Vietnam: Hanoi - Hanoi, Vietnam
Hanoi, Vietnam
We'd heard nothing but good things about Vietnam. Everyone who has already been raved of a country combining culture, history, beauty and party into one big melting pot. To say our expectations were high would have been an understatement. Fortunately, our first stop in Vietnam lived up to them. Hanoi oozes charm and at the same time bustles and hums with the noise of a capital city. Housing ancient pagodas and old boulevards alongside streets swarming with careening motorbikes, this colonial indochinese city is certainly one of contrasts, yet manages to maintain the nonchalance of a laid back European city. But I digress. Entering the country proved to be relatively painless; our visa letters we had acquired before arrival were accepted by immigration and after handing over US$90, we were presented with a shiny one page visa, denoting our entitlement to explore Vietnam for the next 30 days. After collecting our bags, we were thrust once more into the cacophony created by tenacious touts in the capital's airport. After sifting out several taxi firms masquerading as 'tourist information' booths (trying to charge $20 for a ride into Central Hanoi) we found the budget travel public bus and jumped on board for less than a dollar each. Admittedly, being crammed into the minibus with several more passengers than you'd reasonably expect wasn't as comfortable as a taxi, but it was certainly much cheaper. After being dropped in the Old Quarter, we walked to Ngo Huyen and, after a quick squiz at the rooms in Hotel Tonkin, decided we didn't need to look anywhere else. For US$10 a night, we were provided with a room with not one, but two double beds, plus a single bed, a bathroom with a bath, breakfast and free beer between 5-7pm. We were sold. It's worth mentioning at this point that we didn't pay for anything in dollars in Hanoi, apart from our visas. However, in Vietnam, prices for tourists are always quoted in dollars. You can either pay in the widely accepted American currency, or in Vietnamese Dong, which is, without a doubt the most confusing currency we've come across. Current exchange rates give ₫33527.36 to £1. Or ₫21052.63 to US$1. Dave withdrew 1 million dong at the airport - we felt rich until we realised that was about £30. Our mathematical brains (and the currency app in the ipad) are certainly getting a good workout. Feeling hungry after checking in, we ventured out onto the congested streets of Hanoi. After our brief walk from the bus stop and our breakfast safari, it's fair to say we were smitten with the grace and timeless charm of the city. Ladies in conical hats made their way through the narrow streets of the old quarter balancing goods over their shoulders, pausing at various street stalls to barter and hawk their wares. Locals sat on tiny plastic stools at the roadside, leaning over steaming bowls of Bun Cha or Pho and conversing animatedly with their companions, and men in helmets chanted a familiar mantra of 'moto sir?' as we negotiated the busy pavements. We loved it. After several months in Malaysia and Singapore, we felt like proper 'travellers' again. Although the Vietnamese are pleased to no longer be under French rule, they have continued to embrace French culinary culture. The coffee is quite simply divine, combining elements of coffee and chocolate, which means even Jenna can drink it without adding sugar. Perhaps the most obvious element of French influence can be seen in the preponderance of good bread. Chunky, crusty baguettes are on sale everywhere. After 8 and a half months with very limited access to proper bread, it wasn't long before we found ourselves perched on red stools (no bigger than those in a reception class - rather a challenge for Dave), savouring an egg baguette. Seeking out a slightly less perilous spot to enjoy a morning drink, we joined hoards of young Vietnamese drinking lemon tea and shelling sunflower seeds on a pavement. Our vantage point was perfect for a spot of people watching, and we spent half an hour absorbing more of the sites and sounds of Hanoi. After two and a half months of relatively peaceful streets, we found ourselves once again surrounded by incessant beeping as motorbikes weaved around each other on the road in front of us. Some were ridden solo by immaculately dressed women sporting the latest fashion trends and high heels, others carried entire families. Children clutched tightly at custom made handles on the front of the bike or balanced precariously on parents' laps, while babies were cradled in arms. Children are evidently inducted early into the main mode of transport in Vietnam; holding on for dear life is clearly an everyday occurrence. Sleepy after several days of 5 am starts and our 4am departure, we then retreated to our room for a nap. Feeling distinctly more refreshed a couple of hours later, we then made the most of the free beer in our hotel before setting off to explore more of the city by night. Night in Vietnam begins at 6pm, at which point the sun has well and truly set, and darkness has cloaked the whole country. With dusk therefore beginning at around 4.30pm, at times it was difficult to believe we were several thousand miles away from the UK, where the clocks had just been turned back a whole hour. This is our only complaint about Vietnam so far - the time zone it occupies. Despite travelling East from Malaysia, we've gone back an hour in time, which sounds counterintuitive and absolutely is in terms of daylight hours. We've had to embrace early mornings and early bed times, admittedly not difficult when it's pitch black at 6pm, but still. The streets of the Old Quarter still thrive with commerce; selling everything from silk and embroidery to intricately designed cards, traditional lanterns to demitasses and coffee grinders. Reportedly, in the 13th century, the area evolved when artisan guilds were concentrated along 36 lanes. These were clustered by speciality, and some streets are still named after products which were traditionally sold there. We wandered through the labyrinth to Hoan Kiem Lake at the heart of the Old Quarter. Translating to 'Lake of the Restored Sword' the legend of the lake states that in the mid-15th century a sword was sent to Emperor Ly Thai To, which was used to drive the Chinese out of Vietnam. After the war, the sword was then grabbed by a giant golden tortoise swimming on the surface of the lake, and returned the sword to its owners. The area teemed with locals and tourists perched on benches surrounding the lakeside, enjoying the ambiance of a relaxed evening in the city. Street food in Hanoi during the day is diverse and plentiful. However, after 8pm, options seemed to be more limited. After exhausting several venues we'd scooped out prior to dinner, we found a booth serving a selection of spring rolls at tables behind its shop front, and reflected on our first day in Vietnam as well as our future plans, struggling slightly with the idea of giving up seeing new places for the sake of work. The following morning we woke early, a consequence no doubt of our body clocks and light streaming in through the windows at an early hour. After a good breakfast in our hotel and a few hours on the Internet we set off to explore Hanoi on foot, beginning with a lunch of rice, peanuts and green veg in a roadside cafe which clearly had some kind of deal going with coca cola. The food in Vietnam is certainly more in keeping with Jenna's taste buds - chillies are optional rather than mandatory, so there is no risk of consuming a hot mouthful of spice when you've clearly specified 'not hot' or 'no chillies.' After lunch, we visited the train station, and after a little bit toing and froing between the tourist counter and counter 4, managed to book ourselves two hard sleeper tickets to Sapa for the following evening. Persistence was the name of the game here - eventually it transpired that the tourist counter only sells soft sleeper tickets (twice the price of hard sleeper), but this wasn't clear on either the first, second or third enquiry when we just got responses of 'no have.' When pushed, the cashier admitted hard sleeper tickets were on sale at counter 4. Five minutes later we were in possession of two tickets for ₫ 390 000 (lower berth) and ₫370 000 (middle berth). We then made our way to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum complex, located 1.5km west of the Old Quarter. As we walked, we were approached by a shy Vietnamese teenager, who, in broken English, asked very politely if he could take our photo. We managed to glean that this was for an English project (presumably he was required to provide photographic evidence of chats with English speakers). We were happy to oblige, particularly given the gentle nature of his request. We also posed for photos with him individually - when Dave put his arm around the guy's shoulder, his face literally lit up. The friendly, welcoming attitude of people here is one of the highlights of the country; after aggressive papping in India, this was certainly a refreshing change. Although Ho Chi Minh himself requested a cremation, an elaborate memorial has been constructed for crowds to pay their respects to the man who spend his lifetime fighting to release and reunite Vietnam. Here, Ho Chi Minh's remains remain for nine months of the year in an impressive building, guarded by patrollers clad in pristine white uniforms. Unfortunately we were in town while Ho was not, as his body is taken to Russia each year between September and December for restorative purposes. We therefore turned north of the mausoleum to where stands the house and offices lived in and used by Ho Chi Minh while in office as President. Entry (₫20,000) allowed access to the grounds of the palace, the offices in which he received guests, a garage containing three of his cars and the simple wooden stilt house in which he lived. These buildings surrounded a small lake, and made for a very pleasant afternoon stroll, a haven in the middle of a bustling city. After attempting to capture some culture on camera at the One Pillar Pagoda (and failing - we blame 'poor light'), we walked to the Ho Chi Minh museum hoping to learn more about the most revered man in Vietnamese history. ₫20,000 and approximately an hour and a half later, we were none the wiser. The first area we came to was an exhibition on the moral example shown by Ho Chi Minh, and how it should be followed. Unfortunately the selection of letters and exhibits were only in Vietnamese, so after browsing the pictures and guessing at the captions, we moved on to the museum proper. In the central atrium stands a large bronze statue of Ho Chi Minh, while surrounding it on the second floor is a collection of exhibits depicting, often in a rather abstract fashion, the situation of the Vietnamese people during different eras of French colonisation. Dotted across the floor were large laminated booklets to leaf through, containing quotes made by Ho Chi Minh on the subject of Vietnam's revolution, and various letters written by Minh and other revolutionary leaders. But with the letters largely in Vietnamese, the displays generally falling in the 'quirky' category and no real attempt being made at catering for those without a prior knowledge of what they were seeing, we were soon scratching our heads, feeling a bit embarrassed. The walk back to our hotel for free beer o'clock involved several daring slow walks across busy roads in rush hour traffic. Fortunately the previous 8 months in Asia have prepared us for crossing crazy roads, and we now believe ourselves to be pretty adept at making our way slowly across streams of traffic in the knowledge that if you just keep going, motorbikes will avoid you. At least Dave's skills seem pretty well honed - Jenna usually just holds onto Dave and relies on his superior masculine speed judgement* to take her safely across to the other pavement. (*Superiority being a term suggested by evolutionary psychology rather than Jenna). After several beers, we walked to a cafe adjacent to St Joseph's Cathedral and tucked into some Pho. The following day we enjoyed breakfast and packed our bags ready for our evening departure. Since we haven't sent anything home since Nepal, we've accumulated a decent amount of souvenirs and trinkets from our time in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, which, in addition to weighting our bags down are making packing increasingly arduous since we have to try to squeeze everything in. Since we'd managed to acquire a gift for a friend at home from the CIMB Classic, we'd decided we'd post a timely package back to the UK. However, upon enquiry at the Post Office we found that anything other than an express service will take at least a month. With Charlie joining us and returning home within the month, we decided to send our important cargo with her. After a saunter round the lake and another pit stop at the hostel we ventured to Hoa Lo Prison Museum, the remains of the building ironically dubbed 'Hanoi Hilton' by American solders imprisoned there during the American-Vietnam War. With a chequered history as both a prison for Americans and Vietnamese Revolutionaries during French occupation until 1954, exhibits are varied. Some detail the torturous treatment of the Vietnamese by the French, while others portray the kindliness with which American POW's were treated by the Vietnamese. Tiring of evident propaganda which evidenced medical treatment of Senator John McCain but made no mention of the torture he endured during his time in the prison, we left with the feeling that museums in Hanoi could be a little bit more informative. We walked back to the tree fringed lake area in search of 'Fanny's' - a famous cafe serving French ice cream. The walk unfortunately proved to be fruitless - despite positive publicity in the 2006 Lonely Planet the cafe had closed. Instead after passing Thap Rua (Tortoise Tower) we found an ice team stall and settled down in the afternoon sun with a view of the Ngoc Son Temple. Here we contemplated a return to work in January, and after deliberation, made a decision not to. A weight was lifted from our shoulders as the sun set over the lake, and we went to a cafe with internet to confirm the news. Chancing upon an all you can eat pizza pasta restaurant buffet, we filled ourselves up on salad and carbs before collecting our bags and walking through the city to the train station. Platform 6 proved to be a decent distance and several train tracks over from the main station, which thankfully we managed to negotiate without too much difficulty. For the first time on our trip, our beds were in a compartment with 4 others, sectioned off from the corridor by a sliding door. We smiled at our friendly overnight companions and stowed our bags underneath the lower bunk before settling down to write diaries and blog before bed. Our compartment companions talked quietly on mobile phones, and as bedtime approached, asked if they could borrow Jenna's flip flops to go to the bathroom, so as to save them tying shoelaces - more evidence of a considerate, unassuming, welcoming local population. As bedtime approached, we snuggled down under duvets and rested our head on pillows, ready for our first overnight journey in Vietnam.