Kids practicing a dance on a streetside stage.
French colonial architecture in Hanoi - this is the National Museum of History.
Hoan Kiem Lake in the Old Quarter of Hanoi.
Ha Long Bay
Over 3,000 mountains stand in Ha Long Bay. There's a legend about a dragon slapping his tail in the bay to reveal the mountains, so abundant that they created a maze making it difficult for the Chinese to enter and attack the Vietnamese.I took a grueling 14 hour bus trip from Sam Neua, Laos, to Hanoi, Vietnam about five days ago. The border crossing that I worried about turned out to be nothing; the Laotians were laid-back as usual and the Vietnamese soldiers were even bordering on friendly. The extra "fees" that I'd heard about from other travellers entering Vietnam (up to 25 USD extra) didn't materialize, though I did have to pay one USD for a "health declaration". I'd gotten my Vietnamese visa in advance, as you have to, in Vientiane, for 50 USD, one of the steepest visa fees around. So, smooth sailing through the border. The border housed the compound where the soldiers live, with uniform shirts fluttering in the breeze to dry, and a grass volleyball court. Ah, so they're just like you and me...
On the other side, the two bus drivers bought me lunch - I was the only passenger. They turned out to be the mini-bus drivers of bad dreams, slimy and always ready to rip passengers off, but that was their job...they still had decent hearts. Here at lunch we picked up a Dutch girl also going to Hanoi. When I bought my bus ticket in Sam Neua, it only went as far as Thanh Hoa; there was no option to get straight to Hanoi. The price was a big rip off, but it was the only option as far as I could see, and it was direct from the bus station, so I took it. So I was planning to spend the night in Thanh Hoa and get on to Hanoi the next day. Well, turns out the bus drivers said the mini-bus does got Hanoi, and they wanted an arm and a leg for it. I knew it was a bad deal, so when we got to Thanh Hoa, I said I just wanted to get off. By this time it was evening - light fades around five o'clock. Here the drama escalates. The bus drivers said they'd take me to Hanoi, and kept driving around the streets of Thanh Hoa, not letting me off. I was getting really tired, of them, of the journey. I knew they didn't mean any harm, but they were being the aggressive Vietnamese bus drivers that I'd heard about. After a while, they knocked the price down a little, and I gave in. But the drama continues, as we stopped for a bathroom break in town, the driver informs me and the Dutch girl that we were switching buses. Except it was just me and the girl, and he put us on this local mini-bus crammed with people and said good-bye! So he took the 9USD I just gave him, and probably paid a small fraction of that for our passage on this local bus. This local mini-bus roamed the main drag of Thanh Hoa, up and down, with an employee hanging out the door, touting, trying to get more passengers on. After half an hour or more, we finally left for Hanoi...
We arrived in Hanoi at 10:30pm, got ripped off by a taxi even though the meter was on (glad I could share it with the Dutch girl), and started roaming the travellers district of Hanoi for accommodations. The streets were bustling, with the sidewalks crammed with people in low tables and stools eating pho (rice noodle soup). So it was dark, and strange, but not necessarily scary. We eventually found beds in a youth hostel and I fell into exhausted sleep.
I spent several days exploring Hanoi on foot, and I have to say I really like the city. It's noisy, full of motorbikes, and bustling with activity from 6am til way past my bedtime. Here I could get anything I want, and it's kind of nice after the little towns of northern Laos where the options were very limited. I took in the museums and the sights. The National Fine Arts Museum was excellent, as was an exhibit in the Women's Museum on street vendors. Hanoi is chock full of street vendors, selling baskets of vegetables, plastic goods, tea, pancakes, noodles, baguettes,...Many of the women who do this are from rural villages, trying to make some extra income while their rice crop grows. One thing that amazed me, while crossing from Laos into Vietnam by bus, was the change in colour. In Laos, they grow one rice crop a year, and the terraces were unworked and brown while I was there. Once we came down the border into Vietnam, the terraces were all green with growing rice. The road we took followed a mountain river down, down past beautifully tended crops and mountain villages, past fishermen in bamboo rafts. It was a lovely journey, actually. Anyway, street vendors - you encounter them everywhere, and after that exhibit in the Women's Museum, I have a deeper appreciation for what they're trying to do. I met up with my friend Alissa's brother, Mike, for some local beer and dinner. We went to a hole in the wall restaurant...literally. It's a long dark tunnel you have to follow and it rounds a bend deep inside a street block and you end up at this little place filled with Vietnamese, eating steak and fries. I would never have attempted to go into this dark vortex on my own. The food was excellent, with a nice atmosphere. I hardly ever eat in restaurants, eating most my meals on the street, so this was a treat. Mike is from San Francisco and teaches English in Hanoi.
I just spent a couple of days in Ha Long Bay, a really big bay filled with over 3,000 mountains/islands. It was misty, but beautiful. I saw jellyfish swimming in the water, and big birds soaring - a type of eagle, I think. It is really maze-like in the bay, and the legend goes that a dragon creates the mountains by flapping his tail in the water to hinder Chinese invasion of Vietnam.
On the other side, the two bus drivers bought me lunch - I was the only passenger. They turned out to be the mini-bus drivers of bad dreams, slimy and always ready to rip passengers off, but that was their job...they still had decent hearts. Here at lunch we picked up a Dutch girl also going to Hanoi. When I bought my bus ticket in Sam Neua, it only went as far as Thanh Hoa; there was no option to get straight to Hanoi. The price was a big rip off, but it was the only option as far as I could see, and it was direct from the bus station, so I took it. So I was planning to spend the night in Thanh Hoa and get on to Hanoi the next day. Well, turns out the bus drivers said the mini-bus does got Hanoi, and they wanted an arm and a leg for it. I knew it was a bad deal, so when we got to Thanh Hoa, I said I just wanted to get off. By this time it was evening - light fades around five o'clock. Here the drama escalates. The bus drivers said they'd take me to Hanoi, and kept driving around the streets of Thanh Hoa, not letting me off. I was getting really tired, of them, of the journey. I knew they didn't mean any harm, but they were being the aggressive Vietnamese bus drivers that I'd heard about. After a while, they knocked the price down a little, and I gave in. But the drama continues, as we stopped for a bathroom break in town, the driver informs me and the Dutch girl that we were switching buses. Except it was just me and the girl, and he put us on this local mini-bus crammed with people and said good-bye! So he took the 9USD I just gave him, and probably paid a small fraction of that for our passage on this local bus. This local mini-bus roamed the main drag of Thanh Hoa, up and down, with an employee hanging out the door, touting, trying to get more passengers on. After half an hour or more, we finally left for Hanoi...
We arrived in Hanoi at 10:30pm, got ripped off by a taxi even though the meter was on (glad I could share it with the Dutch girl), and started roaming the travellers district of Hanoi for accommodations. The streets were bustling, with the sidewalks crammed with people in low tables and stools eating pho (rice noodle soup). So it was dark, and strange, but not necessarily scary. We eventually found beds in a youth hostel and I fell into exhausted sleep.
I spent several days exploring Hanoi on foot, and I have to say I really like the city. It's noisy, full of motorbikes, and bustling with activity from 6am til way past my bedtime. Here I could get anything I want, and it's kind of nice after the little towns of northern Laos where the options were very limited. I took in the museums and the sights. The National Fine Arts Museum was excellent, as was an exhibit in the Women's Museum on street vendors. Hanoi is chock full of street vendors, selling baskets of vegetables, plastic goods, tea, pancakes, noodles, baguettes,...Many of the women who do this are from rural villages, trying to make some extra income while their rice crop grows. One thing that amazed me, while crossing from Laos into Vietnam by bus, was the change in colour. In Laos, they grow one rice crop a year, and the terraces were unworked and brown while I was there. Once we came down the border into Vietnam, the terraces were all green with growing rice. The road we took followed a mountain river down, down past beautifully tended crops and mountain villages, past fishermen in bamboo rafts. It was a lovely journey, actually. Anyway, street vendors - you encounter them everywhere, and after that exhibit in the Women's Museum, I have a deeper appreciation for what they're trying to do. I met up with my friend Alissa's brother, Mike, for some local beer and dinner. We went to a hole in the wall restaurant...literally. It's a long dark tunnel you have to follow and it rounds a bend deep inside a street block and you end up at this little place filled with Vietnamese, eating steak and fries. I would never have attempted to go into this dark vortex on my own. The food was excellent, with a nice atmosphere. I hardly ever eat in restaurants, eating most my meals on the street, so this was a treat. Mike is from San Francisco and teaches English in Hanoi.
I just spent a couple of days in Ha Long Bay, a really big bay filled with over 3,000 mountains/islands. It was misty, but beautiful. I saw jellyfish swimming in the water, and big birds soaring - a type of eagle, I think. It is really maze-like in the bay, and the legend goes that a dragon creates the mountains by flapping his tail in the water to hinder Chinese invasion of Vietnam.
No comments:
Post a Comment