Hanoi

Our next country is Vietnam and our plans meant our starting point was Hanoi. Our arrival at our hostel was thankfully uneventful with a good flight from Hong Kong and a very useful free pick up service from the airport which meant we didn’t have to brave the Vietnamese taxi drivers that, according to the book, are renowned for their scams on western tourists.

Hanoi is a chaotic, noisy place but with a charm and a people you can’t help but warm to. We were staying in the old quarter of Hanoi which has many French influenced buildings, many in need of much maintenance but none the less still attractive architecture. Hanoi appeared much poorer than anywhere we had been so far with more street food and make shift shops taking over the pavements. One evening we were walking down one of these streets and were very surprised to see parked in the middle of the road a Bentley GT, an odd site amongst this level of poverty. During our stay we saw similar sights including a Rolls Royce and a top of the range Ferrari doing 2 miles an hour trying to fight its way through the thousands of motorbikes. Its clear that some have big money here, but its just the very few.

The traffic is mad, thousands of motorbikes all broadly obeying the rules unlike China but still making a road crossing an adventure in itself. If you stood on the side waiting for a gap you would never cross the road, so we devised the following technique. Step slowly into the road walking at a constant speed without stopping and without running. This gives the oncoming traffic time to ride round you with the obligatory blow of the horn. Warning: this technique only works with bikes, do not try with cars as they would just run you over!

As you would imagine everything is so much cheaper in Vietnam with a typical meal costing around 2.50 per head including beer and accommodation around 6 per night. With more English speakers and more menus translated into English we have been eating more local food which is not very different to Chinese, but with more Thai type flavours. Its been great and we have had some really delicious meals (as long as you stay away from the dog meat which ironically is a delicacy here!)

On one night on the way back from a meal and not wanting to go back to our room just yet we accidentally found a jazz club playing live music. Minhs Jazz club was empty and looked like it should have shut down years ago, but feeling adventurous we went in anyway for a night cap. As the band warmed up we spotted movement at the back of the stage….a rat had decided to join the band - Cool. As the band began to play the rat took centre stage. Sitting on the speakers and generally wandering around the stage. I have to say that it added something to the music as I hate jazz!!! Rattie (as he became known) even followed us back to the room that night and kept us awake by running through the air con ducts in the hotel - Nice.

Hanoi was our first experience of almost unbearable tropical heat with it reaching 38 degrees and 90% humidity. Even a short walk out onto the street solicited monster sweating and very soon after completely wet clothes. Not nice especially when we did not always have air con at night. It was like sleeping is a sauna, however we knew we needed to get used to this as this is what its going to be like for the next 6 weeks.

With this high humidity came monsoon storms, generally in the late afternoons or evenings every day. You would always know when it was coming as the wind would pick up closely followed by the torrential rain and then wrath of god like thunderstorms. We got caught the first day not recognising the signs and being the gentleman I am, I gave Emma my poncho and walked for 30 minutes in the rain whilst being laughed at by the locals who had taken refuge. Although I was soaked to the bone, it certainly wasn’t cold and actually wasn’t too dissimilar to standing in a tepid shower with my clothes on.

With Hanoi being so small we spent most of our time wandering the streets looking at the buildings, shops and the many lakes that inhabit the centre of Hanoi. And for the second time this trip we missed the chance to see a mummified dead communist leader due to very restricted opening times at the mausoleum (Ho Chi Minh obviously has better things to do). We clearly need to do better on this side of our sight seeing, but I fear that there may not be many more mummified body opportunities!

We loved the people, loved the place and loved the food but after 3 days it was time to move on, so we organised a 3 day sailing tour around the famous Ha Long Bay which will be the subject of the next blog.

Emma & Bill