Chilly Vietnam

Asia » Vietnam » Red River Delta » Hanoi
February 6th 2000

Published: June 22nd 2017

Geo: 21.0243, 105.855

Well you might be sweltering but we are freezing to death. Hanoi is cold and overcast and we are wishing we brought alot more clothes with us. We only have one pair of jeans each which we have to wear day after day and cannot have them washed because we have nothing else to wear while they are being washed! Tomorrow we go on a boat trip to the Perfume Pagoda. I think we will just have to wear every item of clothing that we own piled on top of each other. Hanoi is actually more tourist oriented than Vientiane. There are heaps of hotels competing for business. We actually thought we would have trouble getting a room as we arrived on Chinese New Years Eve but there wasn't really any problem at all. The hotels here are more like western hotels and less like guest houses. They have Mini Bars and phones and hot water and all the mod cons! We are staying in the old quarter which is about 1000 years old apparently. Space is at a premium here and there are hundreds of shop fronts cramped together which are only a few feet wide. We don't know what half of them sell because alot of them are closed for The New Year Holiday. Alot of business is run from the side of the road. There are stalls everywhere cooking up soup and all sorts of weird looking shit. The customers sit on tiny plastic stools to consume their wares. Due to the lack of room and the narrow streets everyone parks their motor scooter on the footpath (very few people own cars) so its difficult to walk on the footpath while dodging the comings and goings of the motorbikes and the on street diners. In comparison if you move away from the old quarter the streets become tree lined boulevards reminiscent of Paris and the buildings are all large French Colonial Style. There are nice parks full of flowers, trees and fountains (not always running, must be on holiday too) and there are a variety of large and small lakes dotted throughout the city. Its nice to have somewhere to go to chill out. In Vientiane there wasn't one single park that we could find. There are no tuk tuks here but they do have cyclos which are similar but powered by pedal pushing (no motor). We were a bit hesitant to use them but the drivers are so persistent we eventually succumbed. Its actually quite a pleasant way to get around provided the driver actually takes you to where you want to go. Last night we had a drunken cyclo driver (he had obviously been celebrating the New Year in a big way) who took us around in almost a complete circle and charged us US$1 for the privilege. Nevertheless he actually took us to quite a nice bar/cafe that was busy and vibrant. It could easily have been in a trendy part of Melbourne (except for the prices). They even had a big screen and were playing Tom & Jerry cartoons. This atmosphere of the place emphasised even more the two different worlds that you find here. So it has certainly been an interesting experience here so far. We are looking forward to going to Halong Bay on Tuesday and are really looking forward to flying to Hue, Central Vietnam in a few days as it will be alot warmer there.

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