After being on a bus for 24 hours it was quite daunting to arrive in a city with 8 million people. We successfully managed to avoid being run over by a motorbike on the quiet back streets of the old quarter and made it to our hotel, Hanoi Guesthouse.
The warm welcome we received from the staff was heavenly after our "frosty" reception in Laos. I already had the feeling we were going to like Vietnam and its people!
Hanoi is impressive from the outset, there is so much to see and do here! Although you have to have your wits about you if you want to arrive anywhere in one piece as crossing the road is "challenging". I generally followed the locals past the traffic or just closed my eyes and let the motorbikes avoid me. By the third day it was a breeze and I felt like a local!
On the first day we visited the Womens Museum - the fact that a whole museum has been dedicated to the female war effort / child bearing / fashion and their lives in general also made me realise that women are held in much higher regard here than in certain neighbouring countries ; )
It was interesting to read about the women who travel from the countryside to work in Hanoi and make whatever living they can selling fruit and cakes etc. They work from 2am when the markets open until they have sold every last item in the evening. From the moment you arrive in the city you are hounded by these ladies, however it does pull at your heart strings so I got talked into buying some donuts I didn't want which were more expensive than our evening meal (5 dollars), hardly daylight robbery! However they have become wise to an easier way to make a quick buck - Nat got caught offguard when one lady gave her the fruit basket to carry and demanded a photograph in return (in exchange for money) we successful avoided this scam -although it was mildly amusing to watch the others who didnt and ended up being chased down the street for money!
The next day we visited the infamous Ho Chi Minh house on stilts and mausoleum. Pictures of "Uncle Ho" can be seen everywhere in Hanoi but unfortunately his story is not told in any kind of logical order in the museum so we still have a bit of a hazy picture of this section of Vietnamese history. It is clear that his communist ideals have helped to achieve a lot in this country and his aim for Vietnam to become an industrialised country by 2020 is clearly going to be achieved as most of Hanoi and the outskirts of the city is one giant building site. Piles of bricks line every street and even in the space of time we were here we saw new buildings go up in days! Even our guesthouse was joining in on the act as they decided "out of the blue" to rip out the downstairs toilet and replace it - all in one days work! I admere the entrepreneurial spirit of the people here.
During our stay in Hanoi we took a two day cruise to the Halong Bay, which despite the unfortunate cold and cloudly weather was beautiful. The Vietnamese are trying to have the Bay named as the 7th Natural Wonder of the World and it is clear why, however it isn't quite the idyllic picture postcard you would hope for as your boat is followed out into the bay by about 50 other cruise ships. The first stop is at the most "amazing" cave - yep that's what it is called! Some of the charm of the amazing cave is taken away when about 600 other people are all squashed inside. The tour guide didn't help lift this feeling as he pointed out which rock shapes looked like monkey's, feet, two chickens kissing .....I mean really? Can't we just appreciate them for the rocks they are and not reduce it to kindergarten entertainment! (Sorry after the 100 time he pointed out a shape it wore a bit thin and as most of our group was made up of Brits we were all completely cynical and sarcastic which was far more entertaining!) The caves were lovely though.
Following this we were given our very own kayak to go exploring in the caves around the bay - inbetween some very large cruise ships. This is quite an adrenalin rush as you dodge the larger boats who are frantically beeping at you to move out of the way - don't you just love the health and safety precautions here - oh wait we were give a life jacket ; ) In all seriousness Kayaking was great fun. Then it was back on the cruise ship to watch the sun go down - oops missed it, its too cloudy....well to watch the scenery as night falls.
We had a delicious evening meal on board and chatted to some nice Australian girls, who very kindly gave me a cocktail, and a lovely family from London who were away with their 3 sons. Following dinner we were all geared up for the fishing and karaoke but unfortunately the tour guide conveniently disappeared (I think he was sick of us for not joining in the rock shape game). We played cards instead.
Next day we cruised back to the mainland and on to Hanoi again.
We also spent Christmas in the city, unfortunately, as inevidently happens on these trips, I become very poorly with a stomach bug on Christmas Eve and so we missed all the celebrations as I had to stay in bed. About 10% of the population are Catholic so some people do celebrate Christmas and there was a nice atmosphere outside the Cathedral on Christmas Day. We listened to some Vietnamese carols but otherwise it felt like a normal day as the city was just as busy as normal and all the shops were open so we went to the cinema and watched Mission Impossible 4 (surprisingly quite good) and then went for a turkey dinner at a Belgium restaurant ....as its just not the same without turkey!
After having such a great time in Hanoi we decided to head further south to the coast and took a flight (a treat as its 15 hours by train) to Da Nang.
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