Northern Vietnam

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13 April

Leaving the tailors and silversmiths behind, we headed off to the town of Hue. Along the way we drove through beautiful scenery, passing Lang Co beach and making a top at the top of the Hai Van Pass, a former American outpost. Of course, any time a pass is involved, there are a load of hairpin curves and a load of hairpin curves make me a bit ill. So instead of being able to stare in awe at all of the scenery, I had to nap.

Around midday we met up to experience something truly Vietnamese: motorbikes! The Vietnamese love their motorbikes. Everyone has one. And in cities, everyone is quite used to striding out in front of them. The thing about motorbikes is they're very maneuverable and will drive around you so long as you don't stop or change speeds in crossing. Also, not all the roads in Vietnam are designed for cars, so to see them, you need a motorbike. I had never ridden a motorbike in my life and the thought of it was terrifying. I was even more scared after motorbike mounting lessons, which are merely a way of preventing exhaust burns, but in my head it was "oh my god the motorbike will explode if I don't do this right." And no, I wasn't driving. So we loaded up in a massive bike caravan. My driver (whose name I asked about 12 times and never actually figured out) put my helmet on me and fastened it. It was pretty much a hardhat with a strap. I felt safe. From the city, we headed out on normal streets in normal, terrifying traffic. Then we turned down a back alley, still wide enough for cars, then kept going until we were on a path about 2m wide. We passed tiny houses and were soon on the paths between rice paddies, out amongst farmers, ducks and water buffalo. We headed first to an old covered bridge, one of the four in Vietnam. Here local farmers were hangning out after a long morning in the paddies. There was also a farm museum, with all the different equipment the locals use to make their living. Our tour guide for this bit was an agile 80-year-old woman, knee high to a grasshopper, with a mean cackle and a frightening, blackened, toothy grin. Leaving her, we headed back into town on a crazy course through tiny, curvey back alleys and arrived at Thuy's house. Thuy is a conical hat maker. She also has one hand. She makes poem hats, with cutouts between raffia layers so you can see a story when you hold the hat up to the light. Hue claims to be the origin of conical hats. From Thuy's house, we rode back into the country to the Thieu tri royal tombs. They were built in the 1800's during the Nguyen dynasty in the Chinese style. If you've ever met 20 Vietnamese people and wondered why they all have the same last name, the Nguyen dynasty lasted through 13 emperors over 150 years. Some of these emperors had 500 wives. It all makes sense now? After the tombs we set off to get a view of the Perfume River (the Song Hong). From our vantage point, we could see Hamburger Hill across the river, so named because of the carnage there during the Vietnam war. After battle, the bodies looked more like hamburger meat than actual people. We were standing in front of French and American artillery posts. Again, tragic and unnecessary. After our view of the Perfume River, we drove down to watch an incense maker make incense from sawdust, cinnamon and glue. And I had an ice cream. After my ice cream we headed onwards to see the only coliseum in southeast Asia. Here animal battles were staged, much like in Rome. The most common opponents were elephants and tigers. Elephants are huge/massive/strong/badass, so they always won. Now the coliseum is falling apart and chickens are the only ones who wander in and out of it. To get to our final destination, we headed back through city traffic and came to a ridiculously narrow bridge, with bike/motorbike lanes fenced. The lanes are narrow enough that the drivers had to encourage us to squeeze our knees in so we wouldn't bang them on the fence. The average speed going across is about 2 km/h. Frightening. After the bridge, a quick ride on a wide road along the river brought us to the Thieu Mu pagoda. The pagoda was starte din 1601 and houses a lucky turtle whose head is now very worn from being rubbed so much for luck. After watching sunset over the river, we hopped on the bikes for one last ride back to the hotel. And I didn't burn myself once. Or explode the bike.


14 April

Overall, a lazy day. I copied photos to DVDs, or rather, had them copied. I had brunch with Anna, then lunch shortly thereafter. We got on another night train (this one less classy and smelling strongly of piss) in the evening and had one of the most bizarre conversations involving 5-legged horses, buffalo cheers, and art class. I won't go into it...


15 April

At 4:00 a.m. we arrived bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in Hanoi. We waited for our bus outside the train station in the dark. I went for a wee in the station and was told to use the men's. Not strange considering the line for the women's (open squat toilets). So I went to the stall past the wall of urinals. After finishing my task, I stood up, looked out the window (yes, stall door window) only to see a line of men at the urinals. I waited in the stall until it was clear and made a run for the sink. I returned to the group to wait for the bus. Three hours of sleepy busride later, we arrived in the dump of Halong City.

At noontime, we boarded a nice boat for a trip on Halong Bay. The bay is dotted with gorgeous limestoney mountains, many of which are hollowed out by caves. Alongside these are a number of floating villages with floating schools, markets and other floating necessities. We were served the most creative tofu meal I've ever seen, with 6 different tofu concoctions, rice, fries, spring rolls, fried peanuts, and a mound of morning glory. We toured one of the caves after lunch and were sorely disappointed at the garishness. Rather than lighting the cave like normal people, they had decided to light each hollow and crevice with a different color, giving the overall effect of a massive, tacky cave rave.

In the evening we had a terrible hotel dinner (terrible for vegetarians who can't eat cabbage) then headed out for CHEESECAKE. And after to the pier to watch Derek twirl his fireballs (poi). Gussy and I made a pass through the market where I was grabbed by a desperate saleslady. Just a hint: assaulting customers is NOT a good sales technique. I bought the same thing from another stall.


16 April

In the morning we took a bus back to Hanoi from Halong City. The area we passed through is famous for its cuisine, mainly that it is common to eat "thit cho." The first restaurant I spotted with this had a jolly German Shepherd on the sign. Thit cho is dog meat, a delicacy. Dogs are farmed like other livestock. Lao exports a large number of dogs into Vietnam for consumption.

After arriving in Hanoi, we headed out to see the sights. First stop: Hanoi Hilton. Hao Lo Prison housed a number of U.S. POWs during the war. Some of the prison is still standing, though most of the site has actually been turned into a hotel (not a Hilton). Next we walked to Hoankiem Lake. Like Loch Ness, the lake supposedly houses a large creature, though here it is a giant turtle! We ate lunch at a deli then wandered through the old part of town, home to a huge market, stopping for bia hoi on a street corner. We were given tiny plastic chairs (think child sized lawn furniture) and bought our beer for 3000 dong (yes, the currency is dong!) or about 20 cents. We sat in the road at the intersection and were only almost run over. After our refreshments, we walked to the Dong Xuan market, a 3-storey indoor market selling, like all Asian markets, EVERYTHING. Annika tried to buy shorts. About a size 4, she was looked up and down by the salesladies before they laughed and shook their heads. Small on western standards, a size 4 is apparently HUGE in Vietnam. To get back to the hotel from here, we walked down paper lantern street, mechanic street and metal housewares street (doorknobs and bathroom fixtures).


17 April

After staying out too late at a local bar, we were up early for complimentary hotel breakfast and decided then to go sightseeing. Exhausted, we headed to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, neglecting to note the day. So the Mausoleum was closed and we did not get to see the father of Vietnam's preserved body. We headed next door to the Presidential Palace, built 100 years ago for the Governor General of Indochina. Next we saw Ho Chi Minh's house from 1954-1958 where he lived and worked (this is what the sign on the house and the illustrations in the pamphlet both say...I don't know anymore than that). We walked around a big pond filled with fishies to Ho Chi Minh's house on stilts. He also lived and worked here. The house is dark green.

Leaving the Ho Chi Minh extravaganza, we walked to the Temple of Literature (Van Mieu). It was started in 1070, dedicated to Confucius and used for the education of Mandarins in Vietnam (not the oranges, the people). The temple is a mass of buildings, gardens and a reflecting pool. It also has western toilets.

For lunch we headed back towards the lake to a different deli. And after that - bubble tea! I think bubble tea is served in excessively large portions. I could not finish mine. It also had perhaps 1000 tapioca beads.

After filling our tummies with tea, we went to a puppet show! The Vietnamese have a traditional form of water puppetry that started 1000 years ago in the rice fields. The puppeteers stand waist deep in water behind a curtain and operate the puppets on underwater sticks. The stories are all scenes from country life and are accompanied by a band. My favorites were the dragons that shot fireworks and the villagers catching frogs.


18 April

We loaded the bus at 5:30 to start our 15 hour bus journey. Only a couple hours in, we stopped unnecessarily for coffee (which then had to brewed) and a toilet stop where the toilet was a rice field. Here the bus also broke down. But they fixed it pretty quickly. Driving across the Vietnamese countryside, we saw many of the scenes from the water puppet show. But again, I missed much of the scenery. With the double whammy of a sinus infection and motion sickness, I was miserable for most of the 15 hours. In the afternoon, we reached the Lao border high in the limestone mountains.

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Photos

Thuy making conical hats
Not the metal on the stove is the best quality Vietnam has to offer: a chunk of American bomb from the war