You can have baguette and eat your rice too!
Trip Start
Jun 05, 2008
1
31
38
Trip End
Sep 28, 2008
Hanoi,
Vietnam
Thursday, October 16, 2008
But first, that meant braving Ho Chi Minh, a city that to me upon arrival first felt like India. Upon jumping into a van to my hostel, I am blatantly and unabashedly ripped off by my driver, paying 50,000 Vietnamese dollars compared to the 35,000 VND paid by everybody else. It's okay though--- 16000 VND = 1 USD so I'm not really bothered. The ride proves to be interesting as many drivers seem to not have had proper lessons in brake techniques. And this city by far has the most motorcycle/moped traffic than I've ever seen! Squeezing in between any space available, pushing pushing to get forward. It's an aggressive city, honking and blaring, and mini bike crashes abound. I'm surprised to actually find my hostel...and while the street signs are relatively impossible to pronounce, at least there are street signs.
Hanoi Backpacker's Hostel is tucked away in a little alleyway and abounds with foreigners and some locals coming and going and many just doing nothing. The night is spent wandering to a local restaurant nearby serving up delicious Vietnamese food and then coming downstairs to a local Bia Hoi vendor. In Vietnam there are these beer stalls that sell you beer for about 24 cents a beer! Tourists and locals alike frequent this corner of the Hanoi Old Quarter to socialize, catch up, and perhaps oogle at the largeness of the Duth and German people that I am with. Women selling day old donuts covered in sugar or caramel make their rounds through our group while I chat it up with two local Hanoi guys.
One, is a university student studying geology and loves Yokohama Japan! His friend, a beatboxer/DJ/popper/notsurewhatelse speaks only a little English though does offer me the chance to "Fly" as he flaps his arms...a reference to the availability of Special K for only $10 a pill. I decline but am intrigued that he'd offer me Special K before any other of those good ol' "Gateway" drugs such as marijuana. He's never heard of it. Only heroin, cocaine, crystal meth, and Special K. I guess the streets are pretty rough in Hanoi. That's how it is I guess.
The next morning I head off to the Thai Embassy to get my Thai visa. I end up walking the 30 minutes there and strolling along wide laned streets shaded by enormous centuries old trees and through parks with people lounging and chilling.
In the Old Quarter where I am staying, the roads are narrow, the street stalls are crowded, but it is super stimulating and I wander through the many awesome art galleries in the Old Quarter. Some art is sold here for a few hundred dollars sells for thousands in the US and Singapore. There is traditional Vietnamese lacquered pieces that have crushed eggshells lacquered into the work and red ceramics. It's stunning! In the Old Quarter where streets are not very long and seem to wind back on each other, eachstreet seems to sell one thing. There's a fruit smoothie street selling fresh mixed fruits covered with crushed ice and condensed milk (delicious on a hot polluted Hanoi day), there are other streets selling solely car parts, clothing, pots and pans, jewelry, etc. I guess no one told them to diversify...but I guess if one store doesn't have it, the other does :)
Visited the Hanoi Hilton, one of the largest prisons in Vietname, built by the French to imprison Vietnamese revolutionaries who yearned for independence. Also home for a few years to American pilots who were shot down over Vietnam during the "War in 'Nam." Pretty anti-American, nationalist, and anti-French. But what can you expect! The conditions seemed pretty atrocious but I can only assume that there are few prisons, globally, that could be called 1 star hotels. Though there was photographic evidence of US soldiers celebrating Christmas, playing pool, hanging out, laughing, and getting five=star medical treatment...whereas under French treatment, Vietnamese prisoners were tortured, executed, and eked out a miserable existence. It's hard to say whats true, whats not, and what is sort-of.
