Advertisement
Published: September 4th 2011
Edit Blog Post
Getting into Vietnam was remarkably simple, if slightly convoluted, after parting with many US dollars both over the internet and at the airport. A short taxi ride took us to the hotel that we scouted on the internet which was in the bustling, chaotic old Quarter of the town with seemingly more motorcycles than people! We couldn’t even get our bags through the front door of the hotel for abandoned motorbikes. After struggling to avoid causing a street-long domino-topple of bikes, we were greeted by the most helpful and courteous staff possible, who sold us a luxury 3 person room for £20 as well as giving us a free cooked breakfast. After munching all the complimentary goodies in the room we felt brave (or foolish) enough to try crossing the road to the lake. After watching the locals, we quickly threw away our European reserve and ignorantly strolled carefree amongst the speeding mopeds, tuktuks and cars. This method seems to be working well for us so far and I hope that you are not reading this posthumously!!
We have found that all the parks and lakeside areas are populated largely by young couples in full Sunday best accompanied by 3 or
4 photographers. I am not talking 5 or 6 couples- more like 20-30 at any time in a park the size of Princes Street gardens- all posing in the most bizarre ways. Our overly-helpful receptionist informs us that all the couples in Hanoi go there to get their wedding photos taken. This has been the source of much amusement to us, not least Karen enjoying being critical of the exotic array of bright colours and styles of wedding dresses. Apparently the Vietnamese taste is not that of us Europeans. I thought they were great- they reminded me of a cross between those American beauty pageants of 5-year olds and those plastic Flamenco dancer dolls you see in Magaluf.
We sampled some of the local brew from a street vendor for the princely sum of 5,000 dong each. Before you dash for the Financial Times conversion chart, I can inform you that’s 15p. Suitably imbibed we braved more traffic and happened across a theatre which had a small queue leading from it. This turned out to be the water puppet theatre which our guide books (and Trip Advisor) rated as the top visitor attraction in Hanoi. A combination of perfect timing,
cheap tickets and a slight beer buzz meant we found ourselves inside. The live band, all dressed like Widow Twanky in a Blackpool pantomime, plucked away as some chaps waist-deep in a dark swimming pool fiddled with dolls, apparently telling traditional tales in Vietnamese. It could as well have been Duncan Goodhew playing with Bill and Ben and speaking Gaelic for all that we got from it. Mercifully , 45 minutes later it was over and we could escape to top up our flagging alcohol levels.
The streets of Hanoi each specialise in one particular type of product, with every shop in that street selling the same thing. For example, there is a sunglasses street, a jeans street, a hardware street, a shoe street, and so on. Karen found this difficult to get her head around , particularly when she was looking for sweets, fruit and crisps street when all she could find was bra and knickers street. Much grumpiness followed until an entrepreneurial mobile street vendor broke the status quo by appearing with some pineapple amongst the lingerie. We assumed the streets are named after the products but the words all looked the same to us.
We seem to
be developing quite a knack for visiting a country on their Independence day. We have to say that the Vietnamese completely outdid the Indian celebrations on population turnout, lighting, music and balloons. Several stages were set up around our hotel and motorcycle gridlock ensued. Fascinating to watch from the comfort of a street-side bar- gladly this time from the safety of the pavement! When the crowds subsided we found a street restaurant full of locals sitting around on plastic primary school furniture and were presented with the ingredients of a beef stir fry, a stove and a grillpan. I think Ken Hom would have been proud of our performance and as no signs of botulism have manifested themselves yet, I think we got away with that one. Due to my proportions being larger than any Vietnamese man ever, I was fearful of both shattering their miniscule furniture or struggling to get back to an upright position. Both of which I am sure would have caused much hilarity but thankfully neither occurred due to some careful manoeuvring.
With the craziness of the old quarter wearying us a little we decided to venture into the adjacent French quarter with a pleasant result.
The wide, tree-lined streets seemed quieter and less intrusive. We also found a fantastic sports bar aimed squarely at ex-pats who are showing all the rugby world cup games- even the Scotland v Romania showpiece at 8am!! Whilst having a drink we were warmly greeted by several Antipodeans who talked at length about rugby. We felt at home. I even managed a prolonged impromptu medical consultation to some ex-pat who was “a bit crook”, including an examination in the middle of the bar. I never made a firm diagnosis but my efforts ended up with him picking up our bar bill. I might set up business as a pub doctor as there is clearly a market out there! One Aussie guy informed us that there is a formal title for the type of backpacking that us “over 30s professionals” are doing- Flashpacking!!! So there you go, just like gaining the word “glamping" to our vocabularies a few years ago, we now are flashpackers.
Slightly less flashy was our night bus trip from Hanoi to Hue, halfway down the east coast of Vietnam- 15 hours of trying to sleep on a crowded bus furnished with bed-like structures. We were squashed in
with a German couple on a 5-bed top bunk at the back. We may take the train back to Hanoi!! Hue seems a little calmer and we are off to explore it this afternoon on the back of motorbikes!!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.236s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 6; qc: 44; dbt: 0.1853s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
k&j
non-member comment
Vietnam
Now we are getting envious,as we have always wanted to go back for a dedicated tri to Vietnam as we have only had a brief trip to Hue and Saigon( sorry)Ho Chi Min City,if that is how you spell it.Keep enjoying and keep the blogs flowing. We hope the replys are getting through. K&J