Hi everyone.
Shawn and I stayed up all night on New Year's Eve and left for the airport
before 6AM. Thanks Uyen and Miles for the ride!!! The trip
took over 26 hours and we arrived in Hanoi after 10PM on Monday night.
The taxi ride from the airport to Hanoi was an adventure to say the least.
Our driver kept his high beams on almost the entire way, only
turning them off to flash people out of his way or warn other
cars not to get in front of him. When flashing high beams didn't
work, he would tailgate them and turn on his left turn signal. We
passed several motorbikes with loads of some sort of produce as wide as
cars . When we finally arrived at the address my sister gave me to
Co Phi's hotel, it turned out to be a jewelry store and it was all locked
up. Luckily our driver called her number several times to wake her
up and we had a place to stay for the night. Turns out the hotel was
around the corner on the next street over.
In the morning, we woke up to lots of horns blaring and a woman's voice
coming over speakers on the streets. We thought perhaps it was
propaganda, but later learned that it's just the radio. After a
quick breakfast and chat with Co Phi and Anh Hiep, we were off to explore
Hanoi. Everywhere you look there are small shops, street vendors,
and motorbikes (just about everyone rides one). It takes a while to
get used to crossing the streets with so much traffic and what seems to be
no traffic laws, but we quickly learned that if you just walk at a
steady pace and don't make any sudden moves, they will avoid you. It
is amazing to see such chaos on the streets, but there's no road rage nor
accidents. Seems like the only downfall is that everyone has to use
their horns to let others know they're coming.
After stopping in at several little shops and trying our hand at
bargaining, we went to Hoan Kiem Lake to relax and check out the pagoda
there. Later in the day we went to see a water puppet
show. It was pretty amazing, but I (Phuoc) was beginning to
feel the effects of jetlag. We went back to the hotel for a nap
and didn't wake up till almost 10PM. We didn't know where to
have dinner, but the choice was almost made for us. As we walked
down the street, people would stop us and try to get us to come into their
restaurant. The most persistent guys won out and it turned out to be
a great meal. We then went to the largest club in Hanoi. The
music was awesome and there were so many club employees (about 1 to
every 5 guests). These people know how to have a good time....each
table had a couple of bottles of liquor on them!! We stayed out till
about 1 or 2 and then it was back to bed.
The next morning we had Pho for breakfast and then Co Phi arranged for us
to go to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum on motorbikes. It was definitely
a welcome ride since we had been walking everywhere we went. We
weren't allowed to bring cameras with us, but seeing Mr. Ho embalmed in a
glass coffin and guarded by four soldiers was pretty eerie. He
appeared to be just sleeping there and I was reprimanded by one of the
elders behind me to walk lightly up the stairs so as not to wake him.
We also got to see the house where he lived while he was president.
It was a very simple home in a quiet garden setting. After that we
went to the One Pillar Pagoda and then the Ho Chi Minh Museum.
Later we explored the Dong Xuan market and stopped to admire several
little art galleries. After another long day of wandering the
streets of Hanoi, we decided to go back to the hotel to take a nap.
We ended up sleeping through the night (not even waking up to have
dinner). The next morning we got up very early to pack and head off
to Ha Long Bay. The bus came and picked us up at the hotel and it
was a harrowing almost four-hour ride to the boat.
More to come on the Ha Long Bay trip.
Phuoc and Shawn
