Ha Ha Hanoi

Yes, dumbest title on the planet. Sorry. Couldn't think of anything else.

So the day after our wonderful Halong Bay experience (and it really was like the Top Gear Vietnam special), and we were back on the minibus en route to Hanoi. I must admit, I had quite mixed feelings now about this, because it meant that in just 2 days or so the adventure would end, our Gap Adventures Roam Vietnam trip would be over. And I would then be saying goodbye to the group - and I genuinely was sad. For all our quirkness, the 6 of us had actually gotten on quite well, and I can honestly say that I will miss all of them, each in their own special way. And of course Vaughn too.

So we drove into Hanoi and made our way to the hotel. I have to say I think I liked this hotel the least out of the whole trip. I certainly don't remember it very much. The rooms were quite small and although they had all the mod cons, there were quirky little eccentricities about them. Francois' room, I believe, didn't have hot water. Mine had a light that you could only turn off by unscrewing the bulb. Stuff like that.

We no sooner dumped our stuff then we were off on an orienteering type walking tour given by Vaughn. Turns out we were quite a way (walking) from the main sights and so on. He took us into the heart of the sightseeing area and we literally nearly died en route. Firstly, from the smog. No joke, I had a headache within 2 minutes of walking around the streets, and you don't want to know what colour the snot was. Put it this way, even though one time it was black in London, I have never seen a blacker snot in my life. Gross. Secondly, we nearly died from being run over by scooters. If I thought the traffic was bad in Ho Chi Minh, I was sorely mistaken. Hanoi is infinitely worse. And they have absolutely no regard for people - particularly tourists.

So we headed off for this restaurant that Vaughn knew for lunch. On the way we lost Francois once when Erik and Vaughn looked in a market stall and Francois went to buy donuts. The streets were just so crowded, there was nowhere to walk on the footpath (the footpath being full of scooters and street vendors) and so it made it really hard to stay together. Fortunately we caught up with Francois again.

Lunch was very interesting - we were up on the 2nd floor balcony of the restaurant but conversation was near on impossible due to the roaring sound of the motorbikes. Plus, the land of the rising smog meant that the food did taste just a little bit odd. However, our vantage point afforded us a very interesting view of Vietnamese electricals - the wiring was just all over the place! I have never seen so many cables at once on a power pole.

Erik decided to take advantage of trying frog's legs for the first time. Cos that's what you do in Vietnam, isn't it - eat a traditional French dish. Well, I suppose that's what you do when you're sick of pho.

After lunch Vaughn took us to the place to buy tickets to the water puppet show. The Vietnamese have a very intriguing way of queuing for tickets. Basically, the rule is, you don't. Queue, that is. You push in. Blatantly. They'll serve you over any one else if you're the most pushy. Poor old Beate was trying to get our tickets and it was near on impossible.

Fortunately, after a time, she managed to get through and get the tickets, having taken out a couple Vietnamese on the way. I, meanwhile, had been investigating some rather lovely looking copy Kipling bags. I eventually (when we visited the next day) settled on a very nice blue Kipling duffel bag for something like $10. What do I care that it's not real? It's a bag, and I know I'm going to need one to get all my Christmas gifts home (I'll be traveling back through KL and I know I'll pick up that Barbie for Cella, and the General Grievous lightsabre for Dart, so I'll need it!).

So off we went to the water puppets. Firstly, can I say - on what planet is that normal? It was so dodgy! I know it's a good cultural experience and everything, but I will admit, I found it to be deathly dull and boring. For starters, it's all in Vietnamese, so who on earth actually knows what's going on? Seemed totally random to me. Puppets floating about in water, with Chinese instruments banging and some chick warbling away. I didn't get it. And the others weren't overly impressed either. I suppose we should've headed Vaughn's warning when he said that he had never actually sat through the whole thing, usually falling asleep. Oh well...

So we made our way back, firstly I went with Sophie and Shanty and checked out copied DVDs (no wait, that was before the water puppets) - sorry, I went with Francois to try and find a tie for Kevan and Damo. I realized pretty quick I should've bought it in Hoi An when I had the chance. Despite the tourist books saying that Hanoi was a good place for tailors, we couldn't find any where we were! Most discouraging. We eventually found a shop but the woman there was so rude. She showed me a bunch of very unappealing ties, and then, when I had turned ever so slightly to inspect them a little more (aka look at them), she whacked me on my bag (which was hanging on my back) and demanded to know which one I was buying. What!? I actually confronted her and said, "Did you just hit my bag?". She tried to deflect the conversation and harp on about which one I wanted, but I said "No, you hit me on my bag, and that's unacceptable". So we left.

Turns out that's quite normal in Hanoi. They're very untrusting of tourists. The next day I happened to be walking around a market with Beate and Erik, and a woman tried to fair whack my hand because I touched one of her towels. Seriously! I touched it (just to look at) and she drew her hand back sharply and tried to strike me! Now what does that say about much they want (or clearly don't want) the tourist dollar, hm?

I don't remember much about the dinner (other than it was probably yet again, pho, and it was actually quite expensive) - on account of I'm writing this 3 months later - but I seem to recall it was nice. Back to the hotel for a good sleep before our last day.

A snippet of the water puppets...