Hanoi

Hanoi is the capial city of Vietnam and is very different from any of the other cites that we visited in Vietnam, especially in the older parts of the city.  Unlike Saigon, whose streets are pretty uniform throughout, Hanoi's streets are much narrower in the older areas; so narrow, in fact, that people can't park on the street so everyone just parks their motorbikes up on the narrow sidewalks, perpendicular to the buildings, making it impossible to walk on the sidewalks in most places.

Couple this with the people who set up shop selling stuff or cooking stuff or eating stuff right in the middle of the sidewalk and you'd better be prepared to walk in the street alongside the cars and thousands of motorbikes that are all trying to cram down the street at the same time if you want to get anywhere in Hanoi.  

Oh, yeah, it's chaos of a spectacular sort.  And did I mention that there are no stop signs in Vietnam?  Nada, zippo, zilch.  (You should have seen the look on Buffalo's face when I asked him about them.  He was absolutely mystified)  This coupled with very few stoplights means that if you want to cross the street, you literally take your life in your hands.  The keys to crossing the street in Hanoi (and most places in Vietnam) are timing and nerves of steel.  You have to wait until traffic slows down a little bit and the nearest motorbike is no closer than 15 feet away.  Then you throw your arm up in the air and just start walking across.  Whatever you do, don't stop, don't hesitate and don't freak out.  (Much easier said than done)  The drivers here are used to people crossing street like this and although they seldom slow down for you, they are basing their trajectory on your steady forward movement.  Stopping in the street to allow an oncoming motorbike the right of way totally confuses them and you're much more likely to get creamed for yielding right of way than if you just keep plowing forward.

The houses in Hanoi are different to any we saw anywhere else in Vietnam.  Space here is so limited and land so pricey that most homes are very tall but super narrow and deep.  The bottom floor almost always houses a store of some kind that the family who lives in the house runs.  

Now let's play a little game.  It's called how many houses do you see in the following pictures?

Answer:  There are eleven houses in the first picture and twelve in the second picture.  

Some of the sights we saw in Hanoi included Ho Chi Minh's tomb, where we saw the changing of the guard.

We also saw the infamous "Hanoi Hilton," the prison where American POWs, including John McCain, were held during the Vietnam War.  

When you tour the prison, most of the focus is on how the French used it to torture and kill Vietnamese political prisoners when France controlled Vietnam.  

At the end of the tour, there are a couple of rooms dedicated to the prison's use during the Vietnam war.  As expected, very little of the information contained there agrees with the American perspective and none of it matches up with the accounts of harsh treatment and torture that came from the POWs who survived being held there, but none of us were surprised at this.  It's their country and they can tell it however they like.  Let's face it.  America does the same thing.  It was interesting to see it just the same.  

This is John McCain's flight suit and parachute.

On a happier note, we got to spend some time in the countryside while in Hanoi.  

We got to see "betel nut ladies" who showed us the results of their life-long habit.  Believe it or not, these teeth were considered fashionable until westerners started visiting Vietnam in the '90s.  Then white teeth came back into fashion.

We also were taken to a small village where we got to meet some families who lived there.  Their children were so cute!

One family took a mixture of corn, sugar, beans and a few other things that I just can't remember and put them into this weird grinder type of thing.  In seconds these hollow, fully cooked tubes that tasted like popcorn came out. It was amazing to watch.  

We also saw how they make vermicelli noodles.  The mixture they use to make the noodles is rolled super thin and flat and laid out on these straw mats in the sun to dry and is then peeled up off the mats and folded into a bundle.

The bundles are then soaked in these large vats.

Then the sheeets are fed into this machine and cut into the thin noodles.

This lady then takes the bundle of noodles, rolls them on the table next to her and then they are done.

All in all, we had a wonderful time in Vietnam.  The people were lovely, the countryside beautiful, the sights amazing.  We loved our tour guide Buffalo, and for the most part, the people in our tour group were very nice and pleasant to travel with.  Here we all are, minus the two who got lost on their way back from our farewell dinner and didn't make it back in time for the picture.

And so we say a fond farewell to beautiful Vietnam.  Until we meet again....

Contrasts

Vietnam is a land of contrasts: old and new, ancient and modern, sleek and shabby, usually existing side by side. Behold....

Halong Bay

Yesterday we went to Halong Bay.  Being able to see Halong Bay was the main reason I've wanted
to come to Vietnam.  The islands in Halong Bay are made of limestone and just jut straight up out of the water with no land at the base.  I'd seen pictures of this place many times.  I'd dreamed of coming here to see it in real life for years.  Nothing prepares you for seeing Halong Bay in real life.  Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll let the pictures do the talking on this one.  Sit back and enjoy the loveliness that is Halong Bay.

As you can see, it's a truly amazing place.  My only regret is that it was so overcast.  It would have been so much prettier with bright blue skies.  Oh, well.... At least overcast skies meant nice mild temperatures.

We cruised the bay for about five hours, stopping once to visit a cave that was discovered some years ago by fishermen who were looking for a safe place to ride out a typhoon.  It was a pretty neat place to see (tacky colored lighting aside).

Our trip to Vietnam is winding down quickly but there are still plenty of adventures to come.  Hanoi is our next and final stop.  I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.