Randy's blur (and ours will continue).
Needless to say we were feeling pretty tired. We got to Hanoi at 8:30 a.m. their time (a three hour flight) and cabbed it for forty-five minutes to the Old Quarter. The cab driver and some cronies tried to scam us. We were taken to another cheap hotel and told that the Win Hotel was all booked and we would stay at their's. No way. We insisted on being taken to the Win and eventually the cabbie complied. He then had the gall to ask about a tip!!!! Reception at the Win Hotel seemed unsurprised as we told him the story. Apparently it is not unusual. We learned that you should always book the taxi through the hotel and they add it to your hotel bill so that the driver does not try to clean out your wallet.
The Win is a "boutique" hotel right in the Old Quarter. It has five floors and ten rooms and no elevator. The ceilings are all 12 feet and the rooms are small. The place is very clean and comfortable but hardly a 2 star hotel. The location however was excellent. Again we were in the heart of the action. Although tired we stepped out to find a bite of lunch. There are local cafes lining the street and around the corner we found an Italian restaurant where the pizza was excellent. We also found a French restaurant that we decided to return to later.
The hotel is a block from one of the lakes...the Lake of the Divine Turtle. We walked the 1.7 km around the lake and visited many of the local shops and side streets. We also booked tickets to an afternoon performance of the water puppets. This is a northern Vietnam art form and entertainment. We attended the four o'clock performance and I think we each missed a portion due to sagging eyelids. More walking, more shops and more shopping and we were all ready for a dinner at an excellent French restaurant- see the photo (but not the aforementioned). We wandered by circuitous routes back to our hotel and were in bed by 10:00.
On Friday
the culture shock hit. We have never felt culture shock until now. The parts of Asia we have visited have been different but this was overwhelming. Looking back I guess it started on the taxi ride when Randy tried to smack an insect and hit the seat. The fleas flew up all around her and Kim. Kim wants to believe that they were mosquitoes. This is little better given the diseases that mosquitoes carry in Vietnam. The scam from the taxi driver rolled off of us because we were so tired but I believe it had its impact. The number of motor bikes (small scooters) is also overwhelming. The roads & intersections are chaotic. There a bicycles, motor bikes, some cars, vans & trucks. Along with this there are people walking everywhere and so many ladies carrying 6 foot long poles with huge baskets hanging from each end. Crossing the street is so scary. We were told to close our eyes & just keep walking - the motor bikes would go around us!! Well, needless to say we kept our eyes opened and the vehicles did go around us! The streets of Hanoi are amazing. They are crowded with vendors of every kind. All of the store merchants sit on little 6 inch stools on the side walk. They sell everything from their store front or from woven baskets - clothes, shoes, meat, vegetables. Families sit on the little stools to eat breakfast, lunch & dinner. Barbers set up shop by hanging a mirror on a wall & men get their hair cut & faces shaved right on the sidewalk. We could not convince Bill to have a "street" hair cut! We witnessed many women having the lice picked out of their hair - on the sidewalk!!
We walked to the open fresh market. It was sooo crowded but amazing. You can buy anything there. We were not afraid but we did feel very vulnerable. At one point Bill & Kim got stuck on one side of a bridge & Randy was on the other side out of sight. We thought we'd never see her again.
She is an attraction because of her blond hair. People would stop her & ask to have their pictures taken with her. But, we did catch up with her. The streets are also very polluted & dirty - not with litter, but with the grit & grim of a dusty, dry, very crowded & very hot city. We did not do a lot of shopping.
On Friday afternoon we decided to hire a taxi & take one of the tours of the country side to visit ceramics, painters & carpenter villages. Again, the culture shock overwhelmed us. The rural areas are still using water buffalo to pull small ploughs, and the horse/pony & cart are a common mode of transport. The roads are narrow and barely passable. There are very few cars but thousands of bicycles & motor bikes. We do not know how our driver did not hit someone or how someone did not hit us! It was truly incredible but very scary. We got to the ceramics village where the local people work in huge factories to produce all of the ceramic vases, dishes, bowls etc etc that we buy in North America. I bartered long & hard to buy 3 small blue & white ceramic lidded containers. I was thrilled with my purchased at $1.00 per dish. Unfortunately, I left them on the floor of the taxi we hired!!!! Our driver got terribly lost & we ended up driving through some amazingly 3rd world villages - kids in bare feet everywhere, sellers by the side of dirt roads, pony & cart hauling, ladies walking cows through town, and no electricity, no street lights. We finally arrived at the painter's village & the driver motioned for us to go in. It was pitch dark & he was staying in the car. All of our alarm bells went off & we said no - take us back to Hanoi. We really believe that he was not trying to lead us into any trouble but we did not want to take any chances in the dark.
On Saturday morning we took a tour of Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, his home and the Temple of literature dating back to 1067. All of these sights were fabulous & our guide was great. People in Vietnam love Ho Chi Minh. Although it is a Communist country, this is the only place where we felt the Communist presence. We kept looking for the downtown, city area. We discovered that there really was not a central city area. They seem to have rebuilt the city in the past 20-25 years in a bit of a scattered manner. When we asked a concierge at the Hanoi Hotel for a city tour - she replied that the wasn't one because there was nothing to see!! The devastating history of the US carpet bombing of Hanoi is horrible. But, everything is referred to in US terms and dollars. It is truly an acceptance attitude that escaped our comprehension. We learned so much in Hanoi. It is truly one of the experiences we will never forget.
Needless to say we were feeling pretty tired. We got to Hanoi at 8:30 a.m. their time (a three hour flight) and cabbed it for forty-five minutes to the Old Quarter. The cab driver and some cronies tried to scam us. We were taken to another cheap hotel and told that the Win Hotel was all booked and we would stay at their's. No way. We insisted on being taken to the Win and eventually the cabbie complied. He then had the gall to ask about a tip!!!! Reception at the Win Hotel seemed unsurprised as we told him the story. Apparently it is not unusual. We learned that you should always book the taxi through the hotel and they add it to your hotel bill so that the driver does not try to clean out your wallet.
The Win is a "boutique" hotel right in the Old Quarter. It has five floors and ten rooms and no elevator. The ceilings are all 12 feet and the rooms are small. The place is very clean and comfortable but hardly a 2 star hotel. The location however was excellent. Again we were in the heart of the action. Although tired we stepped out to find a bite of lunch. There are local cafes lining the street and around the corner we found an Italian restaurant where the pizza was excellent. We also found a French restaurant that we decided to return to later.The hotel is a block from one of the lakes...the Lake of the Divine Turtle. We walked the 1.7 km around the lake and visited many of the local shops and side streets. We also booked tickets to an afternoon performance of the water puppets. This is a northern Vietnam art form and entertainment. We attended the four o'clock performance and I think we each missed a portion due to sagging eyelids. More walking, more shops and more shopping and we were all ready for a dinner at an excellent French restaurant- see the photo (but not the aforementioned). We wandered by circuitous routes back to our hotel and were in bed by 10:00.
On Friday
the culture shock hit. We have never felt culture shock until now. The parts of Asia we have visited have been different but this was overwhelming. Looking back I guess it started on the taxi ride when Randy tried to smack an insect and hit the seat. The fleas flew up all around her and Kim. Kim wants to believe that they were mosquitoes. This is little better given the diseases that mosquitoes carry in Vietnam. The scam from the taxi driver rolled off of us because we were so tired but I believe it had its impact. The number of motor bikes (small scooters) is also overwhelming. The roads & intersections are chaotic. There a bicycles, motor bikes, some cars, vans & trucks. Along with this there are people walking everywhere and so many ladies carrying 6 foot long poles with huge baskets hanging from each end. Crossing the street is so scary. We were told to close our eyes & just keep walking - the motor bikes would go around us!! Well, needless to say we kept our eyes opened and the vehicles did go around us! The streets of Hanoi are amazing. They are crowded with vendors of every kind. All of the store merchants sit on little 6 inch stools on the side walk. They sell everything from their store front or from woven baskets - clothes, shoes, meat, vegetables. Families sit on the little stools to eat breakfast, lunch & dinner. Barbers set up shop by hanging a mirror on a wall & men get their hair cut & faces shaved right on the sidewalk. We could not convince Bill to have a "street" hair cut! We witnessed many women having the lice picked out of their hair - on the sidewalk!!We walked to the open fresh market. It was sooo crowded but amazing. You can buy anything there. We were not afraid but we did feel very vulnerable. At one point Bill & Kim got stuck on one side of a bridge & Randy was on the other side out of sight. We thought we'd never see her again.
She is an attraction because of her blond hair. People would stop her & ask to have their pictures taken with her. But, we did catch up with her. The streets are also very polluted & dirty - not with litter, but with the grit & grim of a dusty, dry, very crowded & very hot city. We did not do a lot of shopping.On Friday afternoon we decided to hire a taxi & take one of the tours of the country side to visit ceramics, painters & carpenter villages. Again, the culture shock overwhelmed us. The rural areas are still using water buffalo to pull small ploughs, and the horse/pony & cart are a common mode of transport. The roads are narrow and barely passable. There are very few cars but thousands of bicycles & motor bikes. We do not know how our driver did not hit someone or how someone did not hit us! It was truly incredible but very scary. We got to the ceramics village where the local people work in huge factories to produce all of the ceramic vases, dishes, bowls etc etc that we buy in North America. I bartered long & hard to buy 3 small blue & white ceramic lidded containers. I was thrilled with my purchased at $1.00 per dish. Unfortunately, I left them on the floor of the taxi we hired!!!! Our driver got terribly lost & we ended up driving through some amazingly 3rd world villages - kids in bare feet everywhere, sellers by the side of dirt roads, pony & cart hauling, ladies walking cows through town, and no electricity, no street lights. We finally arrived at the painter's village & the driver motioned for us to go in. It was pitch dark & he was staying in the car. All of our alarm bells went off & we said no - take us back to Hanoi. We really believe that he was not trying to lead us into any trouble but we did not want to take any chances in the dark.
On Saturday morning we took a tour of Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, his home and the Temple of literature dating back to 1067. All of these sights were fabulous & our guide was great. People in Vietnam love Ho Chi Minh. Although it is a Communist country, this is the only place where we felt the Communist presence. We kept looking for the downtown, city area. We discovered that there really was not a central city area. They seem to have rebuilt the city in the past 20-25 years in a bit of a scattered manner. When we asked a concierge at the Hanoi Hotel for a city tour - she replied that the wasn't one because there was nothing to see!! The devastating history of the US carpet bombing of Hanoi is horrible. But, everything is referred to in US terms and dollars. It is truly an acceptance attitude that escaped our comprehension. We learned so much in Hanoi. It is truly one of the experiences we will never forget.
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