Order in the Chaos

  Hanoi, Vietnam
Sunday, November 9, 2008

06. Inside the temple of Literature

Having been fully warned about the rigours of Hanoi we were prepared for the worst. Luckily only our arrival was slightly marred by a tout driven tour company trying to herd us to their hotel. We were told that our bus had arrived late and therefore needed to stop slightly outside of the old town. We were assured we would be offered free taxi rides to the promised drop-off point. However it transpired that the taxi would only be free if we would go to view their hotel. As we were adamant we wanted to find our own accommodation, we were told to take our own cab. Stubbornly we humped off to our chosen destination. We meant to complain, but never did find their offices!

With the initial stress of arriving and finding accommodation we were pleasantly surprised by Hanoi. It is a huge sprawling metropolis though we only really spent time in the Old and French quarters. The population pretty much just gets on with its business and we were mainly left to our own devices. Hanoi was reputed to be tout capital so this was quite refreshing! The shouts of "You Buy?" and "Cyclo", "motorbike" or "Taxi?" were notably absent.

Our first day was meant to be spent doing the Old Town walking tour. The old town is

01. Street Market

made up of 36 roads which in the past each had a separate commercial interest. The remnant still remain and we were able to wander down streets only concerned with selling herbs and spices, the iron mongers and strangest, engraved head stones with a picture of the deceased etched onto them to mention a few. Meandering past a tour operator we were soon side-tracked by a mission to organise further travel.  This involved a large amount of indecision and visits to nearly every travel agency mentioned in Lonely Planet.

Over dinner of tasty beef noodles and surprisingly fatty pigeon (head and all) we finally decided to splurge on a

02. Scrumptious Pigeon

luxury trip to Bai Tu Long Bay. We had heard that Halong Bay was thick with tourist boats and the most prevalent sight being other tourists, rather than the majesty of the limestone karsts. The company we chose were reputed to be the only charter into the tourist free neighbouring bay. We decided the added expense would be worth it as 'you can't buy memories!'

We had missed a small temple earlier in the day, and were pleased when we were invited in by the incredibly friendly artists. What followed was a 20 minute exchange through hand gestures with 2 men that kept rushing us around the temple to show us different areas they were working on, posing for pictures with them and then being offered tea. 

03. Strange Artistry

The gregarious main artist kept pointing at the pot and saying 'good herbs'. Only afterwards, feeling incredibly mellow did we realise the herbs had a bit of a kick and were probably helping their good moods!

Our second day was spent completing the walking tour and searching for second hand books. Hanoi is very chaotic. For such a controlled country the traffic is fascinating as people seem to just do as they please. To cross the road you need nerves of steel and to just walk. The cars / buses/mopeds/bi-cycles will veer to miss hitting you. If one is doe like, you will never get anywhere as the stream is almost constant.

In the evening we attended a water puppet show. In the 11th century the farmers devised the art form to keep themselves occupied during the monsoon, using their rice paddies as stages. Today the show is housed in a small theatre with a large pool in the centre. The scenes are representations of rural life and legends. They were rather clever, with fire breathing dragons (in water) and hatching Phoenixes!

We had a glorious 2 night respite from Hanoi and after our return from Bai Tu Long Bay felt as though we were experiencing sensory overload. Arriving back on a Saturday, it seemed particularly chaotic with everyone honking horns and streaming all over the roads. With some of our fellow boat members we went to an incredible restaurant that only serves cat-fish. The same family have been doing this for 5 generations and it was perfect! Evidently the restaurant has made it into the '1000 things to do before you die book' - Tick!

Afterwards we congregated on a street corner drinking beer and Dalat (Vietnamese) wine in an area that the locals were reputed to frequent. Though locals were present, tourists looking for an authentic experience have definitely over run it, and the experience is more backpacker than local!

07. Kirsty in the Temple Grounds

Our last day in Hanoi was spent visiting the Temple of Literature which is a green haven in the maddening streets. It was set up in the 11th century as a university, to honour its graduates and as a shrine to Confucius. From there we wandered up to Ho Chi Mihn's Mausoleum. In 

08. Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum

keeping with his beliefs he had wanted a quiet understated cremation. Instead the Vietnamese have built a huge opulent marble mausoleum in which to inter his remains. Said remains have to be re-embalmed yearly in Russia (taking 3 months). As November is one of those months 'Uncle Ho' was away on holiday. After wandering around the complex for a while, we decided to try get to the Museum of Ethnology before it closed.

What ensued was a 2 hour journey on multiple Hanoi buses getting lost, meaning we didn't do anything we planned for the evening. What it did mean was having a real Vietnam experience being 'sardined' on various

09. Getting lost on the busses

buses, watching people marvel at Mike's height, or them trying to help us but communicating in Vietnamese! We saw a lot more of the city than we would have and it is huge! When we finally did end up back in the old town we decided to relax at a Spanish restaurant with tapas to recover from the rigours of the day.


We had thought of going to Sapa, but decided against it as unless you have loads of money, most reports seemed to be of a rain-sodden tourist encrusted mountainous area with rice paddie vistas. Avoiding the tourist trail, and as we saw many such vistas in Nepal, we decided to give it a skip. Another thought was to Nihn Binh but as we had to book our flight to Saigon before our boat trip, we didn't leave enough time to do it properly - a good excuse for a return trip (where  we hopefully won't really have to worry about a strict budget)...