Monks on Motorbikes --> A Taste of Hanoi
Trip Start
Aug 18, 2003
1
6
Trip End
May 28, 2004
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Hanoi,
Vietnam
Sunday, October 5, 2003
Quick History Lesson: You can see and feel the effect of this country's past when you walk down the street. Hanoi itself is a beautiful city steeped in French and Chinese influences (colonialism/imperialism). Physically, the city architecture is distinctly French (France ruled brutally from the 1800's to the mid-1900's--hardcore exploitation and maltreatment of the people). The streets are lined with an abundance of trees and pastel yellow/blue/green colored houses, and because of city zoning rules, all the houses are extremely narrow and rise 4-7 stories high. Amidst all this "grandeur" you see a developing country at a time of intense modernization and change. The communist government only officially took power of all of Vietnam in 1975, and the concept of private land ownership (vs. communes and collective farms-- 80% of Viet people are farmers) has only been around since 1986!! Since then, household incomes and standard of living has been growing exponentially (average monthly per capita income has grown to a whopping $60/month in the city--$15/month in rural areas)...
A2 Dormitory
The US dollar goes a Long way here. My friends and I can easily afford to pick a new restaurant out of the lonely planet book every day of the week ($10 can get you into one of Hanoi's finest restaurants, my average lunch costs $0.33, a mug of Vietnam's finest beer costs $0.08 (kegs and "pubs" (bia hoi) are conveniently located on every corner, including 10 steps outside of my dorm gates:). I bought a bicycle for $25 the first week I was here... 90% of the vehicles on the road are either motorbikes (mo-peds) or bicycles, and the rest of the vehicles are either taxis or large transport trucks. Along with pubs on every corner, there are bike repair men on every corner, ready to pump a tire, change a flat, or fix a broken spoke. I've seen EVERYTHING you could imagine riding on a motorbike: 300lb pigs, 20ft. ladders, 4-people + a 6-month old baby on the lap of the driver (motorbikes typically fit 2-people comfortably), fully robed monks (great name for a band = "monks on motorbikes"), 30-inch T.V. balanced precariously on the seat behind the driver, makeshift food stalls with boiling pots of soup-- you see these things everyday and everywhere in the country...
I'm living in a large dormitory style building with other international students (Dutch, Russian, Japanese, American); the dorm next to us houses the Cambodian and Laotian students; the Vietnamese students are housed far away from us:)?. We're located near the Physics and Engineering college and are definitely in the "college town" area of Hanoi.
Bicycle and Baskets
Vietnam National University is the largest and best school in Vietnam (though difficult to compare to US schools), and requires passing a very difficult entrance exam. I'm taking language classes through the humanities college ("Dai Hoc Tieng Viet Va Van Hoa Vietnam Cho Nguoi Nuoc Ngoai" = "Viet Language at the Humanities College for Foreigners"), a 10-minute walk from my dorm room. I'm also taking 3 other classes: Economics of Sustainable Rural Agriculture in Vietnam, Modern Vietnam History (1800's-1975), and Contemporary Vietnamese History (1975-present). I take these classes with about 23 other students. 5 of them are from my program (CIEE), and the other 18 students are from the University of California school system. It's been great having the California kids around. We do almost everything together (except our trip to Saigon). I think I'm going to try to go to grad school in California now! Anyway, all of my classes are great, and give me great background and insight into what I see everyday. Other than classes, my weekdays have been filled with exploring the city (on my new $25, 1 gear, cruiser bike, and my bright orange helmet!---*colors don't exist here, everyone wears some slight variation of a grey or tan shade, and almost no one wears helmets, though most deaths are due to motorbike accidents and fatal head injuries). The traffic here is insane. There are no rules. People drive on whatever side of the road they want, and people don't stop at intersections! Just crossing the street by foot is crazy.
Bike Mechanic
The best way to do it is to pretend youˇ¦re a fish, and the motorbikes are water. Fish never swim backward; swim at a steady pace and the water will just flow around you. Looking back I realize that I had no idea what I was getting into. It's an amazing time to be in Vietnam because you can literally see the socio-economic conditions changing...People work hard in Vietnam, most work 7-days a week. Hanoi and Saigon are megalopolis's that contain most of the city dwellers in Vietnam. A majority of the people here are self-employed. Street food stalls abound, as well as other small businesses that specialize in one trade or another. It's very common for entire streets to be filled with the same kind of shop selling the exact same things (ex. Bikes, furniture, clothes, electronics, etc.). You also see women all over the sidewalks selling home-made foods, fruits, sandwiches, etc. A classic scene is a woman wearing a "rice paddy hat" walking down the street while balancing a bamboo stick over her shoulders that have baskets of food at the ends of bamboo rods. Since I don't have a school cafeteria, I eat outside at one of the food stalls for every meal, or go downtown to a nice restaurant. Taxi rides only cost about $.50 for a car load of people.
Well, that's a taste of what life in Hanoi is like. I'm trying to get some pics online, but the internet connection here is super slow. I'll keep trying, till then...
