Chaotic, fascinating Hanoi
We got picked up at the airport by our hotel (a pleasant surprise - I really should have read more about all of this before leaving), along with a young Aussie couple who were one of our 16 person Intrepid Tour group - more on that later. We have a day to ourselves - our hotel has western amenities like a real working shower, a western toilet with toilet paper, and a nice comfortable bed. We are in heaven. We really need this and I'm starting the recovery process from my cold so things are looking up. We wander the wonderful, chaotic and fascinating streets of old Hanoi. We decide to mail back some of our gear as we don't need our sleeping bags and all of our cold weather gear for the rest of the trip. I scout out the post office, and then we take a cab back there with our stuff, buy a box from a helpful entrepreneur and get a 15 kg (about 30 pounds or so) package mailed off - on literally the slow boat (estimated delivery time 3-4 months) - but it's about one fifth the cost of shipping by air which is prohibitive ( about $500). We find the Museum of Literature (really not a museum, more of a garden space dedicated to learning) and it's graduation day in Hanoi, so it is crawling with Vietnamese graduates - actually turns out to be a great photo op. We don't take in the War Museum (there is another one in Saigon and we do visit that), nor do we see Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum (he's "on the road - or out for cleaning" not sure which), but for me the wonder of Hanoi is not the museums it's the street life.
Life is very much lived on the street here with numerous vendors selling food and many other goods. Sidewalks aren't really for walking; they are for eating, cooking, parking scooters, etc. So much of the time you walk in the street with scooters going by inches away. The sheer number of people and vehicles (mostly scooters and small motorcycles, with some bicycles and cars thrown in the mix) is amazing, and photos do not begin to do justice to the chaos that is street life in Hanoi. Crossing the street here is an art as pedestrians absolutely do not have the right of way, and in the old quarter there are virtually no traffic signals (although they are largely ignored even when there are signals). Basically you look for an opening (or even the hint of an opening) in the traffic and you start moving across - but don't stop - everyone expects you to keep going, and if you stop, you are likely to get run over. Frankly how more people are not injured here is incredible - it's utterly crazy but it works better than you'd think. Italy has a version of this too, but Vietnam was another big step up the chaos ladder. All of Vietnam was this way - Hanoi and Saigon were the worst (or best depending on your point of view). Hanoi introduces us to the heat and humidity of SE Asia too. For the next 18 days these were to be our themes for our SE Asia trip (Fascinating, chaotic, hot and humid) The chaos is definitely a big part of the charm of this city, but by the end of our time in SE Asia, we did long for a sense of order and cool, even very cold weather.
We meet our group the second evening - there are 16 of us, one additional American, Brits, Aussies, a Canadian and a German - ranging in age from 19 to 73. We really get along well with everyone in this group and our Vietnamese tour leader (Phu - he was named Intrepid's Vietnamese tour leader of the year; he was fantastic! - more on Phu later) called us his happy group. So a great start to our Vietnam tour.
Life is very much lived on the street here with numerous vendors selling food and many other goods. Sidewalks aren't really for walking; they are for eating, cooking, parking scooters, etc. So much of the time you walk in the street with scooters going by inches away. The sheer number of people and vehicles (mostly scooters and small motorcycles, with some bicycles and cars thrown in the mix) is amazing, and photos do not begin to do justice to the chaos that is street life in Hanoi. Crossing the street here is an art as pedestrians absolutely do not have the right of way, and in the old quarter there are virtually no traffic signals (although they are largely ignored even when there are signals). Basically you look for an opening (or even the hint of an opening) in the traffic and you start moving across - but don't stop - everyone expects you to keep going, and if you stop, you are likely to get run over. Frankly how more people are not injured here is incredible - it's utterly crazy but it works better than you'd think. Italy has a version of this too, but Vietnam was another big step up the chaos ladder. All of Vietnam was this way - Hanoi and Saigon were the worst (or best depending on your point of view). Hanoi introduces us to the heat and humidity of SE Asia too. For the next 18 days these were to be our themes for our SE Asia trip (Fascinating, chaotic, hot and humid) The chaos is definitely a big part of the charm of this city, but by the end of our time in SE Asia, we did long for a sense of order and cool, even very cold weather.
We meet our group the second evening - there are 16 of us, one additional American, Brits, Aussies, a Canadian and a German - ranging in age from 19 to 73. We really get along well with everyone in this group and our Vietnamese tour leader (Phu - he was named Intrepid's Vietnamese tour leader of the year; he was fantastic! - more on Phu later) called us his happy group. So a great start to our Vietnam tour.
Great captures, Dad!
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