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Published: July 24th 2006
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Getting in the spirit of things
Mike at the communist workers' monument in Hanoi I know, not the most original title. We are now in the middle of our "tour" in Vietnam. It has been a cool experience.
Hanoi Arrival
We flew into Hanoi from Vientiane. The hostel we were staying at arranged for a cab to take us from the airport to the hostel. Going into Vietnam we had read about the abundance of scams, so were happy that at least we should get to the same hostel we wanted to go to. The taxi ride itself proved to be an adventure. The driver was listening to eurodance music with some of the most explicit lyrics I've ever heard. After heading toward what we thought was the city, the driver made almost a U-turn and headed in a different direction and the number of buildings started to decrease. Great we thought. We are going to get taken outside the city and exhorted for more money. Evidently this has been known to happen from time to time (I guess more so with motor scooter taxis). Fortunately, it did not turn out to be the case and we eventually got to the hostel.
The first thing one notices in Hanoi is the abundance
of moto scooters. There are tons of them! Especially compared to Vientiane the number of people, scooters, etc. is incredible. There is quite a bit of traffic with all the scooters and once more people start driving cars, it is going to be insane.
After dodging traffic we got to a restaurant to have a bite to eat. After dinner we went to a part of the Old Quarter known as Bia Hoi junction. Bia Hoi basically means keg beer in Vietnam. They are all over the country. The set up consists of very cheap plastic chairs, small foot stools to use as tables and very, very cheap beer. While the price can vary somewhat, it was 2000 dong (12.5 cents) a glass where we went. So, for $1 you can have a night out on the town.
Hanoi Days 2 and 3
While in Hanoi, we did a walking tour around the Old Quarter which enabled us to see quite a bit of that part of the city. The architecture is nice and one can see the French influence. On our 3rd day when it was particularly hot we set out to find a DHL office,
Bia Hoi
Mike getting settled in for a pint in an attempt to ship by sea some of the things we have purchased. Unfortunately, it was to no avail. But while out we saw the Temple of Literature. This is supposed to be a nice site to visit. But in all honesty, we were so hot and sweaty that neither of us were all that into it.
On the way back toward our hostel, we went by Hoa Lo prison. Better known in the US as the "Hanoi Hilton" where POWs were kept during the war. While much of the prison was torn down for a new building, they kept part of it that one can tour. Prior to the Americans being held there, the prison was built by the French and held local Vietnamese. Needless to say, the main focus of the tour is on how bad the French were to the Vietnamese. When it came to the part that discussed the Americans held there, the propaganda was so ridiculous that it was laughable. They kept saying how the Americans were kept in nice conditions and had all these pictures showing things like GIs playing volleyball, having Christmas mass, playing the guitar and getting news from home.
They also showed the nice shoes the Vietnamese gave them to wear and had a picture of one American getting his belongings back upon release along with a "present". I have a feeling most of the POWs who were there would have a somewhat different recollection!
Our second Bia Hoi junction experience had a bit more excitement when a heated argument broke out between the owner of the neighboring store and the place where we were. It started with just yelling (appeared to be about a drainage issue) but then the other guy shoved our owner who then went and got a pipe - we started to get nervous. Then the police came...mostly just smiled and laughed, the women got into it yelling and crying at each other. We finally escaped to go get dinner. At least it was entertaining...and all seemed to have calmed down when we walked by after dinner.
Halong Bay
After a few days in Hanoi, we took a tour to Halong Bay. The tour covered bus transportation from Hanoi to Halong Bay, meals and staying overnight on a junk boat: and thankfully it turned out to be a very nice, new boat.
There were 16 people on the trip and probably 8 workers on the boat. The hundreds of karsts rising up from the water were very impressive to see. One of them had a large cave that we went into and walked around. The boat then went into a cove where we were able to jump off into the water and swim around. The strong current prevented much swimming, but there was plenty of jumping which was fun. While no one had a problem with us jumping off the side of the second floor, the boat's captain was not very excited when I climbed up onto the roof to jump off!
We discovered the two other Americans on our trip were both going to MBA school this fall. One was going to Harvard the other Dartmouth. The guy going to Dartmouth had been working at McKinsey. So, we were able to swap stories.
In the evening we did quite a bit of star gazing - we had an awesome view of the Milky Way and Mike spotted a satellite. In the morning we got up to a clear day, motored around the bay for a bit and then stopped
Halong Bay
with a few junk boats in the distance for more swimming and jumping. There was no current so we just lazed about in the water and were pretty disappointed when we finally had to leave.
Back in Hanoi
After Halong Bay we had another couple of days in Hanoi before our trip to Sapa. Laura discovered a store that had these cool stone carved pieces such as vases, candle holders and other things. We picked up a candle holder that we really liked. Figures, we'd like something made out of stone! The only issue is figuring how we are going to get the stuff home! As hot and humid as it was, we were really in the mood for seeing a movie. We found a movie theater that was playing Mission Impossible III. Although we had both already seen it, we both enjoyed the film and it was a great way to escape the heat.
After a few beers at a Bia Hoi where we talked to a cool Australian couple and then dinner, we headed to the train station for the overnight train to Sapa.
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