As we had planned, Monday thru Wednesday (6th - 8th) was very uneventful and gave us some time to catch up on sleep and prepare for our 4 day trip to Vietnam. So, on Thursday, we caught a flight to Hanoi, the former capital of North Vietnam (and present day capital), a place that has been the scene of many things most of us wouldn’t care to see. It is also the site of the Hoa Lo Prison, which later became more famously known as the Hanoi Hilton, an American POW camp during the Vietnam War that was made famous by John McCain, a place he spent 5 ½ years of his life. We had debated on which Vietnam city we would visit, and based on the recommendation of my Uncle Bert, we thought Hanoi would be a more fulfilling experience than the more westernized Ho Chi Minh City in the south (formley known as Saigon).
After the hour long taxi ride, which ran us 300,000 Dong ($18), we pulled into Hanoi. Some may describe the city as “full of character”, while other may say it is chaos in its purest form….I found it to be somewhere right in the middle. About 90 percent of the traffic is motor cycles, there isn’t one stop light, no car lanes are labeled, most streets are no more than 2 cars in width, and sidewalks are a rare thing to find. We had been warned about how to conduct yourself when crossing a street…”Walk at a decent pace, not too fast or too slow, and DON’T BREAK STRIDE”. After a couple of attempts in which I was sure I was going to get run over, I found this advice to be absolutely correct. You don’t really look both ways before you cross because there is always going to be traffic coming, you just simply start walking across the street at a consistent pace, and the motorcycles will fly by you on both sides.
We had booked the first night at the Hanoi Backpacker Hostel, but when we pulled up, a guy came up to the taxi and asked us if we were staying at the hostel. We told him yes, and he then informed us that they had run out of room for the night, but that their “sister” hostel had room. We said ok, he jumped in the cab with us, and we went a few blocks to the other location. I immediately became a little suspicious that something didn’t make sense because the guy was riding with us, but went with it anyways. He took us to an actually hotel, only charged us $10 each, and we even had AC. But, after checking my email the next day, I had a message from the hostel asking if everything was alright because we hadn’t showed up….and as I had suspected, that guy was just staking out the hostel, waiting for a couple of dumb asses to roll up in a cab and take their business to his hotel. It didn’t end up being a big deal (we had AC), but definitely learned from the experience.
On Friday, we booked a trip up to HaLong Bay for a two day, one night cruise around the bay that is located on the South China Sea. The scenery turned out to be quite extraordinary, with huge mountain cliffs surging out of the sea. Both days were not ideal visibility conditions, but we still saw enough to realize how neat the place is. We booked the cruise through our con artist friend, who had assured us there would be ten ladies and we would be the only two guys….and despite the fact that I had already figured out how he had lied to us about the hostel, I still believed this promise of a boat load of girls….and as you probably guessed, he once again was completely full of sh*t. The actual group on the boat consisted of Trey, myself, a Malaysian couple in their 60’s, and a couple from Belgium in their 50’s. We still ended up having a great time, and got a lot of reading, lounging and sleeping in. I definitely recommend Halong to anyone who makes a trip to Hanoi.
We decided that despite the perk of having AC, we still wanted to go stay at the Backpacker Hostel to see how the crowd was…..and just as we walk in to book a room, I turn around and see a buddy of mine I went to school with named Sean. “Hey Sean, funny running into you here”…small world, and I immediately knew we had made a good decision to go to the hostel because I had just run into an old friend, and the place was packed with travelers. This confirmed all of my previous thoughts about hostels….if you find one that is bearable in condition, you will always find tons of fellow travelers who can give their recommendations on other places to see, and you may even run into people you know. We stayed at the hostel both Saturday and Sunday night, bar hopped with a huge group from the hostel, and visited a couple museums (I didn’t make it to the Hanoi Hilton, and although I am not happy about it, I suspect I will make it back to Hanoi at some point). Hanoi turned out to be an absolute blast, while also giving us et another perspective of a large Asian City. In comparison to the other cities we have visited, I would characterize Hanoi as possibly being the least westernized city (only saw one McDonalds), but still offering all the accommodations a traveler needs and a whole lot of character to go with it.
Monday morning marked when Trey and I had to go our separate ways. Trey is planning on continuing his travels through Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, while Monday would be my last day in Asia. Trey has an adventure ahead of him, an adventure he will do on his own….I am jealous and wish I could continue, but I have to get back for a school activity, so good luck Trey, god speed.
I got back to Bert and Merrie’s place at noon, packed up all my belongings, and then Merrie and I had planned on participating in the celebration of the Thai New Year called Songkran, which is best described as Mardi Gras meets the biggest water gun fight you have ever seen. We were both becoming quite worried as to if it was safe to go out on the streets however because of all the political protests that were going on that were becoming violent, and also the possibly of another coup occurring (3 have already occurred in the last year). The news indicated none of the protests were in the area we were at, so we decided to it was safe to join the festivities. With my gun loaded with water, we walked to where everyone was celebrating, posted up at an Irish pub, and shot water at every passer by all afternoon long. By the end of it, I was completely soaked and covered with a flour paste they use as a sign of welcoming the New Year. The party was great, and it was especially neat to see that everyone was trying to ignore all the political uprising that was going on by simply having a good time.
That night, with my fingers crossed that the airport would not shut down (the last coup forced the airport to close for a day), I said good bye to Aunt Merrie, and began my 27 hour journey back to the states. I am happy to say I made it back with not hitches in the process, and although I definitely still had plenty of energy to continue traveling, it is nice to be home.
I am planning on writing a few final thoughts about my time in Asia, so keep an eye out for my last post.
Cheers,
sbt
No comments:
Post a Comment