Hello Hanoi
Trip Start
Dec 26, 2007
1
17
19
Trip End
Ongoing
Hanoi,
Vietnam
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Hanoi, the former capital of North Vietnam, and the current capital of unified Vietnam is quite a different city than its southern neighbor Ho Chi Minh City. Hanoi doesn't seem to be as modern and is much more condensed than the spread out HCMC. You can really feel a different vibe here that is hard to explain. On my first day in town, I just wandered through the winding streets of the city
Chinese checkers in Hanoi
. Many of the streets are narrow and the sidewalks are filled with goods flowing out of the stores so that most of the time, you are forced to share the side of the street with the hundreds of drivers on their motorbikes. In the middle of Hanoi is a famous lake, Hoan Kiem Lake (Lake of the Restored Sword). The legend is that a sword was sent by heaven to Emperor Le Loi in the 15th century. Le Loi fought and drove the Chinese out of Vietnam but one day while walking by the lake, a giant turtle came out of the water and took the sword to the bottom of the lake. There are still giant turtles that you can see in the lake today that live to be very old. In the middle of the lake are two islands. The larger one has a small temple on it and the other has a small tower known as Thap Rua or Tortoise Tower. This tower is a trademark of Hanoi.
The next day was my birthday. Fortunately I wasn't alone because two cool Canadian girls (Raven and Katie) that I had med on a bus ride earlier on in Vietnam were there to celebrate with me. They even bought me a nice Vietnamese silk tie. We went out to a great Vietnamese water puppet show late that evening. Water puppetry is a Vietnamese art that has been performed for around 1000 years. The puppeteers stand chest deep in water behind a curtain that they are able to see out of but the audience is unable to see them. They hold bamboo poles with puppets carved from wood on the other end. They are able to make the puppets dance and act out many different scenes in Vietnamese culture. I had reserved some tickets earlier in the day so we were able to get front row seats. There is also a live band that provides the music and the little dialogue that is in the scenes. The whole event is a great example of Vietnamese culture
John McCain's uniform at the "Hanoi Hilton"
.I had seen a movie one time called, Indochine, it was about a French officer and a Vietnamese girl during the time of French colonization. At one point during the movie, they are running from the French and are on a boat surrounded by mountains of limestone towering out of the clear blue water. It was a really unique landscape and I remember thinking to myself, "Man, I'd really like to see this place." Once in Vietnam, I found out that "This place" is called Halong Bay and is about 3 and a half hours from Hanoi. The word halong, translates, "where the dragon meets the sea." It was believed that a dragon lived in the mountains and when it would fly, its tail would hit the earth and create depressions that filled with water leaving only the high lands dry. There are a lot of travel agents that book all inclusive tours out of Hanoi to Halong Bay that include your transportation, food, lodging on a boat, kayaking, and whatever else you want to pay for but I decided I would try to wing it and see what kind of a bargain I could get by just showing up. I paid for a van to Halong Bay but when I got there, I found out that hardly anyone tries to do it the way that I did and learned quickly that it was going to be difficult. All of the people, hundreds of them, who had already booked their all inclusive tours, were lined up being ushered to the docks where they boarded their boats. I, however, walked around trying to find someone who might sell me a spot on a boat that wasn't already full. I finally managed to find two guys who said they worked for some of the boats and could offer me a place on their boat. However, the prices they were quoting me were already more expensive than what I could have paid back in Hanoi. Eventually, I landed a spot on the same boat with a group that I had ridden the bus out to Halong Bay with. I settled with the guy for one day/two nights, all food, ride back to Hanoi, Kayaking, and caves for 50 dollars
Clingy
. I gave him the 50 dollars and he gave me a receipt. After waiting around in the port for a bit, we took off towards the islands.The islands and scenery were of course even more amazing in real life than in the movie. There are literally thousands and thousands of islands dotted all around. They are mostly inhabitable and covered only with rocks and short shrubs. We stopped at one island to walk through some caves that had some nice stalactites and other cool cave formations. They were illuminated with lights of all different colors for an added effect. After the caves, we got back on the boat and worked out way around some of the islands to a place where we could go kayaking. We stayed there for a couple of hours and then found another bay to anchor up in for the night. Looking at the antique ships lit up at night was amazing as well. We all just sat on the top of the boat talking and taking in the scenery. The next morning, the boat worked its way back through the islands until we finally reached the port again. The entire trip was breathtaking.
The whole trip would have been a success had it not been for the "tour guide" trying to pull a slick one on me at the end of the trip. Two ladies from Switzerland and I had bought our tickets at the port instead of through a travel agent like I said before. So, on our way back to the port the guy came up to us and told us that we had to pay something like 10 dollars extra for the cave entrance fee. After I realized that he was being serious, I just told him no, that we weren't going to pay it because it was included in the tour price. He kept trying to argue with us and the ladies were getting all upset. I had to calm them down and tell them not to worry. If the guy kept pushing the issue once we got back, then we would just walk off of the boat and find the tourist police (I was assuming that there were some)
Thap Rua (Tortoise Tower)
. He heckled us all the way back to the port but once we got there he didn't say anything else and we went on our way. Back in Hanoi, I had another day before I was supposed to fly back to Bangkok. I used that day to do a good tour of the city. I hired a cylco and driver for the day to take me to all of the sites. I went to the Ho Chi Minh Museum, the one pillar pagoda, the Army Museum, the Fine Arts Museum, Hoa Lo Prison (where John McCain was held as a prisoner of war), and the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum (where the body of Ho Chi Minh can be seen). It was again a very educational day all but some of the one sided presentations in the museums. By accident, I actually found out where a traditional Vietnamese theatre performance was going to be held and was able to get a ticket to it. I was disappointed to see that there were only 5 other people in the entire theatre. The show turned out to be amazing. They wore some traditional costumes and played on traditional instruments as well. I was really glad that I had found the place. Fortunately, the theatre is government run and therefore doesn't depend on funding from ticket sales which also explains why it wasn't advertised very well. Early the next morning I hopped on a bus to the airport and said goodbye to Vietnam and hello to Bangkok again.
