We're now well into our travels in Vietnam, so this is all retrospective storytelling to bring you up to speed. We started in Hanoi, in northern Vietnam. Between the many tourist scams (yes, they got us with the fake bus scam but no biggie), the horrible traffic, and the general chaotic atmosphere of the town, it's safe to say that Hanoi gives a terrible(but strangely captivating) first impression.
The streets of Hanoi on a Friday night. And guess what, you have to cross that to get back to your hotel...on foot...with no crosswalk signals! No joke - this place is completely wild. Click here to see what it's like to cross the street in Hanoi.
But give it 24 hours, and allow yourself to get into the tempest rhythm of Hanoi, and you might find you like it after all (or at least can cope for a bit). We ended up staying in Hanoi about a week, much longer than initially expected I can assure you, which included a side trip to the magnificent Halong Bay and Cat Ba National Park.
Here's just a few of the things we saw...
Hoan Kiem Lake, the "Lake of the Returned Sword". This lake is the site of one of Vietnam's most important folk legends in which Emperor Le Loi, wielding a magical sword, successfully drives out Chinese invaders. Following his victory, he returns the sword to the Golden Turtle that lived in the lake and renames the lake accordingly. Turtles are considered lucky by many Asian cultures. The red bridge (Huc Bridge) in the photo goes to Jade Island on which the Ngoc Son Temple (Jade Mountain Temple) stands. It's an idyllic spot and quite a nice place to escape from the traffic and madness of the city.
A large bronze urn in the courtyard of the temple where visitors can burn paper offerings and incense.
Indeed, giant turtles do actually live in Hoan Kiem Lake. The left photo shows an enormous taxidermy specimen on display. It's considered auspicious to see the living turtles, as they are pretty rare. To our amazement, we actually saw one (right photo). It drew quite a crowd to the banks of the lake.
Less enjoyable, but no less important, was a visit to Hoa Lo Prison a.k.a. "Hanoi Hilton" as sarcastically named by United States POW's during the Vietnam War. The prison was built by French Colonialists during their Colonial reign over Vietnam, where it was used to house Viet revolutionaries. Later, it would house captured U.S. pilots including Senator and former Presidential Candidate John McCain.
Remnants of the Vietnam-U.S. War are everywhere, and sometimes you just stumble across them. This is the remains of a B-52 shot down over Hanoi. It crash landed in a lake, then parts were hauled up for display. We came across it by accident while walking down a street.
This austere Communist-style monument is Ho_Chi_Minh_Mausoleum. In his will, Ho Chi Minh stated his wish to be cremated and to have his ashes scattered in the hills of north, central, and southern Vietnam. He said that he preferred cremation because it would be "more hygienic than burial and would also save land for agricultural purposes". The mausoleum was built in spite of his wishes. We were unable to see Vietnam's esteemed leader because he was in Russia for his annual spa treatment. The monument and surrounding parade grounds are solemn with a very serious atmosphere.. For many Vietnamese, this is a place of pilgrimage and reverence.
Here I am in front of the One Pillar Pagoda, a Buddhist temple that was originally built by Emperor Lý Thái Tông, who ruled from 1028 to 1054. It's actually located in the Botanic Gardens not far from Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum, as well as a museum in his honor. The temple is built of wood on a single stone pillar about 6 feet in diameter, and it is designed to resemble a lotus blossom, which is a Buddhist symbol of purity, since a lotus blossoms in a muddy pond. In 1954, the French Union forces destroyed the pagoda before withdrawing from Vietnam after the First Indochina War. It was later rebuilt.
While having a coffee, we watched this group of ladies doing Tai Chi in front of the Quan Thanh Temple near the West Lake of Hanoi. The West Lake area, although not far from the Old Quarter of Hanoi, feels like a different place altogether with beautiful tree-lined streets facing he peaceful lakefront. Temples and Pagodas like this one dot the region and all are fun to explore.
We took a 3-day side trip to see Halong Bay, one of many UNESCO World Heritage Sites we are slated to see on this trip. No doubt this will be one of the 'best'. Words can't really describe this place, it's simply too beautiful. In many ways, it reminded me of New Zealand's Doubtful and Milford Sounds, though with a decidedly tropical flavor. The mountains here seem to rise out of the sea reaching straight into the sky, and are covered in cloaks of green foliage. Hidden within the hills are massive caves( and other wonders. The Bay itself is overrun with tourist boats designed to resemble Chinese junks. The sheer majesty of the place enables you to forget their presence, and the way the landscape towers over the enormous boats actually helps provide scale.
An entire community of people live in floating villages in Halong Bay. An industrious people, they exist completely 'off the grid', using generators in limited fashion for electricity, fishing for food (and income), raising fish in farms, and providing services and selling goods to tourists. Women use these tiny boats to expertly maneuver themselves in position to surround incoming tour boats, then yell up to the passengers offering to sell everything from bottled water to Oreo cookies.
Halong Bay is beautiful in any weather. Rain and fog only make the place look more mysterious.
We spent one night on Cat Ba Island were we enjoyed this beautiful sunset.
As I write this, we are in Hoi An (in central Vietnam) and have been on the road for over a month. Spirits are high, though (not surprisingly) we have found Vietnam to be more difficult to travel in than Malaysia. The language barriers are greater, and costs are higher than expected. For instance, if you want to deviate from the main tourist routes, costs increase considerably. It can be difficult to get to more remote places, such as the interior national parks and ethnic villages. So, we're having to be quite judicious in our forward planning. The hotels in Vietnam are very nice - much nicer than similarly priced one in Malaysia - so that's a nice surprise. Food has been a challenge, particularly sticking to a vegetarian diet. We are eating a lot of 'spinach in garlic sauce' with white rice (brown rice not so big here). Vietnam does coffee and French bread exceedingly well, a bit too well in fact for our waistlines. Have to watch that. Oh, and our backpacks are WAY too heavy. It can be sooooo tempting to just take cabs to our hotels from the bus stations, especially in the heat, but we haven't given in yet. Sounds like a typical backpacker trip, eh?
Next post will be about Hue, the old Imperial Capital of Vietnam!
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