Hanoi
Trip Start
Aug 28, 2005
1
17
37
Trip End
Dec 10, 2005
Hanoi,
Vietnam
Friday, September 30, 2005
The weather man reported that there was a large tropical storm heading directly towards Hanoi the day after we arrived so we spent the following 2 days after we arrived wading through terrential rain. Not a whole lot of fun but to be fair we have been very lucky with the weather the whole time so far.
Hanoi and Vietnam on first impressions from the minibus window was that it is a much bigger and more wealthy country than Lao and Cambodia. The architecture is mostly tall skinny concrete buildings painted brightly, french colonial style. People galore and as for the bikes, it looked like every person who owned a bike was out on it right that moment, all honking their horns. The sound of Hanoi! Short honks, long honks, high piched honks, deep honks, the double honk, the mutiple honk, the rhymical honk - it is all a orchestra of honking
Beer Hoi corner
. I have never seen so much of a shambles on the roads! Like Cambodia and Lao, motorbikes domimate the roads with 1-5 people per bike. Similar to the other countries or maybe worse, there appears to be few or no road rules (honking your horn is essential at all times especially to tourist walking across roads!)and crossing the road during peak hours is really like a life threatening task - exciting and gets the adrenaline pumping too. Dan finally caught up with us the same day we arrived. So awesome to finally have him here too after nearly 1 month away without him!
Due to the rain we were a bit trapped in the city for a couple of days and just took to putting on the rain ponchos and looking around the Old Quarters.
One of the best things about Hanoi is the Bia Hoi or fresh beer, straight from a keg and only 10 cents per beer mug! We spent quite a few nights sitting on the Bia Hoi corner which is an intersection with Bia Hoi shops on each corner. You sit on little plastic bucket seats on the footpath and watch the bikes and people passing by. For only 10 cents a beer - its the cheapest and more interesting of entertainment in Hanoi!
The 2nd night there we went and saw the highly recommended Water Puppet show which is famous in the north of Vietnam
BMI time
. Originally these puppet shows were preformed by the rice farmers working in the flooded rice fields and started up about 1000 years ago. Now the show is in a theartre and the stage a murky green water with a backdrop of a temple. The pupeteers are behind the backdrop wadding in knee high water working the puppets which are suspended on long poles. The puppets are made of water resistant fig tree timber, painted brightly and can weigh up to 15kg. It was a great show and I liked it so much I went back for the 4pm showing a couple of days later. We are staying at a nice hostel called the Little Hanoi Hostel in the Old Quarters. The staff are so friendly and helpful.
Once the rain eased we needed a trip out of the city. We did a day trip out to the Perfume Pagoda which is a number of buddhist shrines built into the limestone cliffs. It was an ok trip except for the ladies carrying waters and cokes up the mountain who kept asking if you wanted a coke every 20m! To reach the mountain, we had to be rowed up the river in a small long tail boat by a women!
