Presidential Palace
Temple of Literature
Well before one lands in Vietnam, you are forewarned and buried with redflags and alerts about touts, scams, thieves, annoyances, dangers and cheats. Indeed we saw evidence of this immediately after hitting the arrivals area when teams of young men plied us with questionable offers. But then a women walked by and said with perfect English and a casual smile, “good evening”, and kept going. It was an unsolicited, spontaneous courtesy we rarely received in China.
We were also unprepared for H1N1. Of all the gin joints in all the towns, we (or Wayne) have to get H1N1 here. Why not the first week back at work? Why not a more serene locale like Phu Quoc Island. Our buddy Tom says Hanoi on a good day is dark and cold. On a better day it’s grey and cold. Don’t think he was only talking about the weather.
Hoan Kiem Lake
Last week Wayne had similar symptoms but licked it in 2days then hiked for 7 hours. Unbeknownst to us, that was H1N1 playing hide and seek before the full assault. So it’s unplanned downtime. This is partially why independent travelling works—-go at our own pace, speed, and when health and desire are there. But its excruciatingly painful sitting around. Thankfully Hanoi isn’t really a place to do world class sights, museums, etc…so we don’t feel like we are missing the world. Truthfully, it’s a rather unattractive town.
Yet it’s an atmospheric town. Sure Asian chic, colonial architecture, French thumbprints enhance it all. And there’s some lovely parks and lakes. Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, the Temple of Literature, other temples and museums (tho it’d be pretty hard to impress us after China).
Speaking of Ho, as in Uncle Ho, or Ho Chi Minh, he is much venerated, as is Mao in in China. But in China, it’s almost mocking-like. He’s on cigarette lighters, t shirts, mugs, every cheap trinket as well as currency. Uncle Ho doesn’t quite get the demi-god routine, but it’s real for him. There seems to be more or a genuine reverence. He smoked the French, then the Americans and delivered Vietnam from colonialism. He traveled and lived the world, and wasn’t so much the idealogue that he wouldn’t speak with the US and French (who ignored his attempts at dialogue pre-war). So as we joined the masses to view his embalmed body, it was viewing a legend who’d come by it honestly.
Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum
Mao was a peasant and his thoughtless policies costs millions of lives. He is remembered for establishing the PRC, but the economic miracle has nothing to do with communism as it does with individual moxy. But the Chinese love symbols, however plasticized.
Back to the motorbikes: their ensuing beehive of haphazard energy that underscore and italicize Hanoi for us. With the doorman at the hotel, I rode shotgun on one of these death traps. There is no signalling, no shoulder checking, darting in and out, barreling up the wrong side of the side….its as if everyone assumes the other motorists in the same road psychosis and a mutually assured destruction will occur if anybody begins to follow sensible rules of engagement.I’m in no hurry to for another ride in Hanoi, though we plan to rent our own in Phu Quoc Island.
Until one crosses a laneless road with an endless cacophony of these bikes honking and jetting about, one won’t get Hanoi. And here in the historic heart, the old town, aka the Old Quarter where we are ensconced in Hanoi Hotel A1 (our big splurge of $45US), the narrow maze-like alleys and streets are dominated by these pesky projectiles. Ironically, it is the volume, congestion, pollution and seeming chaos we’d expected in China. We’re convinced the smog levels contributed to our poor health.
Old QuarterYears ago homes and businesses were taxed according to their width. So most places are narrow but long, usually 3 or 4 stories high at most. Every inch of space is taken up by roving motorbikes, relentless hawkers, knockoff vendors, eateries (which usually means a woman with a few pots, bowls and some short plastic stools rustling up some pho, or BBQ pork over vermicelli), ‘legit’ stores where we scored great deals on genuine imitation HUGO BOSS prescription glasses ($60) and a GUCCI watch ($20), open stalls for meat and produce, and on and on. Sidewalks you ask? You mean those bits of broken paving stones and humps of sand? Why they’re for the parked motorbikes, ya silly.
It’s a long way from Kansas yet it’s both modern and medieval, appealing but also as Tom says, dark and cold—-sunlight has rarely penetrated through this canopy of activity, and there is way more crumbling concretechicture than there is real colonial charm. And the truth is, despite our whining here, Hanoi is known as the grand dame of Asia, far less polluted and disheveled than say Bangkok of Saigon. Joy.
Historically, each street in the Old Quarter was named after the items or merchandise it sold or produced. So you have silk street, blacksmith and chicken streets, but also pickled fish and clam worm streets. If they renamed the streets based on today’s fare, most would be called tourist trap alley.
Nevertheless, one soldiers on because the relentless options and places to buy has a hypnotic pull. And you can all but be guaranteed of a really, really good street baguette somewhere, a decent cup of coffee, service with English and a smile, and not having to dodge spitters and clouds of second hand smoke (our post China traumas are coming out here).
At first I thought the tightness in the chest was the exceedingly poor air quality. Indeed it’d be Waterloo for any asthmatic. Thank God for the food. There’s high end western dinners with imported wine for $12-15 pp. Or low brow local for $1.75 on a plastic stool as motorbikes whizz by. I reckon each is great. Though I’d rather eat in places where Trish is the only white flesh around, versus joints where I’m the only Asian around. For now, while I’m sick, she’s squashed the street eats, especially since she is showing a few early flu signs herself.
Nov 24. We’ve just returned from Halong Bay. We’re still a long way from healthy but three days away from the motorbike rat race will massage the soul and we finally got some decent days in Vietnam. With just hours in between our Halong Bay cruise to our overnight train to Hue, its good riddance to Hanoi. Sorry we’ll always remember it for 8 days of sickness, but that’s travelling.
Vietnam By The Numbers:
1. Butts it kicked (6)— The Khmer, The Cham, The Mongols, The Chinese, the French and the Americans
2. Population: 80 mill
3. Estimated number of motorbikes: 18 mill
