Bia Hoi in Hanoi... oy!!!

  Hanoi, Vietnam
Wednesday, August 13, 2008

We flew to Hanoi after the craziest traffic jam in history. Turns out the HCMC airport is the most boring airport of all time. Absolutely nothing to do there, nothing good to eat, plus we were fairly wet from the rainstorm.  The flight was fine as we had emergency exit seats which equals more leg room, and more opprotunities for Aaron to threaten throwing me out of the plane.  Several threats and iPod-viewed episodes of Futurama later, we were in Hanoi.  We then took the crampiest van in history into the city, after much price-related haggling.  We were crammed into the far back bucket seat amongst boxes and luggage and Vietnamese people. The hotel was pretty cool, a very narrow 8-story walkup that was a throw-back to colonial times, like everything else here. The hotel is in the Old Quarter, which is certainly old, and very chaotic.  Traffic doesn't move fast, or in one direction, or in any understandable fashion (SEP: http://www.as-marathonreisen.de/Galerie/Hongkong/Original/html/HKG-014_Typisch%20Hanoijpg.htm ). The area is very beautiful though, with lots and lots of trees.  Everything here is sort of districted-off... you'll come across several blocks that only sell children's toys, or bathroom fixtures, or shoes.

The first day we went to the Temple of Literature (SEP: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26089765@N06/2447036176/).  We didn't learn much about literature, but we did learn the most important thing that you need to know about Hanoi... it is HOT.  Everyday that we were in that city we sweated through everything we wore.  Hands down the hottest place we've been.  And sticky.  And no change in the heat and humidity, be it night or day.  We were at the Temple and it was just incredibly hot... and remember, I like it hot!  The temple was interesting, rather large and very old, I think over a thousand years old.  It had the giant stone turtles with engraved tablets on them, just like in the Confucious temple in Tainan (Taiwan)... I wonder what those turtles are all about.

We walked all arouind Hanoi, leaving a slick sweaty trail everywhere we went.  The Ho Chi Minh museum was alright, a nice air-conditioned break from the sauna outside.  They love their Ho Chi Minh, the Vietnamese.   It was alot of the same rhetoric that we were getting used to at this point, so it did get tiring.  But Ho Chi Minh himself seemed like a rather humble person, he was very thin and basically wore monks robes his whole life.  I don't know if he woulda been down with all this grandiosity.  We tried to see his masoleum, where his embalmed body is on display, despite his wishes to be cremated (SEP http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikerettberg/65036557/).  What a fiasco that turned out to be.  Aaron, if you're reading this, please stop now because I don't think you could handle the stress of reliving this situation. Basically they screwed us around and sent us running in so many circles that we missed the viewing time.  Plus there was very little signage explaining where to go or what you have to do.  First we line up to buy the ticket.  We have to wear long pants and long-ish sleeves.  They take our bags.  They make you finish your water.  Then for some reason we had to get our bags back. Then we wait in line, while troops of Asian tourists in a group are allowed to go past us.  For some reason Aaron is allowed to take his shoulder bag in, but must carry it in his hand scrunched up into a ball. Then we go to the place where you have to check in, and leave your camera.  Finally we head down the street ot the masoleum, and the guard told us that we can't use the path which very obviously leads to the masoleum. So we walk out in front, and are constantly waved away and not allowed anywhere near it.  At least a dozen other Asians, and two running Spanish girls, are allowed to go on the sidewalk to the building.  I guess they didn't like the look of us.  They start dismantling the fences  and we realize that we are too late now and will not be allowed back in.  The frustrating thing is that they made us jump through all these hoops for half an hour, or longer, never mentioning that there was no way that we'd make it in time.  We had skipped breakfast, and wandered back to the Old Quarter annoyed and angry to get lunch, or something like it.

Many times lunch consisted of pho (SEP: http://www.iamtonyang.com/index.php?date=040721).  Oh pho, how I love thee. I had many a bowl in Vietnam.  Pho is basically noodle soup, but that doesn't really do it justice.  It has a very light, almost tangy kind of flavor. We did not have pho at this place, but if we had, it would've rocked:


Baaahahahaha!

The rest of our time in Hanoi was spent walking and walking and wearing our legs off from the bottom up.  There is a nice lake in the Old Quarter.  We saw some people running there, in the blazing soaking heat, and it was enough to make me want to vomit.  Hanoi is very propaganda-y. There are megaphones mounted all over the city on telephone and electric poles that blare Communist propaganda at 5am and again at about 6am. The propaganda they play sounds like it hasn't been updated since the fall of Saigon.  

ohhhhkay there is only one computer at this guesthouse and people are waiting.  FYI, I'm actually in Kunming China right now. I know, very behind on the blogging. But strangely Hanoi was almost DEVOID of internet cafes.  It was really really hard to find a computer there.  There, that's my excuse, it's a pretty good one and you sure can't prove it wrong.

Off to Beijing tomorrow morning....