Exploring Hanoi - Part 1



Thursday, January 3, 2008

Since this was going to be our only full day in Hanoi we decided to get up early and make the most of it (we would end up nearly killing ourselves in the process but ... that's the price you pay for having an action-packed day).

First off, we avoided the front desk clerk who wanted to steer us to his lackey's (probably wretched) tour of Halong Bay. One of the cool Aussie-dudes we befriended at our Kampot guesthouse, Tony, had given us a business card for the Kangaroo Cafe, located just a few blocks away from our hotel. Tony had such a great time on this tour and since the price was more than reasonable we thought this would be a good deal. Like we stated before, it turned out that in-person recommendations were better than anything from the guidebooks.

En route to the Cafe we passed St. Joseph's -- the cathedral we had seen the previous evening. Tons of children in school uniforms (from the Catholic School next door) were lining up, chanting, dancing, playing, acting goofy, and doing all sorts of things that kids in every country do before school starts in the morning. For some reason we half-expected some sort of weird, somber Marxist rituals (similar to what we saw in Laos): saluting to the hammer and sickle; grave speeches about the works of Uncle Ho and collective empowerment; the horrors of corrupt Western culture, etc, but these kids behaved like ... normal kids. This was refreshing. We walked around the students to the back entrance of the church and walked inside. It was a beautiful, though typical, Catholic Church, and it was still bedecked in Christmas regalia. How the official regime reconciles itself with such an extreme example of western representation is something we didn't have time to figure out. Though Vietnam is listed as 90% atheist, I guess freedom of religion is a possibility. Whatever. We left the church and headed for far more important intellectual pursuits -- CAFFEINE.

Ahhh...sweet Jesus... the search for so noble a necessity paid off better than we could have possibly hoped! The Moca Cafe was the hip, bohemian-looking coffeehouse we had noticed the previous evening. For some reason we didn't save the business card of this wonderful joint but we do have the receipt -- go figure! It appears we had cafe au lait, cafe mocha, crepes and french toast! TASTY FOOD AND STRONG COFFEE. What more can a person want in life? Though we had nothing against Vietnamese food (particularly not the stuff we ate in Hoi An just days before) it was great to be able to sample a western breakfast once in awhile -- particularly when it was done as well as the folks did it here. Judging from the architecture of this structure we surmised that it was built during the French colonial period...fortunately it wasn't bombed by the Americans or -- worse yet -- re-developed into some hideous-looking Russian-style apartment complex. One could easily imagine the elite French in the early '50s, sipping their coffee for hours on end and discussing the rapidly deteriorating political situation of the day...

Leaving one cafe for another...

We quickly found the Kangaroo Cafe and looked over their "menu" selection of trips to choose from. While it was possible to do Halong Bay in one day, this had been discouraged by everyone -- it would take several hours just to get to the Bay and by then we'd only have a couple of hours to experience it, then we'd have to head back. Forget that! We opted for reserving the overnight boat trip which would only cost $75.00 each. After signing off on some liability forms and told to bring a bathing towel (which would turn out to be completely useless) and our passports, we were instructed to meet back at the cafe early the next morning to meet up with our fellow travelers and board the bus to the Bay.

Having taken care of this important task we headed out towards Hoan Kiem Lake. Along the way we enjoyed checking out the odd mixture of French and Vietnamese architecture, the sophisticated boutiques and clothing stores, etc. So far, this city was proving far more interesting than Saigon. This was bewildering as it went against all the advice in the guidebooks and the (mostly second-hand) stories we heard from other travelers. It was a pity that we couldn't stay for a week or so in this interesting city. One thing Hanoi shared in common with its sister city to the South -- the bizarre, ungodly (no pun intended) TRAFFIC NIGHTMARES which enshrouded every street. If we had not mentioned it before -- none of the cities in our travels so far have embraced Western-style traffic signals or laws. It's pretty much drive wherever you can and try not to kill anyone. That said, in our 28 days traveling we only witnessed a single accident -- and after the fact at that (more on this later). As others have mentioned elsewhere, when crossing a busy street you look both ways but walk out amidst the traffic. The idea is that since it's mostly motor bikes even if you get hit you probably won't be killed because they are only going 10-20 MPH. Plus the idea is that they drive around you and anticipate their piloting with you in mind... it's hard to explain unless you have actually experienced it. Laura was a pro -- she should really teach a class in this -- she would walk out without waiting for Charles and confidently forge ahead as if daring the motorbikes to hit her! The fact of the matter was that you had to just walk out in traffic, otherwise you would have to wait forever for a clearing in the traffic to open. So you would just walk off the curb and proceed while motorbikes or cars flowed around you (Laura wrote that last sentence -- what she forgot to mention is that you are supposed to look both ways when you cross -- something she didn't do in any of the countries we visited!) Click here for a link to a video from TripAdvisor that shows a couple crossing the street in Saigon - this could have been us crossing in any city in SE Asia --Hanoi, Phenom Penh, etc.

We reached the Lake. It is well-described from thingsasian.com:

Hoan Kiem Lake means "Lake of the Restored Sword" referring to some legendary fifteenth century Vietnamese hero, whose magical sword - so the story goes - was swallowed by a golden tortoise. Hence on a tiny island in the middle of the lake stands appropriately "Tortoise Tower," an ancient three-tiered pavilion in memory of the famed tortoise. On another islet to the north, inside the fourteenth century Den Ngoc Son Temple, a giant preserved turtle encased in glass keeps the legend alive. This picturesque temple is linked to the shore by the red-lacquered Huc Bridge, which is resplendently mirrored in the murky waters below.

Upon reaching the very-cool, red-lacquered Bridge we attempted a photo from another tourist. Unfortunately the locals don't seem to care too much about this sort of nonsense, hence our sad results:







Ok...this is getting to be a long post so we'll make this "part one" and post "part two" next...

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