Hanoi for me has been a mixed bag, full of loves and hates. "A city of sharp contrasts" (as quoted by Lonely Planet) now doesn't quite do the place justice. It should say: a city where you take your life in your hands every time you cross the street, where little old Vietnamese women will scam you out of 90,000 dong for two bags of pineapple, but a city that still charms with its quaint little streets, ancient green shaded pagodas and cosmopolitan eateries and stores.
We didn't get off to the greatest of starts in Vietnam's capital. After being dropped off at the international bus station, which didn't appear to be anywhere on the map we had, we were taken into the city by a taxi sporting the classic 'double speed' meter. I had just read about these taxis before we got off the bus, but we were still trapped in a taxi charging through the roof for a journey which we didn't know the distance of. A classic scenario in travelling. It's just another thing we had to deal with.
Yet we slowly started to get the hang of it: you just walk and hope for the best. It sounds ridiculous, but the only time I almost caused an accident, was when I stopped and hesitated! They will not wait for you to cross- but they will avoid you.
We hunted down a tasty meal, after surviving on crackers and plastic cheese sandwiches on the bus. We were charmed by the bustling beer quarter, with various generations of locals sitting out on little plastic chairs, enjoying a cheap Beer Hoi and watching the traffic fly by. It's a city full of buzz, full of exotic and not always good smells, and you rarely come across an empty street.
Our hostel was great: recommended by an Aussie bar tender in Laos, we headed to 'The Drift'. Lovely clean dorm rooms, with two showers, lockers, free breakfast and internet: everything we needed to get back to our reality again. It was a good base to have, away from the constant chaos of Hanoi's traffic system.
In recent years the beautiful and cosmopolitan Hanoi has been overcome by motorcyclists, creating floods of constant traffic, leaving little room for pedestrians. Motorcycling has become the main way of travel in Vietnam, and Hanoi leads the trend.
We felt on our second day, that once you embrace the chaotic Hanoi, you enjoy it. It did help that it was much cooler here, so that we didn't have to deal with sweat as well as traffic. We jam packed our day full of a walking tour of the sights.
As a closet history geek, I was particularly happy to hunt down Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. Once Annabel was aware that Ho Chi Minh was not "just a city", we were both excited to go to see the body of Vietnam's greatest hero: Uncle Ho.
When we arrived, we were ushered in a regimented fashion of two by two, along a painted white line on the street. This was the resting place of Vietnam's most beloved leader, so naturally there was a strict military feel to the compound. Ho Chi Minh campaigned for the freedom of Vietnamese people, and a unified Vietnam. Possibly, one of the worlds most famous leaders, I was itching to see his body, preserved in a huge tomb built from grey marble. There was an evocative if not eerie silence inside the tomb, as passers by gazed upon the tiny white bearded body of Ho.
I felt strangely insignificant, as this wasn't my national hero, but I could see the looks of admiration on the Vietnamese tourists as they looked upon their great leader. Annabel was a little freaked out that they keep his body on show, but with someone so idolized as Ho Chi Minh, you'd expect nothing less.
Wandering around the city later in the afternoon, was when I had my pineapple incident. It almost ruined my day! We were walking along after a nice roof top lunch, when we were ambushed by these two little women in their conical hats, holding the hanging baskets of pineapple over their shoulders. One of them put the hat and pineapple on Annabel for a photo-op. This was our first naive mistake! Photos are never free in Vietnam! Almost the oldest trick in the book. After the same was done to me, we found ourselves paying for pineapple that we didn't really want. Yet, we didn't realise that it was about to be a more expensive bag of pineapple than our 2 course dinner the night before! I gave in with the woman at 50,000 dong (around one pound seventy) but handed her a 100,000 note expecting change. Well, that wasn't going to happen! She sneakily gave me a tenner back, and ran away cursing an me and shouting as she did it. It was such a spectacle, that it took me a minute to realise how much I'd just been scammed out of! I was fuming. Annabel had to stay out of my way for a good fifteen minutes, poor thing.
Eventually I calmed down and realised how little money it was to me at home. It was more my pride that took a beating than my budget. Anyway, we carried on exploring, and went to see the water puppet show at the theatre. This was an interesting experience too, and one which I didn't actually expect to enjoy!
Puppets freak me out. Just like clowns. And going along with all the good luck I'd been having recently, where were our seats? Front row, middle. Brilliant.
Like I said, though, the show was really cool. The little hand crafted wooden puppets were on horizontal stilts, being moved from behind a screen at the back. They danced and moved around the pool of water, to a less cool soundtrack of Vietnamese folk music, sometimes squirting water or jumping through rings of fire. It was a much better show than we expected!
After a measly dinner of bread and cheese (to make up for the pineapple disaster) we headed over Hanoi Backpackers Hostel, to meet a couple of guys we'd bumped into earlier in the day. It was National Woman's Day in Vietnam, so the hostel was doing a 241 deal on cocktails for women...or men braving a dress, as you do. It was a brilliant night! We only expected to go for a couple of drinks, but we got into the swing of the party, and just had to accompany all the 'ladies' across town to the beer quarter. I couldn't wait to see the reaction on the streets to a group of cross dressing Westerners walking along the street.
It was hilarious. I never felt safer crossing the road in Hanoi, as I did that night, as the traffic literally stopped. People on motorbikes stopped in the middle of the road to capture the spectacle on their phones. Kids ran alongside the boys in dresses slapping their bums and giving them cone hats to wear. It was brilliant. I was really starting to like Hanoi...good times.
Next stop was a leisurely boat cruise to the famous Halong Bay. We booked the tour through a company recommended by some boys we met at Ho's mausoleum. So we were excited for a little bit of all inclusive luxury!
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