Returning to chaos in Hanoi
Trip Start
Sep 24, 2009
1
30
69
Trip End
Apr 30, 2010
Hanoi, Vietnam
Friday, December 4, 2009
We get there – only to find out that 'no one had checked out of the hotel today' so that they could not honour our reservation. However, the DID have a sister hotel just down the road.
I wasn’t happy, but we decided to check it out. It was another skinny hotel – even skinnier than the last one, with only one room on each floor. Again, we were up on the 3rd or 4th floor, so we had a hike up. This time, our room was on the road front, which meant we had to deal with more traffic noise. Overall the room was OK – but it was a slight downgrade. (There wasn’t a pipe to drain water away from the sink; water just fell through the sink hole onto the floor, and drained away through the floor drain!). Oh well, it was only for 2 nights. And it was only USD$14 instead of the $16 per night that we had been paying!
We decided to spend our last full day in Hanoi visiting the museums that we couldn’t visit earlier in the week. First we went to the Ethnology Museum, and excellent museum that highlights the lifestyle of the different people (including various hill tribes) that live in Vietnam.
Next, we wanted to visit the Army Museum, apparently an excellent museum to get an understanding of North Vietnam’s perspective of the Vietnam War. After haggling with a pushy 3-wheeler taxi driver, we get there only to find out that it’s closed on Friday’s. Argh! (We had already missed out on this earlier in the week because they are also closed on Mondays. Alan was gutted).
Hanoi has been a fascinating city. Once you get your head around the crazy traffic, it’s not so bad. It’s very noisy, it’s chaotic and bustling – but it’s exciting and vibrant. One Vietnamese explained how to cross the street: take one step, look both ways. Take another step, and look both ways. Repeat this for each step. (We made an adjustment to these instructions: you need to look SIX ways after each step!)
The Old Quarter is like a maze of old shops. Each block section of a street specialises in a certain product. So you will see dozens of stores selling shoes on Shoe Street; and another doze selling coffee beans on Coffee Street. There is Handbag street, Silk Street, Mitre 10 (Hardware Street) - even a Christmas Street. Ok, so those aren't the actual names - but you get the drift! Actually the street names represent the product that was traditionally sold on the street as far back as 800 years ago. So, for example, Hang Ca was Fish Street, but now it is Doorknob Street. Hang Khoai was Sweet Potato Street, but is now Kitchen Appliance Street. Fascinating stuff!
Of course, with each block specialising in different products, it also means the street name can change from one block to the next. And they also appear to have various spelling for the same words. So different maps will have different spellings, which will both differ to the street sign that you are looking at! Therefore trying to figure out where you are on a map is difficult at first until you get the general feel for the place. I often just tried to match the pattern of the streets to what I was looking at on the map.
The weather is Hanoi has been pleasant (temps between 26-28 degrees C during the day, and 19-22 at night). The sky has been very hazy though. Even Halong Bay was covered in a thick haze for the 3 days that we were there. It’s been nice to wear a different set of (slightly warmer) clothes for a change; and to not feel hot and sweaty all the time. I’m lovin’ it!
Moving on to Hue
Our next planned stop is Hue (about half way down Vietnam, near the old border of North and South Vietnam). This is the longest, single haul that we would have to make within Vietnam. We considered taking a bus (14-16 hours) or a train (12-14 hours) but decided it would be easier to get a cheap, 1 hour flight instead. So that’s why we did. Only problem: we had to set the alarm for 3.40am. Bugger!
