Hanoi Part II: Motorcycle Craziness

Sunday

When we spend a week in a single place, we like to try and shoehorn in a day of rest, so we don't become burnt out and to catch up on 'admin' such as blogs, photos, communication with home and watching films. Today was one of those days, we got through a few films after breakfast. While we had been away from the hotel in Ha Long bay the wifi had gone down, so it only really worked while we're sat in the lobby. After we'd watched one film, we dashed out to the supermarket to pick up some instant noodles for lunch and retired to the comfort of our room. With one more film finished we decided to head downstairs to actually be productive on our day of rest. Blogging took up most of the time, while Charlotte tried uploading some photos. Before we knew it the day was almost over, so we're planning to head out to a restaurant and pick something up. It was now Charlotte's turn to feel a bit on the poorly side. We relaxed on the bed and before we knew it dinner time was long gone. A second night with no dinner, we needed to pull our fingers out and get back into a routine.

Monday

It was time to be keen again, get out and see what Hanoi had to offer.  After breakfast, we browsed the map and drew up a plan for the day. First up, was Tran Quic pagoda. We followed our squiggly line on the map as best we could but the map itself was terrible, missing out loads of the minor roads in the city. After dodging thousands of Motorbikes and Scooters, who seem to make up their own road rules as they go, we stumbled across our destination. The pagoda is located on as island, off a road dividing 2 lakes, West Lake and Truc Bach Lake. As we got on to the road dividing the lakes, we were accosted by a local selling fruit from her carrying pole. Before I knew what was happening, she had the pole on my shoulder and also her rather stylish pointy hat atop my head. She was obviously after a bit of money, so Charlotte and I both took pictures of one another, then she tried to sell us half the fruit she was carrying. A bunch of bruised bananas and an entire pineapple made their way into a bag and shoved into our hands and we were told they would cost us 100,000 dong (£3). Forever the grumpy ones, we said no way, not really in the mood for loads of pineapple and rather bruised bananas. We negotiated the deal and just went for her 2 best looking bananas and the photos we'd taken and gave her 50,000 dong for her troubles. We carried on along the road slightly taken aback by what had just happened. As we were walking to the Pagoda, we passed another couple, of which the lady was carrying a bag of bananas and pineapple, nice to see we weren't the only ones to get caught. The pagoda actually turned out to be rather underwhelming, it had a nice location but compared to previous ones we'd seen it was quite small. Still worth a visit though, we got some snaps and headed back the way we came.

Anywhere you go in Vietnam, you can't get away from 2 names. Nguyen (40% of the population have this surname and I'm pretty sure there are people called Nguyen Nguyen, I'm not sure even Smith reaches these lofty heights back home) and Ho Chi Minh (that's not his real name mind, no prizes for guessing that that contained Nguyen). Ho Chi Minh was a communist revolutionary, former president and prime minster of North Vietnam. So revered was he that not only did they embalm his body and put him on show in his own mausoleum (similar to Lenin and Mao (I'm noticing a pattern here, I wonder if Fidel Castro will get one in Havana) but they renamed Saigon Ho Chi Minh City after the end of the Vietnam War. Anyway, Mr.Minh was currently out of town, receiving "restoration" in Russia, so we only got to admire the outside of his rather impressive resting place. It is located in the square where Ho Chi Minh read the Declaration of Independence in 1945. There wasn't much to see here, apart from the mausoleum, obviously, so we carried on round and saw what looked like a huge sports stadium. We started to approach it but were turned away by someone who said it was closed on Mondays so we had no choice but to turn around. We consulted our map and found a route back into the centre of town, that took us past the old citadel, intentionally skirting it as that was our prime stop for our next stop in Hué. Lunch had been and gone by this point and we were starving. As ever, the recomended places to eat are a fair stroll away but we picked one and went for it. On our way we walked down one of the main shopping streets, which seemed to be focused on tourists. We took the time to have a thorough look for a pin badge. In a communist country it's pretty easy to find a pin badge but not necessarily ones with 'Hanoi' written on them. In fact, we weren't surprised when the majority portrayed Ho Chi Minh and his big, cheesy grin. We left the shopping street slightly disappointed but still knew we had one more day to try and find one. Our lunch choice wasn't as we had expected it to be. It was just a cart on the side of a quiet street selling Banh Mi, a Vietnamese sandwich. We took a seat on the tiniest chairs ever and waited for our sandwich to arrive. It only cost us 20,000 dong ( under 60p) for a good sized baguette with ample filling and we even had a free black tea thrown in as well. When we left the owner said "see you again" and he was correct, he would. With the sun quickly descending, we made a break for the supermarket through the chaotic rush hour traffic. Picking up the usual suspects of water, mixed with the occasional treat like a bag of Haribo. We made it home just about, despite a few near misses in the traffic. Dinner that night was our local one, 16 foods, plumping for marinated meat and rice, while Charlotte went for a fried rice dish.

Tuesday

In a desperate bid to find a pin badge on our final day in Hanoi, we took one of our other ones down to the receptionist to ask her if she knew where we might find one. She didn't have a clue and for the first time since we'd been in the hotel, she seemed slightly grumpy. We headed out still hopeful we'd pick one up. Our itinerary wasn't huge for today so we wandered down towards the central lake in the direction of the French Quarter. After we'd crossed the melee that is a Hanoi roundabout and made it to the lakeside, we started round in our intended direction. Suddenly, Charlotte ran off to a gift shop. Out of the corner of her eye, she had glimpsed a collection of badges hanging from a piece of card. Somewhat fortuitously we managed to pick up a Hanoi one, with an image of the logo of the temple of literature on it. Despite the shopkeepers protests on the price already being as low as she could go we insisted on bartering as they were quite expensive compared to most others we'd picked up. She tried to persuade us to have a look round the rest of her wares to try and recoup some dong but we were already on our way with our purchase. The French Quarter was at the other end of the lake, so we skirted half of it and left it behind us. The good thing about the French Quarter was that it contained walkable pavements, so we weren't mingling with the mopeds on the roads all the time. The bad thing about it, was that there was hardly anyone around. We had a look at the Opera house, which was the main draw and then decided to find a cafe to get lunch and have a cold drink. After that, we walked around looking for things to do but couldn't really find anything. We found a bakery inside a deserted shopping centre and had a sweet treat after our lunch. We weren't surprised to see the mall empty as all the shops were top of the range designer ones, which 99% of people at home can't afford, let alone in Vietnam! Unimpressed by the French Quarter we decided to leave it behind us and mingle once more with the littered streets of Hanoi in search of the temple of literature. It turned out to be more of a trek than expected but we had a spare afternoon, so we stuck with it. We paid the entrance fee and started to have a nose around. The temple is almost 1000 years old and also hosts Vietnam's first national university. The first couple of areas consisted of just gardens and what we later discovered was called "The Well of Heavenly Clarity". It was a nice area to have a wander in, away from the dinh of traffic noise despite being in the centre of the city. The final area was the temple itself. Before we had a look around we went into on of the shops at the side to buy some more water and a cold drink each. We tried paying with a 200,000 Dong note (about £6). Some kind person had punched a hole in Ho Chi Minh's face though and the cashier absolutely refused to accept. We asked why but all she could say back was no. We went to the shop opposite and tried again. We got the same result there. We got a bit angry at this point as it was a perfectly good note, with just a small hole missing. We were never going to prevail though and decided to give up. We did have stalled money but refused to use it as there was nothing wrong with the 200,000. We were annoyed now and it affected us in making the most of the temple. We were also completely out of water so only had a quick look round and headed back in the direction of home and a supermarket. Along the way we popped in a small shop to try our luck again and get a cold drink. This time, without hesitation(I'm not sure she even looked at it), the cashier took it and it was out of our hands. After a supply run to the big supermarket we headed back to our hotel for the final time. We visited our usual restaurant that night and we were pleased to see the recptionist from our hotel there as well, in a much cheerier mood than earlier that morning. It is always reassuring to see locals who recomended a place eating there as well.

James and Charlotte

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all who read. Hope you all have a great time and a tasty Christmas dinner, just like we did! This is probably the first Christmas Day we've both spent in shorts and flip flops, I hope the weather isn't too dismal where you are!

Lots of Love from sunny Siem Reap

James and Charlotte

Hanoi Part I: Good Morning, Vietnam!

Tuesday

We had a long, tiring journey ahead of us before we'd arrive in Hanoi, so we stocked up on pancakes for breakfast before we departed. First up was a 40 minute walk to the train station, fully laden with backpacks, food and drink for the journey. We were pretty drenched with perspiration by the time we arrived at the station, but start how you mean to go on. We had a brief wait for our bullet train that would take us to the southern Chinese city of Nanning. I'm not sure what it is about Chinese people and reclining seats but they seem to think that they must put there seats back, as though it's an obligation. So we had to stare at the dandruff of our neighbours the whole way. We arrived in Nanning and it was noticeably warmer than the slightly more Northern Guilin. We trudged out of the station (for some reason, you have no choice, you have to exit to reenter) and found our way through the unecessarily complicated maze to get back in the station, stopping along the way to pick up some refreshments. We had a 6 hour wait at Nanning station, so we passed the time by reading, eating and having staring contests with the ever inquisitive Chinese people. Eventually, the time came around and we were ready to board our train. By the look of the queue for our carriage we were on the "foreigner" one. This train was the most awkward of any sleeper we had been on so far. First up, it arrived at the Chinese border at 10pm, which is when you want to be settling down to a bumpy nights sleep. We all trudged off into the humid evening and dealt with the formalities of leaving China. With this done, we all paraded back on to the train for the next crossing. The train crawled across the border, taking almost an hour to arrive at the Vietnamese side. Again, we trudged across the train tracks to border control. This one was a little more complicated, as we had to hand our passports in one by one, they would be scrutinised infront of all of us, then handed back one by one in country order. Fortunately, the only 2 UK passports came back pretty rapidly after the Chinese and Vietnamese ones. We made it back on the train about 1 am with a short window of opportunity to get some sleep.

Wednesday

The train pulled into Gia Lam train station at 5:30 am. Rather than set us down at Gia Hanoi in the centre of the city, Gia Lam is located 3-4 miles out of town. It was pitch black and we didn't have 1 Vietnamese Dong to our name. This made getting a taxi or a motorbike impossible. We took a seat in the station building to allow time for the sun to come up and give us some light to see. At about 10 past 6 we set off on our walk to the city centre. Fortunately, we'd had the foresight to plan it and vaguely knew the route we needed to take. It was pretty humid in this part of the world, so all the sweat that has dried into our tshirts was just being added to. After about a mile, large blobs of rain started to fall and started to get harder and harder until we were stuck in one of South-East Asia's infamous downpours. We thought it was supposed to be the dry seasons! We took shelter under a shop awning and considered our position. I had the benefit of waterproof covers on both my bags but Charlotte didn't have that luxury. Instead, she made clever use of a black bin liner and ripped it so it would cover her bag and keep it dry, add to that her trusty umbrella. And we were good to carry on. We were heading for the river, as we need or cross it to get into central Hanoi and to our relief along the long straight road we could see the structure of one in the distance. We ploughed on through the pouring rain, not worrying about it as we were already soaking wet from sweat. We reached the bridge and were thoroughly disappointed to find out that it was the wrong one. There was no pavement and just a constant stream of motorbikes and cars. We noticed a sign to one side, telling us that the bridge we needed was 1km further up the river, so we started on our way. It was just starting to stop raining, which made the going a bit more bearable. We reached the bridge and preceded to do the most 'backpacking' thing we had done so far. Sweating buckets, in the drizzle, we trudged across Long Bien bridge. It was rush hour, so there were thousands of scooters and motorbikes buzzing past us, as we walked along the narrow pavement, which was just a row of paving slabs on the side of the bridge, next to a railing, balanced precariously on thin supports. Nothing below us but 30 foot of air and the murky brown waters of the Red River flowing past. Some of the paving slabs were in need of a bit of repair or just replacement, almost ready to crash into the waters below. With the traffic next to us unrelenting, we had no choice but to stick to this precarious platform. Charlotte rushed ahead, not a fan of bridges or heights and just wanting to get off it. I too wasn't keen but tried to enjoy the situation, experiencing some proper backpacking. The bridge went on forever and ever but eventually we reached its end and followed the slip road off. We had to rush through the traffic to reach the other side of the road, luckily they try to avoid you as much as you do them. It was an easy walk to our hotel and a welcome relief to dump the backpacks. We were soaking though and the staff were kind enough to offer us both a shower as our room wasn't ready. It was cold, but after being so hot it felt great to freshen up. We got our room not long after and settled down for some rest and relaxation.

We slept for most of the day that is to the lack of it we got on our overnight train. We awoke in need of some money and food. The shop was a short walk away, so we headed out into the darkening Hanoi evening. The one thing we noticed was the traffic here. It was just chaos, not a traffic light to be seen and they all seemed unsure about what side of the road they drive on. Just as we got to the ATM machine, one of those 'showers' started up again. We thought it would only be a short one so decided to wait it out until it had blown over. We waited and waited but for a good hour it didn't relent. We deicded to just go for it and if we got wet, so be it. The shop was only a short dash away so it wasn't too bad. We picked up some snacks and water to tide us over. The rain had eased to a drizzle by the time we left the shop, so, as quickly as we could through the traffic, ran home to dry off and clean our filthy feet as we thought flip flops would be a bright idea. We went out for dinner but went to the wrong place, next to our intended target, rather than admit our mistake we stuck with it though. We had a bowl of noodles, with prawns and what looked like creepy crawlers wriggling around in there but I ate mine anyway. Charlotte wasn't overly keen on hers, so had to leave some. We were still exhausted despite our long snooze earlier, collapsed straight into bed.

Thursday

Suitably refreshed after a good night sleep we got up for our fried breakfast. Unbelievably, although it was my turn, I'd started to fill ill again, so shaving the beard hadn't helped. We wanted to get out and about anyway and after breakfast headed out on to the crazy streets of Hanoi old town. Dodging the endless scooters we walked down the main shopping street towards Hoan Kiem lake, right in the centre of Hanoi. The lake is a focal point for the people of Hanoi and a frequent meeting point. Compared to the day before, it was windy and a little bit chilly but the walk around the lake was still pleasant, maybe just nice to get away from the constant traffic. On our circuit we took some snaps with a statue and the turtle tower which is located in the centre of the lake on an unreachable island. We got collared by a group of Vietnamese school children who wanted a photo, so we let them as they said it was for school reasons. We completed our walk around the lake and then headed to a larger supermarket to see if we could get some better selection. We'd heard that Vietnam was really cheap but since we'd been here we hadn't been convinced by that. We kept our purchases limited so as not to spend much and then headed home, I was already worn out. When we got back to the hotel we booked an excursion for the next couple of days in order to get out of the hustle and bustle of the city. We relaxed for the rest of the day, watching films and writing blogs. We went to a restaurant called 16 foods for dinner and enjoyed some Pho, which is a famous Vietnamese noodle dish. Despite being full, we were still eyeing up the huge saucepan of boiled rice though. We enjoyed our dinner with a nice, cold Bia Hanoi.

Friday

Today we were off to Ha Long bay. Still ill, I wasn't really feeling up for it but they only sail when the weather is nice. The forecast for Sunday/Monday wasn't great, so we had to plump for the Friday departure. Ha Long bay is located in North-East Vietnam, not too far from the border with China. It boasts almost 2000 islands and rock formations made from limestone. We were staying overnight on a boat due to the bay being a four hour coach ride from Hanoi. It was horrendous, there was no leg room whatsoever and each seat had something protruding from it, so it wasn't comfortable. We squirmed and fidgeted our way there and were eternally grateful to escape the nightmare; hopefully the boat would be slightly more bearable. After a little bit of hanging around we hopped on a small boat to reach the much larger one we'd be spending the night on. We all convened in the restaurant to be given a vague itinerary for the trip and allocated our rooms. We hadn't paid any extras, so we weren't expecting anything special for accommodation. It was a pleasant surprise when we were told we were on the fourth floor, the one above the restaurant. This meant we were guaranteed a sea view, something we thought you'd have to pay extra for. We all dispersed to inspect our quarters. Ours was fantastic, huge windows with views of the bay as we sailed through, comfortable bed and a nice big bathroom. So much more than we had expected. Once our room had received our approval, it was back down to the restaurant for lunch. The surprises kept on coming, lunch consisted of about 10 dishes that would be placed on our table and we'd share between the four of us. We were joined by a couple travelling together, one from Singapore and one from Germany. Lunch was really enjoyable and filling, hopefully the dinner would be just as good. After lunch we had a short amount of time to ourselves, which we spent relaxing on our bed and watching the islands slowly drift past the window. Before we knew it though it was time for one of our favourite activities, Kayaking. We hopped back on the small Boat and it took us to one of a few floating villages in the bay, where locals can spend their entire lives on the water. Everyone fancied a bit of kayaking, so we all lined up and unsteadily entered our vessels. We could appreciate and admire the bay much more from our position in the small kayak. We also had great fun dodging and weaving our way round the tourist boats that get rowed by the locals. Charlotte and I could have easily spent all day on the water but only had a paltry 30 minutes. We tried to make the most of it and found a limestone archway to float around for a while. There was a rope swing hanging from the rock but we decided against using it. Before we knew it our time was up and we were rowing ourselves back toward the village. We disembarked the kayaks at a pearl farm rather than the village. The pearl farming part was interesting but the part with the really modern shop with people trying to sell us jewelry wasn't so great. To pass the time while we waited for the boat we just admired the views from the farm.

Once back on the boat we had the opportunity to go for a swim. Somehow, Charlotte and I neglected to think that we'd need our swimming costumes, add this to my already blocked ears (more on them later), we chose just to watch from the top deck. We had time to ourselves once more, which we spent relaxing in our room (it was so nice, we didn't want to not make the most of it) and exploring the boat. Before dinner, we sat outside the restaurant and watched the twinkling lights of all the boats we passed as we pulled in to anchor up for the night. Dinner just didn't meet the standard that lunch had unfortunately. There was plenty of dishes (and rice) but they just weren't comparable to the deliciousness of lunch. The pick was probably the prawns that were placed in a pan infront of us, covered in alcohol and set alight. After dinner was done we were told they would be doing karaoke in the restaurant. Everyone but the German/Singaporean couple, 2 Vietnamese men and Charlotte and I disappeared as quick as a flash. We didn't want to partake but it's always fun to watch. We stayed for a few songs, then before we could be dragged into singing 'My Way' or. 'Summer Nights' retired to our cabin, exhausted.

Saturday

We had the option to drag ourselves out of bed at half past 5 to join the Tai Chi master on the top deck for some early morning fun and games but decided to give ourselves the extra few minutes in bed and get up for breakfast at 6:30 instead. The buffet was okay, nothing too special. The plan for the morning was to go to a cave hidden somewhere in Ha Long bay. We all boarded the small boat again and got taken to join the crowds of people who also wanted to see the cave. We slowly moved with the queue up steep, rocky steps to the entrance of the cave. Unsurprisingly, the cave was pitch black inside, so Charlotte had to assist me round so I didn't have an accident or fall down a hole. From what I could see, it was rather impressive and actually in the open areas, quite well lit. We emerged, dripping in sweat and clambered down the treacherous steps to the dock to pick up our boat. Back aboard, we had a few minutes to gather our things and check out of our room. We had to settle our bar bill too, which caused a great amount of confusion. It only came to about 5 US dollars, which is about £3 but they said it would be 100,000 Vietnamese Dong. We'd been running on 14,000 Dong is £1, which would have meant we'd actually paid about £7. We paid and sat down, trying to get out heads around it. We both agreed we should go back up and question there exchange rates but before I did I had a quick check on my iPad. It's lucky I did otherwise we would have looked like idiots, It was a slightly old rate as I hadn't had wifi for a while but £1 actually equaled about 34,000 Dong. We weren't even close, God knows where we got out original figure from. That made our bill pretty accurate so we left it be. It also made Vietnam from then onwards, a damn sight cheaper! Our final activity was a brief cooking class in which we all made ourselves a fresh spring roll, filled with veg and wrapped in rice paper. It was a little bit fiddly but we got the hang of it. I'd like to say they were delicious but I'd be lying. They had a funny taste and we both agreed that they are much better deep fried and hot. We sat down to lunch as we steamed for Ha Long City to catch our bus back to Hanoi. Again, the Lunch was great, so dinner must have just been a blip. Despite our hopes, the bus hadn't got any comfiest since the day before, so we struggled home just in time to meet the Hanoi rush hour. We were so tired when we got home, we couldn't even stir ourselves to go out and get some dinner. We made do with what we had in, which was pretty much crisps and cookies (such a life!).

James and Charlotte