Hanoi
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Hanoi,
Vietnam
Thursday, June 9, 2005
Arrived in Hanoi very early in the morning by sleeper train - a very comfortable, if more expensive alternative to the 16-hour overnight bus. I was sharing a 4-berth cabin with a Vietnamese family (two little girls, mother and grandfather) who didn't really speak any English and had so much luggage that I had to sleep curled up with my rucksack at the end of my berth. Could have been worse - I thought at one point the father and his friend were going to be sharing our cabin too!
The little girls were obviously very excited at travelling by train and a little bit in awe of me, but I played peek-a-boo with the younger one and taught the elder one a few colours in English, encouraged by her mother.
The train rumbled past the huge Lenin Park, in the suburbs of the city at about 5.15am, where seemingly the whole city was out exercising - jogging, practising tai chi and flag dancing movements, playing badminton - or trying to sell food to the exercisers!
Determined to avoid all the hotel and guesthouse touts at the train station I headed off through the crowds to the other side of the road, only to be followed by one of them who was trying to persuade me to go to the 'Red River Hotel' in the old quarter. As it was about the right price and in a good location - and I'd had the Red River Hotel recommended as a place to book a Halong Bay tour, I gave in. I insisted on walking, rather than loading myself and all my bags onto his moto and - bless him! - he walked all the way there with me (which must have meant he had to walk back to collect the moto afterwards.
The hotel was on "Bat Dan" street, meaning "wooden bowls" - a hangover from the time when guilds of craftsmen were in charge of this part of Hanoi and named each street after their trade. All of the streets still bear their names and many still have rows of shops relating to the trade along them - clothes, shoes, jewellry, china bowls, metalwork, tin boxes, rope, etc - although I suspect the motorbike repair shop street may not have been one of the originals.
I spent my first day wandering the streets of the old quarter, vaguely following the Lonely Planet's walking tour and generally getting my bearings in the old quarter, which has quite a 'small town' feel to it, compounded by the fact that I bumped into lots of people that I'd met further south in Vietnam as I was walking around. Not too different from Louth, really!
The real centre of the city is Hoan Kiem Lake, which connects the old quarter to the business district. The name "Hoan Kiem" means "Lake of the Returned Sword", as according to local legend, a turtle swimming in the lake returned the emperor's sword to him when it was thrown in the lake. Apparently there are still turtles in the lake, although it didn't look like anything could possibly be thriving in the murky green waters to me! Proof of sorts came with a huge stuffed turtle on display at a pagoda on an island in the middle of the lake.
I wandered out to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum complex late in the afternoon, to be informed by the noticeboard that it was only open until 11am each day.
On day two, I spent a couple of hours at the Thai embassy filling in forms for an extended visa for Thailand, then failed to see Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum for the second time, as it turned out to be only open until 10.30am, not 11, despite the noticeboard outside.
So instead I went to what must be my 'spiritual home' - Hanoi's Temple of Literature. Formerly Vietnam's first university, it is now a temple dedicated to Confucius and learning, which provides an oasis of calm in the middle of the hectic city.
I'd arranged to meet Aaron to book a Halong Bay trip and after a catalogue of errors, where we kept just missing each other at my hotel (which the receptionist thought was highly amusing), we managed to meet up in the evening of my second day in Hanoi and book a trip for the following three days.
In fact, Aaron showed up in much need of a beer or two after dealing with the jokers working at his hotel. The three guys working on reception had invited him out to eat snake with them (a delicacy here). He was quite keen to try snake - and mix with the locals - but realised as they were telling him to get more money that he was going to be expected to pay for everyone. He decided that he'd still go, even when it also became apparent that they were expecting him to pay for transport to the restaurant as well. When it transpired that the transport was actually a car belonging to one of the guys themselves, that was one liberty too far for Aaron! (We found out later that the guidebooks warn you against this type of scam.)
Cathy
