On the move again....
....and we are still friends (aww!)
I had never found travelling by car or foot stressful...until I spent a few days in Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam.
Arrival in Hanoi
We book Classic Street Hotel (situated on Hang Be, in the Old Quarter) in advance. A man from the hotel picks us up and for the next hour drives us at an alarming rate to the hotel - weaving, slamming on the brakes and with one-hand permanently fixated on the horn. It seems the horn is used for delivering all kinds of messages to fellow road-users. I glance over at Mother, her face white with horror and her left foot hopelessly search for a brake that she has no control over!). We arrive, feeling frazzled. At least people wear motorbike helmets here. Apparently the police are having a hard time preventing people from wearing 'fashion helmets'. Anyway, we make to the hotel in one piece and are dropped into the whirlwind that is the Old Quarter. We love the hotel - is so quaint and full of interesting antiquities. We pay $16 dollars a night (but have to share a bathroom).
Day 2
Noodle soup for breakfast and we are fuelled for the morning's activities. We get a cab to the Mausoleum. I've got enough Dong to cover the fare (some notes that Sam had left over), and hand them over to the driver. He shakes his head repeatedly saying 'low money, low money'. After a very confusing few minutes of counting and re-counting the notes, we eventually settle for a couple of dollars. We ask a few more people later, and it turns out the notes have changed so my few bob are out-of-date! Low money = old money.
The weather is rainy and cold!
First stop, Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum complex (an important place of Pilgrim for many Vietnamese).
Where is the sunshine?
Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum
The final resting place of Ho Chi Minh (Bringer of Light) who is refer ed to as the Uncle of the People, or Uncle Ho. He was founder of the Vietnamese Communist Party, and President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 1946-69. Conservative dress, and strict codes of conduct apply at the Mausoleum. Uncle Ho, looks just like he does in pictures (although its rumoured that Madame Tussauds ensures this). Most of the tourists here are Vietnamese.
Ho Chi Minh's Stilt House & the Presidential Palace
We walk through the attractive grounds of the complex to the place where Uncle Ho is thought to have spent time. The stilt house is a lovely wooden structure, over viewing beautiful gardens and a carp-filled pond. The Presidential Palace is a grand colonial building (not open to the public), now used for official receptions.
The Presidential Palace
A nice pond
Ho Chi Minh's stilt house
Ho Chi Min Museum
For me, this is the most interesting part of the day. There is a beautifully created symbolic exhibition representing the various milestones in the life of Ho Chi Minh.
In hindsight, it would have been wise to get an English-speaking guide as some of the symbols were challenging to decipher. Nevertheless, the stylistic interpretation of historical events are creative, engaging and original.
To reap a reward in ten years, plant trees. To reap a reward in 100, cultivate the people.
Ho Chi Minh (1958)
You can try and work out some of the symbols! Here are some examples.....
Coc Bo cave presented here in the form of a human brain was Ho Chi Minh's HQ from where he engineered the Vietnamese revolution from 1941-45.
Fireworks symbolise the victory over fascism and mankind's desire for peace.
The volcano and huge totems represent the great power of the national liberation movements throughout the world.
The exhibition appeals to all senses, however, for me it needed to be a little more informative to enable less knowledgeable visitors (me) to get a clearer picture of the history. We appear to be somewhat of an attraction inside the museum, with a crowd gathering and moving along beside us. Some children skip around me, touching my skin and running away giggling!
Afterwards, we wander towards the Temple of Literature. We encounter a big, busy road with traffic lights where we innocently wait for a few minutes presuming the traffic will stop at the red light. We wait another while. Then a guy jumps off his moto, holds up his hand "stop!" to the five lanes of traffic and escorts us across the road!! We feel a little foolish, and from now on we make a effort to boldly cross the roads (looking and learning from locals)!
Temple of Literature
Ahh, peace and quiet at last. This is a rare example of traditional Vietnamese architecture. Founded in 1070 and dedicated to Confucius in order to honour scholars and men of literary accomplishments. Years later, stelae were erected on the temple premises, recording the name, places of birth and achievements of men who received doctorates. There are 82 stellae present today. The grounds are pleasant to walk through, and there was some traditional live music playing inside the furthest temple.
The Temple of Literature
Stellae to honour men of literary accomplishment
Photoshoot at the Temple (Vanity Fair?)
Water Puppets for sale
For lunch, we go to a restored Buddhist temple which has been converted into Brother's Cafe - traditional Vietnamse food served buffet style. The food is tasty, although we are surprised by how oily it is.
Our traditional sampling of local beer
Lovely peaceful courtyard between the bustling streets
We are sitting in the garden, finishing off our coffees when a ladybird lands on my arm, like magic..
Brothers Cafe
For the afternoon, we walk the few kilometres back to our hotel (an adventure in itself). Footpaths are not for walking we discover. Pedestrians, motos, cylists, cars, trucks all share the tiny roads of the old street. On the pavements, people sit and eat. Shop contents spill out, covering the non-walking space.
In the old city, the names of the streets give an indication of what produce was sold there in olden times. People don't push us to buy their goods. However, we find it difficult to get a fair price (for example, people try to sell us a bottle of water for $2/3) and where the sellers actually appear to get annoyed when we don't pay their (inflated) prices! Later we chat to some expat's who live in Ho Chi Min and who also, find it expensive and feel that they are being ripped-off most of the time. Their theory is that there are less expats here and locals are accustomed to over-charging tourists at every opportunity. Anyway, whatever the reason it's very off-putting. Also, a word of warning - many of the hotels charge large commission fees for their services (e.g. booking tours or rail tickets) and may negate to tell you the full facts (e.g. saying there are only night trains (more expensive) to Sapa and therefore, gaining more commission). It's not much cash (a few dollars here and there) but it's the principle that winds me up!The Streets of the Old City
In the 13th century, Hanoi's 36 guilds established themselves here, each taking a different street - there are more than 50 streets in today's Old Quarter. Hang means 'merchandise' and is usually followed by the name of the product that was orginally sold there. For example, the street where we live is Hang Be, which literally means rafts merchandise.
Other examples:
Hang Ga = chicken
Hang Hai - silk
Hang Muoi = salt
Hang Bac = silversmiths
Nowadays, similar shops are still clustered together. One street is filled with shops selling Christmas decorations and tinsel. Another, seems to be 'motorbike street' with men crouched over various moto parts - spray painting, mending, bending and banging. Many more streets are dedicated to tourists - travel agents, souvenirs, pubs selling 'bia hoi' and internet cafes. Vehicles hoot their horns incessantly. There is evidence of the flooding the week before - with many of the shops smelling of damp.
Water Puppets
In the evening, we catch a performance of the water puppets. We enjoy the colours and drama of the performance - so much effort has been put in to make this show a success.
This ancient artform originated in the North of Vietnam, and was virtually unknown outside of Vietnam until the 1960s. Pupeteers are trained for a minimum of three years. Music is provided by a band, and we hear the amazing sound of the single stringed dan bau. Traditionally, females were not allowed to listen to the music of the dan bau as it was thought that she, upon hearing the wonderful sound, would fall instantly in love with the musician!
The set
Dan Bau player
An explosive intro!
Puppets depicting a story (which I didn't really follow)
Somebody definetly dies....
It's a nice way to spend an hour, the music is great. Children would love it!
We had heard so much about how amazing the food is in Vietnam and so far we have tried a number of restaurants and dishes, and are so dissapointed. The food has been constantly oily, greasy and often deep-fried. And for the first time in our trip I am sick :-( Luckily, it isn't food poisoning but my body complaining about the richness and greasiness of the food.
After two days in Hanoi every crevice in my head aches. Mother is exhausted. We leave for Halong Bay. Three hours on a TINY minibus, rammed with people. knees to my chin. We share iPod and it turns out Mother does not like listening to Kate Nash or the Juno soundtrack ("what is this awful skreeching?').
Halong Bay.
The port is mahem. Eventually we join up with others who are destined for our boat, Spice Cruiser. We head off with all the other boats in the direction of Halong Bay - it's cloudy and hazy for most of the day, but brightens up in the afternoon to reveal 1000's of limestone karsts and isles in every shape and size.
The Spice Cruiser
Our guide, in a paricular moment of wisdom, began referring to Mother as 'Mummy' and I as 'Honey'. He did this will remarkable confidence and seriousness. Thus, for the remaining hours of our 2 day cruise throught the magnificent Halong Bay we are the infamous, Mummy and Honey double-act.
The bay consists of a cluster of 1,969 limestone monolithic islands, each topped with thick jungle vegetation, which rise from the sea. Several of the islands are hollow, with enormous caves. Hang Đầu Gỗ (Wooden stakes Cave) is the largest grotto in the Ha Long area. French tourists visited in the late 19th century, and named the cave Grotte des Merveilles. The three large chambers contain large numerous stalactites and stalagmites (as well as 19th century French graffiti).
We have a bite to eat and then we go to the shore to explore the Grotte des Merveilles. Without doubt these are the biggest caves either of us have ever sign.
We like this picture, despite the lack of background clarity!
Stalagmites, stagagtites, caves within caves....
and (ahem!) other formations....
Hmm, I wonder what it could be..?
Ouch!
Blurry lights
Welcome to this GIANT cave
Hanging feet
We head back to the boat for some Vietnamse red wine while watching the sunset. The wine is not great, so we stick to beer for the evening. Most of the other passengers on the boat are couples, aside from two Canadian girls who are working in Ho Chi Minh. We have dinner with a nice couple from Leeds, and share our travel stories.
We try to eat healthily but the choice is limited with course after course of deep-fried and oily food. We are astounded by how many cruise ships are anchored (I think we both had naive notions about having the place to ourselves!).
The boat is spotless, and well kitted out. We retire early, with a plan of watching a dvd (limited choice, Pretty Woman looks like the best bet), however, we fall asleep even before Julia meets Richard! A very lovely place, we sleep soundly.
Next morning....
I get up early to go sea kayaking with Sebastian, a Belgian guy whose girlfriend is not keen. We have a great time, and find some monkeys hanging out in the trees of a cliff face!
Mum chats to these little one's ashore
Sea-kayaking in Halong Bay
Then, it's time for lunch aboard the boat (Western style buffet with smiley cakes) and we are heading back to Halong port.
Buffet
It's not one bit warm, so no swimming for us!
Three hour drive from Halong, and we are back to Hanoi, back to Classic Street Hotel and back to our $16 room.Our last meal in Vietnam is a great success. I cannot remember what we ate - chicken and some kind of fish, but it was really delicious! On the 8th floor, we have a great view over the city.
We may be on holiday, but our lungs have been working hard to filter through the debris of the cities we have visited - Bankok, Vientiane, Luang Prabang, Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Hanoi and Halong.....our lungs need a holiday! Our original plan was to spend 2 weeks in Vietnam - moving south to Hue, Hoi Ann, Dalat, Nha Trang and Ho Chi Min. However, there are floods in the central areas, and a typhoon is passing through Ho Chi. We consider going north to Sapa for some hikking but it is very cold there and without buying hikking shoes and warm gear we are not properly kitted out. We deliberate, and weigh up the pros and cons. We decide to leave Vietnam the next day to go back to Thailand, we are getting a little fed up of big cities and would like some quiet time to digest all that we have seen. We book tickets with Air Asia to Bangkok, and then on to Phuket (seems to be the only place in Thailand with some sun at the moment). We are dissapointed to leave, but feel now is not the right time for us to explore this busy, colourful and buzzing place. We are tired, the food isn't great and it feels like we are being ripped-off all the time. We are grumpy and a bit weary!
On the way to the airport, I've got Elkie Brooks's song, "Pearl" stuck in my head...don't think I've heard the song in years!
We snack on these terrible creations - glazed cashew nuts wrapped in some kind of rock-hard icing!
We have been talking 'as Gaeilge' for most of the trip, and after three weeks I'm starting to think in Irish. It really is so useful when bargaining at the market and hotel!Slán go foill!
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