Day 141 - Monday, June 11
During my time in Hanoi, I stayed at
Tu Linh Palace. For anyone heading to Hanoi and looking for a cheap place to stay, I highly recommend it. Nicest hotel I have stayed in so far during this trip and friendliest staff as well, and only $25/night. I didn't take any pictures, but there are plenty on the website for the especially curious among you.
My initial impressions of Vietnam were dominated by the overwhelming number of motorbikes and a striking lack of traffic lights or signs, with drivers opting instead for incessant honking of their horns. If you have an aversion to the sound of a car horn, I can't imagine you'd enjoy Vietnam much, though I guess you get used to it after a while.
On Monday, I didn't do too much. I explored a little bit. Checked out Hoan Kiem Lake and St. Joseph's Cathedral:
Like many other places in SE Asia, the most common type of restaurants consist of plastic furniture scattered on the sidewalk, like this place:
I'm a fan of noodle soup, and being in Vietnam, I ended up consuming 3 bowls of
pho on the day, at a variety of establishments, all of which were quite good, but by the last bowl of the day I was thinking I might try some other Vietnamese cuisine the next day.
Day 142 - Tuesday, June 12
I did some more wandering around on Tuesday. I checked out the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum:
I got yelled at when I apparently got a little close before taking this picture - note the officer in white in the background giving me the evil eye (silly communists).
Not long after that, I got an assault rifle pointed at me for walking too close to this gate to an apparent government compound of some sort:
And then when I got to the other side of the road, someone threw something up into a tree, disturbing a giant nest of hornets or wasps or some other form of flying, buzzing, stinging insects, one of which got me pretty good, resulting in a welt about the size of a baseball on my shoulder blade for a few days (sorry no pictures).
Day 143 - Wednesday, June 13
Wednesday morning I made the 4-hour trip to Halong Bay on the coast, where I boarded this
"junk" boat for a 24-hour cruise of the bay.
Luckily the weather was nice, and the bay is pretty spectacular.
That afternoon, we checked out some caves and did some kayaking. I ended up sharing a room with Dat, a teenage kid from a rural village that was the brother-in-law of the tour guide. He didn't speak much English, but he had a giant smile on his face that was contagious, definitely enjoyed hanging out with him while on the boat:
More photos of the bay at sunset as we cruised to the spot where we anchored for the night.
All the food on the boat was really good, and definitely one of the highlights. But later that evening, when I was sitting around drinking with the Vietnamese crew, I succumbed to peer pressure and agreed to try a dried fish, that was kind of like jerky that you'd get in the US. But instead of a strip of beef, it was an entire fish about half the size of my hand. It was definitely the most disgusting thing I've eaten this entire trip. On the bright side, the foul-tasting
rice wine that we were drinking tasted a lot better by comparison.
Day 144 - Thursday, June 14
Thursday morning, we did some more cruising around the bay, and again, the weather was great:
I then made the 4-hour trip back to Hanoi, where I was planning to catch an overnight sleeper train to Hue. Upon returning to the hotel they were nice enough to provide free food and drinks and use of a shower. My train left at 7:00, so I was supposed to get to the train station at 6:30, and my hotel suggested getting a cab at 5:45. About 530, a giant thunderstorm started and it was pouring down rain. Since the majority of people use motorbikes to get around, when it does rain, taxis are in very high demand. As a result, the hotel couldn't get ahold of any taxi companies nor flag any of them down on the street. Finally at 6:15, when it appeared there were no other options and the streets were starting to flood, the manager offered to give me a ride on his moped to the train station on his way home. The traffic in the streets was at a standstill and we were driving on sidewalks, dodging trees and pedestrians and all sorts of things. As we got closer, the flooding was getting worse and worse, and then finally we got to a point where traffic wasn't moving, the water was really deep and there was nowhere to go with the moped. So, wanting to make sure I got there, the manager negotiated with a person standing on the sidewalk to take me by the hand and walk me through the flooded streets to the train station for $2. As we walked to the train station, the water kept getting deeper, and walking through it was a bit perilous because we had no idea where sidewalks started and ended, what might be beneath the surface of the water, etc. It was chaos throughout the city; hotel and store lobbies that were probably thought to be safe because they were several feet above street level were flooded. I tried to take a few pictures, but they don't do it justice.
It was one of the craziest experiences of my whole trip. At various points, the water was well above my knee (which is about waist-deep for your average Vietnamese person). I finally got to the train station at about 6:50, soaked to the bone, but at least I made it.
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