Good morning Hanoi
These are my ramblings from Vietnam during October - November 2004 - though I still like to stick most of the time to pen and paper - thought it might be a nice idea to try and edit it down and put some pictures to the story - here goes (words in italics are written in real 2004 time):
Wednesday 20th October 2004
Well at the moment I am sat having a tiger beer at a cafe on the Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi. Finally made it here!!!
This city is madness the cyclos and the xuchi - crossing the road is an art form which can be nerve wracking - but it's cool - the best way I've found is to shadow a local making sure they are the nearest to the oncoming traffic and just weave through the bikes. Very few cars here but the madness of the horns can be deafening.
Do get hassled a bit about buying postcards and taking taxis but I always prefer to walk as you get to know the layout of the streets better - and I did get ripped off buying a photocopy book - now I know why they are in wrappers - but don't feel too bad as it's "the price of an education" (to quote Keith Richards) - it was a book I wanted - would have paid more for it back in Wales so don't feel too hard done by.
Slept late as I was tired - jet lag and bizarre dreams but that ain't unusual and then woken up by workmen banging away - no need for alarm clocks here. The hotel is cool - pretty basic and the air conditioning unit looks severely dodgy - I can see sky through the wall where it is fitted - down a bit of an alley way which was a bit unnerving last night as was not hundred percent sure I was heading in the right direction.
So what have I done today!!!
Found a supermarket (I know very zzzh) - but it was really bizarre and sold some weirdsome stuff - lots of pongy items but low on food however did find water, Sprite and dodgy crisps, which were this mornings mission. Booked myself on a tour to Halong Bay (my dream islands) for Saturday - though bit mystified as to what it involves - tried to find out about Sapa which I've decided to go to but I couldn't get much sense out of the agency regarding the sleeping arrangements - being on your own can be a pain at times - I don't mind sharing but I’d really prefer not to be in a carriage with three sailors - so I left that for another day. This guy with his cyclo was waiting for me when I came out of the shop - really persistent - followed me up the street offering to take me to pagodas et al - I do try to be polite but sometimes my patience can be tested.
I'm actually turtle watching at the moment 'cos it's supposed to be good luck if you see one but apparently they only appear once every blue moon and as it's cloudy tonight - I can't ascertain the colour of the moon so but some how I don't think my luck will be in.
Anyway this afternoon in need of some chilling time I went to the island on the lake to see the famous turtle and Buddhist temple. The turtle was allegedly real caught in 1968 but to me it looked a bit on the suspect side!!! Loved the smell of the incense - gorgeous.
The streets in the old quarter are amazing and confusing but I'm getting there!! ... slowly!! One street just did headstones and the people were in the street making wreaths out of flowers - when I saw the railway line I knew I’d taken a wrong turning.
The streets all seem to sell one item which I've found now is a good way of getting around as I can't pronounce the street names - to get back to my hotel from here I need to go up Cheap sunglasses street, then onto Silk street and then just before I get to Flag and not so cheap biro street I turn left past all the noodle stalls - sorted. Anyway write some more tomorrow - bed calls.
Thursday 21st October (I think!!)
Well after I left the bar I decided instead to head off to a restaurant I’d read about and it looked quite nice when I sped past in the taxi yesterday or the day before - Garden restaurant - had tables in lovely courtyard which unfortunately were all full so I ended up upstairs. The waiter was really helpful as they did bring me chopsticks to start with - I said if he wanted to preserve his nice white tablecloth I’d probably be better off with a spoon and fork - managed to order veggie noodles (no fish sauce) and then he tried to teach me a bit of Vietnamese - but I wasn't quite sure if this was a Ken Barlow/Raquel "voulez vous couchez avec moi" moment as it wasn't in my guide book - words for vegetarian and no fish sauce sounded a bit weird - shouldn't be so suspicious..
Didn't sleep well - 3 hours then I woke and then I couldn't get off again till 6am (sound like grandma here) - just me but I started reading a book about a lad who grew up in Yorkshire that I found yesterday - well it appealed to me being so far away from home. Hair took ages to dry so it was half ten before I finally got out of the hotel. Went to the Kangaroo cafe and booked a trip to Sapa for Monday which looks cool - I will be sharing but that's okay as I've been assured it won't be marines etc ie I don't want to share with some strange bloke I've just met. Then in between beers sorted out a flight to Hue for a week on Saturday - I can be flakey at times trying to figure out which airport it went from as I had to sort out a taxi with the hotel to take me there - finally booked a tour to the Perfumed Pagoda tomorrow - madness morning.
Chill - tried a couple of internet cafes but the first one all his machines were kaput - second one spent ages typing mail and then I don't think it went just disappeared off into the ether - I don't mind slow but this was painful - aah!!
Went down the post office this afternoon to get some stamps - promised to send a postcard to this girl in Shanghai on the internet who is well into them - she is known as the “postcard girl" and in return I'll get one back (which I did one year later from Singapore) - anyway whilst in there this bloke sidled up to me and started yapping (not in a dog sense) - I did have a suspicious mind as to what his motives were - all was revealed when I stepped out on to the pavement - bang out came the books, postcards - "I have postcards, I have books" followed me half way down the street despite my lack of interest - interesting that his final price was 50,000 dong (£2) for the cards.
Plenty of banana sellers about - I am now saying I don't like bananas (and making hewy actions as don't know the Vietnamese yet) but if you have some apples I'll have one - they've never got any.
Anyway went to have a look at the medieval merchants house - it was really pretty and I had a guide. Did seem more of a place to sell things than a museum hence the name merchants house so I bought postcards 30,000 dong (£1) and a pretty compass.
I feeling really tired and have to up early for the Perfumed Pagoda - bought a Soviet style hairdryer to save time in the mornings - my most bizarre purchase of the day.
Friday 22nd October 2004
Got woken up very early this morning by someone leaving their room like Mr Celtic and his mates last year in Jerez. Then the telly went on and then the bloke with the hammer started. There was an old Vietnamese guy in reception. He had been born here but had lived most of his life in France and only returned 10 years ago. He was off to Halong for the day, which was his dream (well it's mine as well as I dreamed of the islands three years ago) - then a motorbike turned up and off he went. Then one turned up for me - which was a little unnerving - once I’d calmed down a bit I did find it quite exhilarating riding through the streets. Lots of confusion abounded at the bus station - Perfumed Pagoda this way, that way - on to one bus and then off that one onto another - young American lad panicking was he on the right bus - and French guy having an eppy as the bus left late and then much to his disgust one and a half hours after he had left his hotel the bus went past the front door - at which point he jumped up and informed everyone on the bus that that was his hotel.
Driving out to the PP now. The strange thing about the countryside which is green but not deep green, lots of water about - nearly run over a dog then - lots of squealing of brakes but Fido seems to be okay - but its the graveyards that get to me. Huge stones scattered across the paddy fields but really random way - some like little pagodas, some huge, some small - one even in the middle of water but every small place has them.
I haven't mentioned I went to the Water Puppet theatre last night - couldn't figure out at first how they did it - there were some Americans behind me the Honey/Wilbur set who were whingeing about their seats - but the show was really cool lots of little stories and fireworks and music - really enjoyed it only slightly marred by the fact I started wanted the toilet half way through.
The Perfumed Pagoda was an amazing place - got hassled a bit getting off the bus by a lady called Min selling bracelets and then it was off to get the rowing boats. The bus confused American from Hanoi was dragged out of the crowd to make up numbers and said “OK so now everybody now knows I’m on my own” and was put on a boat with an even more loud American. I ended up on a boat with two Australians and a Kiwi who were working for some aid agency in Hanoi. The river was really calm and green until we rounded the corner and then the dredgers started – they were widening the river as the Perfumed Pagoda is a place of pilgrimage and I had read that there was a boat jam of over 3000 boats the previous year – something that was quite hard to comprehend on this quiet sunny Friday morning.
The trip took about an hour and a half through some amazing countryside – Karst mountains and paddy fields before we landed at a café where the really really loud Yank started doing the Monty Python” Fish” sketch. The walk up to the Pagoda was fairly steep and the path rocky – lethal if it had been raining. Lots of people selling things from shacks but not as persistent as India. The Pagoda itself is not a pagoda in Kew Gardens sense but a really cool cave which as a Buddhist shrine had lots of statues and candles in it – really cool and peaceful inside after the walk up.
Then back down again – just no sound – felt like you were in the middle of the jungle. Lunch was sorted – tofu, green stuff (morning glory) and sticky rice – still couldn’t get to grips with the chopsticks despite a lesson from the Aussie guy next to me.
Then it was the ride back to the pick up point avoiding Min and her mates who were really into hard sell. Back in Hanoi the guy didn’t drop us off at the same place where we left from so it was a really confusing walk back through the old quarter – lovely markets and then I had this sudden urge for ice cream and beer – think I got a bit skanked with the bill but managed to use t’internet – e-mail from my mum saying that Aunty Em couldn’t understand why I hadn’t gone to Fuengirola.
posted by aliceinw67 at 11:20 PM
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