Back to Hanoi

Trip Start Mar 10, 2007

153

Trip End ??? ??, 2007

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Flag of Vietnam Hanoi, Vietnam
Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Returning to Hanoi, i wandered around aimlessly looking for prince 57 hotel, then when i finally arrived nearby a moto driver accosted me aski9ng if i needed a cheap hotel, and when i asked what it was he said prince 57 ( what's the point of moto touting your hotel from right outside, if your gonna offer a free taxi, do it far away!). Anyway i went to get the moto taxi down the road, he moved his bike as i was getting on and this resulted in me burning the inside of my right leg on his exhaust. For those of you who have never experienced this, let me explain. The exhaust is so hot, that you skin sticks to the exhaust, then resulting in a huge blister on your leg, mine being roughly circular of about a 2 inch radius. Obviously being the scab picker i am i had to pop this, resulting in an experience i can only imagine similar to ones waters breaking (its now about 2 weeks since this happened, and due to the heat it still hasn't healed, as the scab literally melts every day and i have yellowy red ooze dribbling and setting on my leg as i walk around. Nice! Just what you want to read about at breakfast time, anyone having a tomato omelet it looks like that, only runnier.).
In the evening i went to the water puppet theatre (no I'm not gay, its one of those 'cultural experiences' everyones reads about and thinks they have to do in Hanoi, but if you go and don't do it, don't worry, your not missing out), which was a strange experience to say the least, though executed rather well.

one pillar pagoda

The puppets are controlled by eleven puppeteers, who stand in waist deep water behind a screen and control the puppets using long poles (disguised by the murky water) or special floats. The scenes they play out are of Vietnamese myths and legends i think, and some relate to the Hoam Kiem and Ho Tay lakes in Hanoi. I personally thought the whole experience was a little too camp, but thats just my opinion; the German girl next to me was laughing her head off, genuinely loving it, so see it yourself before you decide about it. Had dinner with a friend who i keep meeting along the way in different towns (here she walked into my dorm to see what it was like 5 mins after i got there) then we went for a bia hoi. At the Bia Hoi junction i saw a Vietnamese girl who i had seen there before, who claimed she was going to Sapa the same time i was, and we had said we would stay at the same hotel. She claimed she had been there and was looking for me, and that i didn't turn up. Her story however continuously produced holes and it was fairly obviously she was bullshitting, though i couldn't be bothered to pull her up on this, so i just agreed.
'Where are you off to next?' She asked.
'I'm off to Hue tomorrow then Hoi an' came my reply, to which she said ecstatically
'Mee too! So where are you gonna stay, stay here' pointing to the guidebook, 'and where do you stay tonight?'
God I'm naive, but it finally hit me 'hang on a second, i see what's going on here, shes supposedly going where i am, staying where i am, shes buying me beers, asking me to email her, and very interested in wot I'm doing tonight.

uncle ho's mausoleum

And why does she only talk to blokes who walk past, not giving girls the time of day. She's a fucking prostitute you idiot! Brilliant idea of hers though, buy people a few beers for 7p a glass, get them loosened up, pretend your going all the same places as them and you wanna travel together so there more likely to wanna share a room etc, find out where there staying and see if they take the bait, then stick them with a hefty bill at the end of the night. If they don't bite, hey its only 7p a beer, eventually someone will bite.
        On that note i left and went to bed.
       Day 2 was going to be another bicycle riding day, checking out uncle Ho's mausoleum and a few other sites. Didn't start too well though as i arrived to Ho's mausoleum only to find that it closes at 11am, and hence was shut. Bugger. Anyway checked out a few pagodas, Lenin's statue, rode around the lakes and that was about it really. Not too exciting. Departed the next day for Hue.
My dorm room i was staying in throughout this second time in Hanoi provided some 'experiences', though not ones which I'd care to repeat. The room itself had a door, but it wouldn't shut and was stuck wide open, so a curtain was there to protect ones modesty (which in fairness, it did pretty well). However the Guest house also had a litter of cats, which it seems take priority over the guests and are allowed to roam free around the guest house, and as my dorm has no door, into my dorm as well (which they frequently do). Hence i was woken up at all hours of the night both days by the cats fighting and wining like only cats can do (similar to those cats we hear outside ruddlesway corrin, though imagine it coming from under your bed!). On the first day i also returned to the dorm to find that one of the cats had puked up all over one of the beds, though thankfully not mine. Told reception, expecting a shocked and apologetic response,but i was met with 'oh, ok, thanks.' As if i had just told them a light bulb needed changing. Guess it happens all the time I thought.
        That thought was confirmed the following morning when i returned from breakfast the following morning to find the bloody cats sitting there (yeah i hate cats anyway, there evil and always scheming and plotting something), with a dead rat at the foot of my bed, playing with it. Bac to reception; 'oh, ok, thanks.'

Don't stay at the Prince 57 hotel, there dorm is cheap for a reason. Stay across the road they also have dorms (i later found out).