Nilesh's Posterous

Hanoi, Vietnam

25/12/2008 - Flew in from Lao Airways from Luang Prabhang to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. I slept for most of the flight due to the arduous bike ride all over Luang Prabhang during the day. As the flight was about to land, I chit chatted with the passenger sitting net to me and he was the first american that I met during the entire trip - Greg. Greg had been out in Asia for a while and he was flying to Hanoi to catch a flight back to the US. He had already been in Hanoi in the first part of his trip. From reading the travel books, it made it sound so scary to get transportation from the airport to the city center, due to the numerous touts and scam artists around. I asked Greg about it and he mentioned the official mini bus that takes people from Airport to the Vietnam airlines offices in Hanoi.

I changed some money and once again I was a millionaire !! The exchange rate for 1 USD was 17,000 dong, the vietnamese currency.

Together with other passengers, we boarded the mini-van and paid our $2 + $1 to drop us at our particular custom stop. From talking to passengers, Hang Bac and Hang Le, seemed to the place to stop by and then look for guesthouses, as it seems that many are concentrated around there. The minivan stopped me and I walked around trying to orient myself in the new city. Checked out a few hotels (I hardly found a any guesthouses around). The cheapest hotel i could find was $7 (Prince 49) with TV, Shower and Fan, but it was on 7th floor with no elevator and the room was very small and boxy. I checked out a few and the place I liked was Prince 79 hotel on hang Bac. I bargained to $11 from $14 and I liked the room. It was a huge room with aircon, tv and nice hote clean shower. I dropped my bags, showered and went out to look for food. First time in asia, I had some trouble finding food... all I could find were street side food that did not look to my liking at all and furthermore, it was mostly pho and pho is ot really one my favorite dishes. I walked and walked and after consulting my map, I almost went outside of the old quarter into another neighborhood. Painstakingly and hungrily, made my way back to where my hotel was and on the way found a decent looking restaurant where I ordered some Com Dien - Fried Rice. Ate two orders of that and walked back to hotel. It was still 10:30p.m or so, but everything stats to get pretty quiet in Hanoi. I think they have a curfew at 11:00p.m or something. Not a lot of people around on the roads and slight rain starting. Finally reached hotel and had a nice long good sleep.

26/12/2008 - Woke up early the next day and as in every country, went to the local market to check out the fares. As all markets in Asia, very interesting, crowded, lively and full of surprising eatables :) 

One of the biggest differences from Laos and anywhere else I went on this trip, was the insane amount of traffic on the streets.. Its non-stop and everybody's horning and horning.. constant noise, movement, danger everywhere. It took me quite a while to figure out that nobody yields to pedestrians. Pedestrians are the last class of traffic on the road :) You cannot wait for traffic to stop before crossing the road. You just got to five right into the traffic and walk your way carefully within the moving traffic to the other side. Kinded of reminded me of a very old video game - Frogger :) Anyways, for th first crossing, I took a deep breath and with a bit of hesitation here and there, I walked straight in the long 4 lane roads into traffic to cross to the other side. Its a thilling experience, but after you do it a couple of times, u get to sync your movements and steps with traffic and it becomes chid's play ;)

I walked around the area. The night before, as I had come in in the dark, I had not had a chance to see much of what was around. The area which I was, was filled with Shops. Each Road specialized in one type of Item.. some roads were only shoes. some were only bags.. some only tombstones.. very interesting. My duffel bag somehow had gotten heavier and was getting harder to carry around. So, I went to the bag street and bought a 'fake' North Face 75L red backpack. On the way back to the hotel, i stopped by a travel agency and booked an air ticket to Saigon via Jetstar asia and booked a day tour for the next day to Hailong Bay, one of the 7 seven wonders of the world.

Then I did a stupid thing. i thought that when in Rome, do like the romans.. or rather.. when in Vietnam, do like the Vietnamese.. So I stopped by a street pho place and sat down on their very mini tiny chairs and ordered a Pho Ga - Rice Vermicelli soup with Chicken. As I was eating the soup, I felt that something was going wrong in my stomach. Indeed it was. When I got back to the hotel, I was pretty sick.. had diarreah, fever and felt very sick and weak. I think my body just was not used to these germs yet ! I stayed in the hotel for a while and it was getting worse. Ventured out to find a pharmacy and that was hard too, as there was none nearby and I tried to stop around people and ask and nobody spoke English. Fotunately in Laos, the dutch girl I had met (marjolin) had given me a lonley planet vietnamese phrase book. I used that and finally managed to find a pharmacy and I was glad the pharmacist spoke Engish. Bought many pills and went back to the hotel and splept most afternoon and night long. I guess its the custom to at least fall one time sick during a trip and that was my one time :)

Pic 1 : Fruit Seller at Hanoi Morning Market
Pic 2 : Hanoi Morning Market
Pic 3 : Eels for sale at the market
Pic 4 : Shoe Store Display
Pic 5 : Bridge to go to Temple
Pic 6 : Hanoi Street
Pic 7 : Hanoi Traffic (Cyclos, Bikes, Cars Combined)
Pic 8 : Hanoi Street Scene
Pic 9 : Temple Doors and Incense