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Published: April 5th 2016
Hey everyone!
The new post is up:
https://www.iesabroad.org/study-abroad/blogs/kmcgeepugetsoundedu/hong-kong-neither-china-nor-west
As you all may or may not know, I spent last weekend in Hanoi, Vietnam, which was a blast. In fact, I enjoyed it much more than I had thought I would, which was definitely a pleasant surprise! The one qualm that I had about Hanoi was how it was crawling with foreigners. Before leaving, I was expecting to be in a city much less developed than Beijing or Shanghai, where we would be some of the only foreigners. Instead, I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me that I saw the same number of tourists as I did Vietnamese. It was absolutely crazy, especially having come from a city where foreigners, while not rare, are quite easy to pick out of a crowd. In Hanoi, it felt like the crowd
was the foreigners! Anyways, like I said, other than that I really enjoyed my time in Vietnam.
Since we were there for such a short time, we did the tourist thing and had a guide the whole time. All things considered, I liked having the guide, as I felt we were able to do things that we probably
On the grounds of the Presidential Palace
I don't know if you can tell, but behind the yellow wall is a wall of touristswouldn't have without. For example, one of the activities that stood out to me the most was getting to see Ho Chi Minh's body at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. After standing in line for about an hour and a half (Dad says that he remembers getting jumped to the front of the line when he went before, since the line back then was composed of Vietnamese. In our case, there were many school trips there to see Ho Chi Minh, but there were also lots of foreigners with their tour groups), we got to go into the building, where the guards made sure people weren't taking photos, wearing sunglasses, talking too loudly, and kept moving. It was kind of eerie, walking through, because Ho Chi Minh looked like he was just asleep, and not at all like what I imagined a dead person to look like. It was crazy and intense, but totally worth the long wait, and makes me wish I had visited Mao's Mausoleum while I was in Beijing. Something that stood out to me while we were there was that the guards were carrying guns. I don't think it would have been so noticeable had I
Temple of Literature
We found one of the monuments pictured on the Vietnamese currency! not been spending so much time in China, where guns are illegal, and even the guards and police don't carry them around. As it was, the guns that they were carrying (which were the kind with the bayonets - I don't know anything about guns) were very obvious and intimidating, which I'm sure was the point. Point taken.
On another day we took a day trip out to Halong bay, which is about a four hour drive from Hanoi. Once there, we had our own boat that went out onto the bay, which was gorgeous. Though slightly chilly, it was definitely warmer than Shanghai has been, and we were all enjoying the break from the big cities. We had a fresh seafood lunch on the boat (and although three of us don't eat seafood, none of us said anything to the tour guide; don't ask me why, but we were all being dumb), before docking at a fishing village/tourist stop in the middle of the bay for some kayaking. We didn't kayak far, but we went through a few caves that opened up into these beautiful hidden areas encased in the giant rocks/mountains that rest in the bay. It
was amazing! Afterwards, we headed back to the dock and got out of the kayaks. One of the groups hadn't been kayaking before, and got kind of stuck trying to get back to the part of the dock where they were supposed to get off. I was standing on the dock trying to talk them through how to maneuver, when I took a step back, only to find that particular plank of dock was missing. Even as I was putting my foot down I knew it wouldn't end well, but it was too late to stop it. My leg went through, and I think I startled everyone pretty badly when I went down (and my immediate reaction of "I'm fine, nothing's wrong, I'm okay" seemed equally as surprising). Luckily, I only ended up with surface scrapes and some bruising around my knee; no broken bones or twisted ankles or any of the terrible things my friends later told me they feared had happened. After the excitement that wasn't, we got back on the boat and went to a cove area where we disembarked and ended up walking through these really cool caves. The tour guide pointed out a ton of
different features in the rock that looked like various animas, and told us stories about the creatures, and how they were all attending the wedding of the dragon's son and his human wife. It was definitely super touristy, as they had lit the caves with colored lights and everything, but the features undeniably did look like the creatures the tour guide told us they were.
Overall, I definitely liked Vietnam a lot more than I did Hong Kong, and was pleasantly surprised by Hanoi, even if it was overrun with tourists. I would definitely recommend it as a place to visit, especially since it is definitely possible to get around using English. (In general, the English that I heard in Hanoi was much more widespread and fluent than I've found it to be even in Shanghai.)
Anyways, that's all for this week! Until next time!
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Terrence May
non-member comment
Din Tai Fung!
Hi Katie, We love Din Tai Fung - hope you enjoyed it too. Even though it must seem pretty tame compared to some of the other dishes you've tried. Was this one in Hong Kong? We ate at one in a HK shopping mall - enjoyed a meal at a big community table. Have you been to Xin Tian Di in Shanghai - there is one there too - not far from the Communist Party Museum where Mao started his career - I'm sure he would have eaten there if it had been open then. Speaking of Mao......when people learn you're American, do you get a lot of questions about Donald Trump? Great photos from your trip to Vietnam - loved them! Terry