Mandy: 19th September – 2nd October
Since I last wrote on the blog about Hanoi I found myself getting less irritated and more enamoured with it, and the people there. We loved our twelve days in the Old Quarter of Vietnam’s capital city. Punctuated beautifully by a weekend to HaLong Bay for a night on a wooden junk in Bái Tử Long Bay to celebrate Glen’s birthday.
As I type this we are sat on a sleeper train bound for Hue. Hue (pronounced Hway) is nearly half way down the country and has seen a typhoon cross the area into Laos in the last few days. Yesterdays train was cancelled so we are lucky to be making our way towards another new place to explore, criticise (wink) or enthuse about. We are in a small cabin of four beds that we are sharing with two French Canadian girls. They asked if we were retired!! (Cheeky!) and did we have children back home? Glen said we had two aged three and five!!! (Chuckle) ……. just need to add 20 to those ages!
As we pull out of Hanoi station on our scheduled thirteen hour train journey I think about our experiences here. I am going to write to the Vietnamese authorities and suggest that when they issue visa’s they should not just take our money and stamp our passports but make it obligatory that everyone leaves the airport and heads straight for the Vietnamese Women’s Museum and The old Hanoi Prison Museum. If we had visited these places on our first day here we would have had empathy with the pushy, bland faced street vendors peddling their wears from the bamboo yokes. I realise now that I owe them all an apology. We watched a video, at the Museum, of some of them being interviewed. They explained the reason for coming in to Hanoi town from their villages. Starting In the early hours of the morning (buying fruit or flowers etc from the markets at 3am) and selling until everything was gone in the evening. They leave their children and husbands at home in their villages and only go home every few weeks to take money back to support the family and pay for their children’s schooling. I felt bad for being so dismissive and annoyed with them for their persistence…… and as for saying people don’t seem very friendly or happy, no wonder!!!
People work very long hours here (and in Asia generally) we have seen so many people asleep in shops, across their food carts, in their Cyclos etc. I wish I had taken a photo of the man asleep laying on his bike with his mobile phone on his head, in case he got a call for business I guess.
We hoped this guy was just asleep!!!
Today we walked through a narrow back street to take a short cut and saw people sat in tiny rooms, whole families sat on the floor together and one old lady on the floor asleep on a thin bamboo mat in a room just big enough for her to lie down. They seem to live with their doors open on to the street and some sell simple glasses of black tea etc, trying to make a little money however they can. One lady had ground and dried herbs and was sieving them through a bamboo tray on the pavement. It is a whole different way of life here, there are a lot of poor people who live simple lives but although they don’t smile all the time they do not seem stressed either. There is a very strange lack of stress shown in their faces especially in the manic traffic. No road rage here!
We have come across a lot of friendly people in the days that followed the dreaded forth day and are so glad we stayed here longer and changed our view of Hanoi. We walked further afield and came across the affluent side of Hanoi too.
This has been one of the coolest and the hottest and most humid places we have visited in Asia so far and all in the space of a fortnight.
Rain coming down in the middle of the hotel in their open lobby area! Why would you have an open lobby in a country that gets so much rain?
There are many reasons we have come to understand and love Hanoi and its people. One day we were stood looking to cross a wide road by the Hoàn Kiếm Lake which has cars on so it is more difficult to just walk out as we know they can’t weave around us so easily as bikes can. So we stood there for what was obviously quite a while then we saw a tiny young women coming across towards us (she had a beige-brown dress on and Glen said she looked like a Brownie!) She had crossed the road with the sole purpose of helping us and said “l saw you standing there for a while trying to cross the road, this is how you do it” and before we knew it she had guided up through the mad stream of motorbikes and cars safely to the other side! (Glen said she had earned herself another Brownie badge for helping some old folk! (Chuckle).
Tunnel houses
The houses and hotels here are very narrow and very tall and go back along way. In the confines of the old quarter you can understand but we saw large areas of new houses built on large plots in the same way with lots of space around them (which looked really odd!) so it isn’t because they do not have the space. Maybe they pay a ground tax or something…. I need to find out about that.
We were surprised what little English they speak here when they have clearly had a steady stream of tourists for many many years. It makes for interesting ordering in street food ‘cafes’ when we basically have to end up sitting there and waiting to see what they bring out!
Not the most upmarket place we have dined in! Mum you would’ve had forty fits! But the food was good!
I found myself doing impressions of a cow when asking for milk for my Coffee one day. It didn’t help and to be honest it was a little misleading when they often use soya milk!!
I have said before how they do not smile and have blank expressions well I made one man smile the other day. We were walking along the street when I felt a tickle on my foot… I glanced down and saw what looked like a HUGE Ginger ‘spider’ on my foot. Well all I could see were very long legs. Before I could focus I found myself doing an involuntary impression of a Morris Dancer. I was jumping up and down on my right foot shaking my left leg violently and side kicking uncontrollably long after I knew I must have dislodged the giant insect but I couldn’t help it. The thought that I could have just itched my foot on the back of my leg and squashed it against my calf was freaking me out! Well I must have looked ridiculous but it certainly got smiles from the locals. One man was beaming. I took a photo of it and then walked off quickly as he had a glint in his eye (the man not the insect) the sort that I remember seeing in young boys in the playground who would chase you with such things…. Anyone know what Sean Grant is up to these days? (Smile)
In hindsight I wish I had taken a photo before violently shaking it off so you could see how large it was but like I said it all happened beyond my control. It made me wonder what would happen to one of those high-rise Tightrope walkers if something landed on them! You never know how you will react! Foolish hobby.
I would like to make an amendment to the last Hanoi blog. Apparently ‘Coolie hat’ is offensive term for those hats so apologies to any Asian people who have happened upon the blog. I should have called it a Conical hat although in Vietnam the name is nón lá (leaf hat) apparently.
On my favourite subject of health and safety just look at this street we came across with a train track running down close between the houses! There are things on the track becuase the train only uses it twice a day. The people have left small plastic chairs and a table on the tracks and various other items!
Here is a video we came across on the internet of a train coming down this street!
One of the good things about Hanoi is the French crusty bread! A benefit of the French colonial history. It was a lovely surprise after three months of flat baladi bread in Egypt and then sweet sliced type bread in Asia for the last two months. They also served real (refrigerated) butter too.
On Ngoc Son Temple island, Hoan Kiem Lake
Things on bikes
We really need to stop taking photos of things on bikes now but just when you think you have seen it all…..
We watched a lady load this double Mattress on to this man’s bike! She was laughing too!
We were originally looking at this couple because the girl had pyjamas on (not a unusual sight but it was early afternoon)….. I wonder if the man with the mattress was on his way to them? (wink)
Yet more amazing photos love them, take care you two! X
When Mandy said she was slipping on a little see through number, this wasn’t what I had in mind! ; )
Hahahaha, very good Glen, xx