Finding my Feet

Our first experience of Vietnam - the daily Monsoon! The lady in the picture ran across the road to sell us rain ponchos - clever marketing!
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We arrived this morning to clean and minimalist airport at Hanoi, met up with the rest of the group and our tour leader and drove to the hotel. The immigration check was the scariest thing I've ever done! It feels like I’m watching a 3D version of the Vietnam DVD. It’s exactly like it should be: humid, muggy but dull and monsoony. There are motorbikes EVERYWHERE and zero traffic rules. The advice we got was to walk slowly but confidently rather than panic and stop or run when dealing with the traffic. It turned out to be completely accurate – in the whole time I was in Vietnam I didn’t see a single crash or even near miss; what seems like chaos to us turned out to be an intricately controlled system of courtesy and understanding. Besides, it’s not in their vested interest to hit anybody.

Tai Chi by Hoan Kiem Lake - I had to set my alarm mega-early but it was so worth it!!!
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I’ve been given a room on my own tonight in the ‘Chains First Eden’ hotel, which is lonely but we’re going to rotate between the three single women. And its also nice to spread out. Like we were to do in all the new places on the trip, we literally dumped our things and went straight back out for a wander around the Old Quarter. It’s BRILLIANT! The culture is so interesting, not really overwhelming, but definitely surreal. I got used to it over the next three weeks, and even began to get complacent about all the cultural highlights, but that first wander out was wonderful. It is hot yes, but not too uncomfortable. We just get on with it and sweat a lot. We got caught in an afternoon Monsoon downpour and retreated to a streetside café, which was in reality a huge Vietnamese family sat around a collection of wooden crates. Terrific. Had our first taste of ‘Bia Hanoi’ – the local brew. I didn’t like it, but the rest of the group drank lorryloads throughout the course of the trip. We also tried out some Vietnamese phrases but they received no response. However, have found the Vietnamese to be a persistently friendly race – puts us to shame really.

Our meal tonight was at the ‘Little Hanoi’ restaurant in the Old Quarter of town. Just walking there was completely mesmorising. Dodging motorbikes while staring transfixed into shop/home fronts. You can’t help but experience the culture here; the Vietnamese spread and spill their entire lives on the streets – eat, sleep, talk, trade. Love it. It’s not intrusive either, because there seems to be no privacy here. Turns out Vegetarianism is not a problem here – the tour leader knows and she organises quite a few of the meals, so pressure off. I like the style of the food and the organisation of the dining here – we are given loads of different plates of things and a small bowl and chopsticks and we just dig in!!! It’s very sociable and friendly, and nobody notices if you don’t feel that hungry. 7 courses tonight cost about £2.50!

On the way back from the meal we wandered around a night market. Yet more culture that continues far into the night. As well as being embarrassingly friendly, the Vietnamese are also shamefully honest. When I tried to pay 10x too much for a bottle of water, the street seller – an elderly woman who was probably desperately poor – put me right straight away. This hasn’t been a consistent experience unfortunately, but I don’t mind the odd scam and overcharging – because after all we can afford to be fleeced.

Have been so busy I’ve hardly had time to write which is great – I want to spend as much time as possible here just enjoying and experiencing. We went to Ho Chi Minh’s Maosoleum, presidential palace and stilt house residence – he didn’t want to live in luxury when the Vietnamese lived in poverty. I preferred the stilt house too – it was so peaceful and serene, I could imagine important philosophies and level-headed thought being explored here. We also went to the Temple of Literature and One Pillar Pagoda – a special place but too full of tourists. We were amongst tourists the whole day today, but I didn’t mind because I knew that I was part of an industry crucial to the Vietnamese economy. I much preferred being away from tourists yesterday – we walked down a side street at one point and didn’t pass a single foreigner.

With a free afternoon we went to the Turtle Pagoda in the middle of Hoan Kiem lake, which was a goal of mine while I was in Hanoi. I managed to lose my ticket between the booth on one side of the bridge and the booth at the other side, but he waved me through anyway. It was wonderful there. Saw Vietnamese praying at monuments and shrines: felt that I should also bow/pray but I felt an idiot so I did do discreetly. Upon leaving the Pagoda we were ambushed by a group of banana-sellers who adorned us with their conical hats and shoulder-baskets to take our picture, and then wouldn’t let us leave without buying bananas!

We also took a cyclo ride into the French quarter – an absolute must apparently. We were warned to agree the price beforehand, which we did do (or so we thought!) but the language barrier confused us, and we ended up paying $6 for two cyclos for ½ hour (should have been $2 at most!). We also got dropped in the middle of the French quarter and off the map completely!!! After nearly an hour of wandering around lost we were nearly in tears, utterly fed up and really knackered. Asked directions from someone in uniform but he gave us wrong information, probably on purpose! Judging by what we later saw of the military, we quickly learnt not to trust them. Eventually we gave up wandering and got a taxi back to the hotel.

This evening we went to a performance at the Water Puppet theatre, which was really interesting. It was confusing and bewildering, but I think an English translation would have ruined it. Traditional Vietnamese music and puppet scenes of traditional and historical life in Vietnam – a great introduction to the culture! Unfortunately we were all shattered – not quite recovered from the jetlag and and some point during the show every single one of us was nodding off!