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Published: September 19th 2009
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As I write my first entry Im sitting in my very comfortable air conditioned hotel in Hanoi, and already after three days I have seen a mixture of the amazing, moving and bizarre.
After a 12 hour flight we landed in Hong Kong which definitely has the campest jazziest money I have ever seen, forget the pink pound, their notes are actually pink there! It was only a quick two hour stop and we then flew on to Ho Chi Minh City where we landed at sunset. The first thing that hits you as you walk out the airport is the heat and humidity which was incredibly intense. To those of you who like your windy bracing weather and have been known to perspire easily, Vietnam may not be the place for you. Its been three days now and while I am loving the heat, there hasnt been the slightest breeze at all. The second thing that hits you is the sound - an incredible buzzing of mopeds, motorbikes and scooters which swarm round the streets like crazed wasps. In a city where there are 16million motorbikes and only 6million people, crossing the roads in Ho Chi Minh was one of
the most exciting but at the same time terrifying experiences of my life. Standing at a crossing its your natural instinct to stop and wait for the traffic to slow - this does'nt happen in Ho Chi Minh. So as Tom and myself were wondering how on earth we were ever going to cross the road we were shown the solution. A small man proceeded to saunter diagonally over a crossing as large and busy as oxford circus, but with the traffic in full speed all around him. Yet somehow the chaos managed to completely avoid him and he came across unscathed. More amusing however was that his next move was to urinate on the pavement, again in a fashion that made it seem that this was totally normal. However needing to cross the road Tom and myself decided to followe his example - with regard to navigating the road that is. You have ignore everything you have ever been taught about "stop look and listen" and simply force yourself to step into the traffic, taking confident lage steps as you do so. However miraculously everyone always seems to avoid you, making it feel like a miniature parting of the
Red Sea everytim you cross the street.
We stayed in a very reasonable, friendly and comfortale guesthouse called Luan Vu, its best feature being its position, slap bang in the middle of the madness of the city. The city itself feels as if its in a state of transition, perhaps moving to quickly. It was not uncommon to see a massive modern tower block, beside a set of run down houses, which tehn also happened to be beside some old french style houses. Howevere we spent our time in Ho Chi Minh wandering around the city, visiting the Botanical Gardens, Zoo, their minature Notre Dame Cathedral, the Imperial Palace and The War Memorial Museum. The Botanical gardens and the Zoo were a welcome respite from the craziness of the city center, and at 20p is a must when your there. The War Memorial Museum was my favourite place. Showing extremely brutal, tragic and sad images it was a superb portayal not only of the futility and terror of war, but the long lasting effects it has on people afterwards - with a new exhibition on the awful Agent Orange Symptoms being the most harrowing.
Food and Drink in Ho Chi
Minh City is incredible. The standard dishes are Pho, which is a big bowl of noodles in broth, or various different trypes of rice with either beef, chicken or pork. Costing between 80p and £1.50 they are incredibly good value and delicious, and so far *touch wood* Ive had no stomach problems. Beer here as well is cheap as chips and delicious. Bia Hoi which is there draught beer can be as cheap 10p, and you would do well to pay more than 60p for a beer anywhere. Amazing! The Pham Ngu Lao area is where the Ho Chi Minh nightlife is at its busiest, and we met some nice and some weird backpackers from America, Scotland, Canada and two people from Crouch End, one of whom was also called Sam and was a spurs fan! Totally bizarre experience, and we "enjoyed" some vietnamese rum shots with these people, chatting until the early hours of the morning.
Another thing definitely worth mentioning on Ho Chi Minh is an amazing game that the people play on the streets there. Using a modified shuttlecock 2-4 people kick it to each other, keeping it in the air at all times, and doing amazing
somersaults and flicks in this brilliant version of "keepy uppy." Tom took a video which i will try and put up in the near future.
Today we flew up to Hanoi and first impressions are really amazing! There is a totally different vibe here, and already I think I might prefer it to Ho Chi Minh city. Life doesnt seem as crazy and intense here, and its less sleazy but most notably extremely sociable, with the pavements crowded with families all eating their dinners together. We enjoyed our most authentic vietnamese meal to date tonight, managing to find this slightly hidden away area called Cam Thi where there were loads of restaurants, and where we were the only two westerners. We both had a type of beef fried rice which was really good. So yeah im excited about exploring the rest of Hanoi tommorow after an excellent first impression! We're here for another two days and are hoping to fit in a trip to Halong bay if possible, and then from there we are getting a sleeper train down to the old town of Hoi An. Im having an awesome time so far, and will write my next installment in
a couple of days!
xxx
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Iris
non-member comment
Hi
Hi Sam Sounds like you are having a fab time. The blog is very amusing, and we can't wait for the next installment. All of us here in Crouch End enjoy your entertaining style of writing. You made us laugh out loud quite a few times. Keep it up.