comfortable.
Okay, that's about enough I guess! For those of you who made it this far, now I know who really loves me!!
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Crystelle
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envious
Wow what an experience. You are getting to see more than a common tourist would ever get to see. I wish I could be there, but the noise and heat here will have to do.