Hanoi, Vietnam
Staying at the Prince III hotel (65 Hang Cot, (84-4)8280620 or 9280775). Vietnam (unlike the other parts of Asia we’ve been in lately), really does have good, fresh, coffee.
Hanoi was quite the wakeup call after the relative ease of Bangkok. We were staying in the Old City, which I found at first to be quite chaotic, with thousands of motorbikes and scooters, cruising through the intersections without slowing down or even looking. Traffic lights are generally ignored. As we were walking through the neighbourhood, and I was busy watching out for motorbikes and trying to read street signs, I didn’t notice the folded up piece of sheet metal laying across the sidewalk. After stubbing my toe on it, it took me a minute to realize I was bleeding. I looked down to see a sandal full of blood, and a chunk missing from my toe. Yuck! I was terrified of having to go the the hospital. Luckily, Grant bandaged it up, and over time, it managed to heal quite gracefully on its own, without stitches.
The architecture in Hanoi is quite beautiful: tall, narrow, colourful homes, usually with rooftop terraces. On the outskirts of town, the beautiful homes really stood out, surrounded by rice fields dotted with water buffalo and women with the traditional cone hats. The hazy air (from the high humidity) added to the mistake aura, but unfortunately discouraged us from taking photos. In the central old city, the homes are much more densely packed, with shops below. The old city is a big grid of narrow streets, each named after the goods that were originally sold there (i.e. silk street, flower street, etc). Today, one street would be full of car parts, one would be for selling baby diapers and formula, and another for Christmas decorations and cards.
Our favorite way to enjoy Hanoi was to kick back at a lakeside cafe – sipping vitnamese coffee – or at the streetside – sipping Bia – and watching the city pass us by. The coffee, latte’s, and food are all quite delicious here.
We spent one afternoon trying to track down some reputable travel agents (amongst the thousands out there). It’s quite the challenge, because once an agency develops a good reputation, a bunch of other ones steal their name to try to profit from their good name. We also took in a couple of sights during our few days of exploring the town, but nothing much to write home about. I think we’re suffering from sight-seeing-burnout again.
The Temple of Literature is an old 1000 year old Confucius college building and garden, historically for training doctors, poets, etc. After admiring the peaceful grounds (an oasis amidst chaotic, noisy traffic), we tried to check out the Ho Chi Min mausoleum, only to find that it closes well before noon!
The water puppet theater was unlike anything we’ve seen before. It’s very cool how the puppets dance above, and through, the large pool of water on stage, like they’re self animated.
Although Vietnam is known for its shady massage parlours, we decided to try to scope out a reputable one that could work our aching muslces. We took a recommendation from our guide book (apparently one of only a couple decent parlours in town). To my disapointment, the ladys didn’t seem to really know what they were doing, and by the end of the hour, we each got propositioned for “extra services”. Argh!
Night life in Hanoi was different from what we were expecting. By law, bars have to shut down by midnight. The few places we went to, looking for live entertainment, were quite sleepy. The most excitement was happening throughout the evening, every night, at the Bia Hoi’s. Bia Hoi’s are little street corners, with plastic chairs (and sometimes tables), and someone serving home-brewed beer for 10cents a cup. Some of the Bia was actually really good. It sure made it hard to go back to paying a whole $1 or $2 at the brick and mortar pubs.
