Hanoi, Vietnam – February 22 – 27
We had a leisurely morning today packing, and I even got to swim some laps in Brian’s beautiful pool. At 12:00 the girls made us a lovely lunch and then the young guys came to carry all our heavy bags down ALL THOSE STEPS to the truck to take us to the airport. We got there only to find that our flight was delayed by 1 ½ hours, so we had a Thai foot massage for 100 baht (about $3.50) while we were waiting. Of course I was overweight with my three bags so had to pay $100 US..however, it is a small price to pay for all our shopping fun – AND we still have 5 days in Vietnam to go! 😉
The airport in Bangkok was a complete nightmare! We arrived very late and had almost no time to get to our flight to Hanoi. We must have run two miles, had to go through security again, and got to the new gate, only to find that they had changed the gate to another terminal. Again, we ran another mile and found we had to go through security AGAIN. When I went through, the girl there asked me about the wonderful hat I had bought for Gretchen and how much it cost (a leather cowboy hat covered in Thai beer cans with elephants on them). I think she must have held it back in the machine, so when we were rushing and it was not there, I just completely forgot, and we ran on to the next gate where the flight was boarding (we thought), so there was no time to go back,. ( I suspect that girl is now wearing Gretchen’s hat..BUMMER!!!!) After we gave them our tickets, they put us on a bus and then drove us back to the VERY SAME GATE and the VERY SAME PLANE we came in on! Not only did we almost kill ourselves running, but I lost the most perfect gift I had gotten for my daughter.
We got to Hanoi, and the person from the hotel was waiting for us. We drove about 45 minutes and then turned into some tiny, narrow, dirty side streets with people and motor cycles and noise everywhere. Our hotel ended up being in the middle of one of those streets which did not thrill us. (It was a small boutique hotel recommended by one of Nancy’s friends, and it was only $60 a night for two, so that is why we had chosen it.) The room was clean, but both of us were feeling uncomfortable, and the final decision came when at 6:45 am a call to prayer and Asian music was blasted on a loud speaker right outside our window! We found out later that it is a government-controlled way to get the people off to work. That morning we packed up, took a cab to the Hilton, and breathed a sigh of relief to be in a place that, though MUCH more expensive, was not chaotic and a bit scary!
That afternoon we booked a half day tour of the city which was an amazing experience. We learned two Vietnamese expressions (phonetic spellings): “sin chow” = “Hello” and “come oon” which is “thank you.” We were told that there are 4 million people in Hanoi and 2 million motorcycles, and the chaos of traffic, including all the rickshaws, was absolutely awesome. We could not believe that there were not more accidents, but it almost began to feel like a kind of wild dance as they were all integrated into the flow. The first hour we each were put into a rickshaw pedaled by a Vietnamese man. We rode for an hour through the narrow streets of Old Hanoi. There were people and motorcycles everywhere with women balancing two large baskets of fruit and veggies on long poles like you see in all the pictures, bikes carrying HUGE loads of things, people sitting on the curbs eating lunch, and others selling their small goods.
There were certain streets for everything – blocks and blocks of nothing but shoes, then blocks of toys, hardware, flowers, tires, gift items, clothing, etc. It was truly a Shopper’s Heaven! 😉 One thing we noticed was that they bring their motorcycles right into the stores with them, something that we have never seen in a country before. Even though we did not get out of the rickshaw, we filed certain places in our memory for our last day there when we will do OUR shopping tour. In some ways we felt like we were taking our lives in our hands to ride this way; however, it does somehow work.
Our guide explained that the Vietnamese culture is based on Buddhism, Confucianism, and Communism, and the three all work together. There are four animals revered in Vietnam: the dragon for power (interestingly, their dragons have no wings and no fire, so they are friendly); the Unicorn for peace (their version has a dragon head and a horse body); the phoenix for prosperity and beauty; and the turtle for longevity and long life.
After the rickshaw experience. we met our driver and went on to the Temple of Literatures which was built in 1070 as a part of the transition from Chinese rule to independence when they had to come up with their own educational system. The king founded a special school for only the elite scholars of Vietnam as a kind of graduate school. The top three of these scholars were chosen each year to be Doctors of Philosophy, and their names were inscribed on Stelea or tablets surrounding the courtyard. All of these had turtles at the foot of them, indicating the hope that these wise scholars would never die.
The temple consists of five courtyards for the five elements: water, fire, wood, metal, and soil. Although they were trying to break away, the Chinese influence was very dominant throughout the temple. While most of the statues we saw in Thailand were of the Buddha, here they seem to honor Confuscius in most of them.
Next we went to Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum. We got there just as they were doing the changing of the guards which only happens every two hours, so we were lucky. The whole place is built around a square, reminding me of Tienamin Square in China, and is quite well keptt, unlike some of the other places we have visited in Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh’s body lies in state in the mausoleum; however, it is only open in the morning, so we did not get to go inside. He was a very simple man with a simple lifestyle, and he never married. We saw the “House on Stilts” where he lived the last 11 years of his life. It was very sparse, and I was most interested by a bomb shelter built right next to the house. He died in 1969 at 70 years of age. All the complex was painted in a dark gold color. It was interesting that we saw almost no flowers in any of the public places we visited in Vietnam. Almost everything was brown and dry.
We then went to see the “One Pillar Pagoda.” It was built in the 10th century. The king had a dream that there was a female Buddha sitting on a lotus flower holding a baby. His wife soon got pregnant and delivered him a son, so to celebrate the answer to his dream, he built the pagoda after what he saw in the dream. It is built on one large cement pillar with an altar with the Buddha and baby at the top.
It is interesting that even though North Vietnam was our enemy in the war, there seems to be no animosity for the American people here. Everyone has been very friendly and helpful. We have noticed, however, that there is definite male dominance. They say that is changing, but in the past women have had no status in the society. I always smile when people refer to their money. It is called “dong,” and $1 US is about 18,000 dong. One million dong = about $60 US, so Nancy and I are BIG spenders! 😉 Another person told us that the average income of the Vietnamese people is $600, so $1 US is a big tip .
Later that day when we returned, we got our courage up and walked to the Q & T spa which had been recommended by the hotel. We intrepidly crossed several streets in the midst of all the chaos but thank goodness, made it safely! We each had scheduled a full body massage for $25 for 60 minutes and then the best of all, a shampoo and blow dry for $5. As a part of this, they gave us each a 15 minute head massage that was the highlight. Then we walked to Bobby Chinn’s, a very nice restaurant, and had wonderful seafood and wine. We both really slept well that night!
On Sunday we took a bus at 8:00 am for a three hour ride to do an overnight cruise on a Junk boat to Halong Bay, one of the most famous places in Vietnam. We shared the ride with Kristen and Ali, a darling couple from Atlanta. Of course, THEY teased me about how much stuff I had, even for an overnight. I said, “Just you wait-if you run out of anything, you will be coming to me.” ( I guess I will never learn to pack light! 😉
It was a very interesting ride through the countryside of Vietnam. Their houses are very tall and narrow, usually three stories, and are painted in bright colors (lots of yellow and gold). However, we noticed that most of them were only painted on the front. The side walls were bare cement. The bottom floor was always the garage. We saw many fields of rice paddies, and we were amazed that their cemeteries are right in the middle of the rice fields. There were people working in the fields, water buffalos, and scenes right out of the travel magazines!
We arrived at the meeting spot for the boat about noon and went by dinghy to our ship. I have many pictures of the little junks with the sails up. They just hold about 40 people and are four stories tall, two levels of sleeping rooms and then a dining room area and a deck on top. There were 8 English speakers, Vanessa and Larry from Rhode Island, Ali and Kristen from Atlanta, and Lucille and Keith from Perth, Australia. We had lots of fun together and shared many experiences even in such a short time. The other passengers were a large group from France. The rooms were not great, but the service and the food was wonderful.
Halong Bay is filled with huge volcanic boulders and small, floating fishing villages. It would be a very lonely life and yet it is probably all they know. Children would paddle homemade canoe-type boats out to our ship to try to sell us abalone shells. The scenery was absolutely spectacular, and we saw many, many boats, large and small. It was peaceful and very inspiring.
After lunch on the boat, we boarded the dinghy again to see the famous caves on one of the islands. They were huge.and involved lots of stairs to climb to get there. Later we were supposed to go to one of the fishing villages, but it started to rain and it was hard to see in the mist, so we were not able to do that. That evening after dinner Nancy and I each had a back massage, and after that wonderful relaxation, we both went to bed. Any of you who know me will be most AMAZED that I went to bed at 9:00 pm!!!!! 😉 We heard the other passengers doing squid fishing and having fun, but it was only through a fog..as we were so wiped out.
The next day we had breakfast, sailed for about an hour, and finally arrived back at the docking station. On the way we accidentally hit another boat and some angry words were shared. We were tickled that curses and hand signs seem to be universal! Our van was waiting, and we had another 3 hour drive through the countryside back to the hotel. It seemed much longer than it did the day before, but we did enjoy the scenery. We saw many weddings, both in the country and back in the city. We later found out that it was an “auspicious” day according to the lunar calendar, and since the Vietnamese are quite superstitious, they follow this calendar in making all kinds of decisions in their lives.
After we got back, we had lunch with Ali and Kristen (we were delighted to be able to get a pizza, and it was good, too!) and then walked to see the Water Puppet show. There were little vignettes with lots of dragons, snakes, fish, and even children playing that celebrated life in Vietnam. The puppeteers control the puppets with a long stick under the water, and it was amazing to see all the movement they could get from them. The other thing that impressed us was that the tickets were less than $2, so that makes it possible for most Vietnamese to bring their children. Afterwards we all went to our now favorite spa and had facials and Ali had a 4-hand massage..sigh. Then Ali and Kristen treated us to a wonderful Vietnamese dinner at one of Hanoi’s famous restaurants. We were fascinated with a sweet dessert made of green beans!
Our last day in Vietnam was a MEGA SHOPPING day (even though I told Nancy that morning that I really did not need anything else ;-)- we had such fun, especially buying things for the children in the family. We did notice that they do not bargain nearly as much as in other Asian countries, and they were not nearly so aggressive. It was interesting that all prices were in US dollars, which tells you who their primary tourist buyers are! My favorite purchase was a quilted silk jacket with hand embroidery which they custom made for $70 and delivered to our hotel only 6 hours later! That day we took a different walking route and saw a much better section of the city which gave us a different perspective on life there. We also walked through a flower and vegetable market which was fascinating – meat out everywhere, all kinds of strange fruits (one we found out acts like Viagra!) and plastic tubs with live snakes, crabs, and fish swimming around,
After we ran out of steam and money, we went back to “our” spa and had a massage and another shampoo and blow dry. They have no sense of modesty and expected you to undress right in front of them while the whole time the door to the lobby was opening and closing which was a bit uncomfortable, yet we both felt that the end result was well worth a little discomfort! I have never had such wonderful massages, and the head massage with the shampoo was the best treat of all. We wish we could take these little girls home with us! The pampering was perhaps the best part (although the shopping was a close second.) of our trip to Hanoi!
That evening we had our farewell dinner at a lovely restaurant called Wild Rice. We kept being amazed at how cheap the taxis are here. For example, a 45 minute – 1 hour trip to the airport was only $12 – 14. We madly packed (of course, now I had three very heavy, very full bags!) and got to bed by 11:30 for an early morning flight. We have really enjoyed the beautiful breakfasts at the Hilton -wonderful fresh fruit and foods from every country. We were in the taxi by 8:30am and arrived at the typically chaotic international terminal about 9:30. One thing that really threw me was that China Airlines only allows ONE carry on bag per passenger and it cannot weigh more than 8 kilos, so of course I was in big trouble. I went back to the counter and begged and finally did get permission to take on two bags…sigh of relief! This was the first time this has ever happened,
We decided that our major impression of Vietnam is that “MOTORCYCLES RULE!” Not only are they everywhere (4 million people and 2 million motorcycles), but they also seem to take control of life there. Stoplights are only for cars, they are parked everywhere on the sidewalks, so most of the time you have to walk in the street, and they even take them right into the stores. We saw an unbelievable amount of stuff piled on them – including a pig, huge bundles of fabrics, 5 water cooler jugs of water, and about anything else you can imagine. They build little wooden platforms on the back seat to hold extra things. We often saw whole families on one bike, and they weave in and out of traffic in almost a kind of dance.
Other things we noticed were that most people eat right out on the sidewalk. They have kerosene cook stoves and of course access to all kinds of fresh veggies and fruits, and they sit on little stools at makeshift tables. The people here seem much more solemn and less happy than those in Thailand or even India, perhaps because of the impact of communism. There was, however, a sense of enterprise as people had set up little stalls and selling stations everywhere.
The smog in Hanoi was terrible, a fog surrounding everything, and car horns pierced the air day and night. We noticed bigger cars here than in the other countries, and of course motorcycles everywhere. Very few signs were in English yet almost all the prices were! We smiled on the day we left because it was only about 55 degrees yet everyone was bundled up with heavy coats, scarves, and hats. Little do they know about cold!
A couple of things we learned about future travel were that you can hire university student guides who do not charge a fee but simply want to practice their English and their tour guiding skills. The website is casualtours.com. Also, several of the people we met said they had learned a lot about the country and where to go and not to go as well as cautions at traveladvisor.com.
Nancy and I decided that these were the following themes for our experience in each country:
India – Flexibility, adaptability and hope
Thailand – Happy people and beauty
Vietnam – Motorcycles rule!
All in all, it was a wonderful trip and we knew we were being watched over; however, we will be glad to get back to the USA tomorrow. I have another few days of speaking in LA and Anaheim to Southern California Edison and to Blue Cross Blue Shield and then will fly to Atlanta and then home to Sarasota after one hectic month of traveling around the world. We learned a lot, met many wonderful people, experienced many new things, and came home with treasures for everyone. I feel very blessed to be able to see so much of our amazing world!
