Ha Noi

Friday November 4th, I rush home from work, the taxi is already there waiting. Sophea took the bus from Phnom Penh earlier that morning. We get in the taxi and make it to the airport in less than an hour. The timing turned out to be much better than anticipated. We have an hour until our flight leaves at 7pm. I introduce hangman to Sophea, she tells me she's played before. However, the difference is that when she played, they draw the arms down instead of up. Funny difference but it makes sense, usually your arms are down at your side. Anyhow, we fly north for 2 hours to reach Ha Noi. Sophea does well on this flight as we both sleep for the majority of the way. The flight was quick, we bought and ate some sandwiches on the plane, closed our eyes and we set foot in Ha Noi (Hanoi is two words in Vietnamese). We walk to find our taxi driver. A few days ago I reserved a room at a guesthouse and they offered free taxi service from the airport, of course I couldn't turn that down. We looked all around for our driver and didn't find my name displayed. One driver came up to us and asked us if we were going to a different hotel from the one I booked with, I said no, but he ended up having my name on a paper. So we followed him. I called the hotel and the owner, Moon, told me she only had one room and did not have another room for my friend Hugo, who we were supposed to be meeting at the hotel. Moon hooked us up and booked us two rooms at her friend's hotel and arranged everything for us. Hugo already arrived in Ha Noi from Malaysia in the morning. We get to the hotel, drop our bags, drink some complimentary iced tea and get the scoop from Hugo. Last time I saw Hugo he and two of his best friends traveled to San Diego where my best friend Johnny Marion and I did our best to show them all of what San Diego is about. We both discuss our newfound positions and livelihoods. Then decide we need to book a tour for Halong bay the following day. We walk outside, it's about 11pm and most of the stores are closed. The tourism businesses are all shut down. We go grab a drink at a nearby bar. We only have one drink as we're all tired and decide we need to wake up early in the morning to find a tour. We return to the hotel and begin talking to the worker who tells us about the hotel's tour options. We end up booking the midgrade tour. The next day at 7:45am we would be taking a bus for 3.5 hours to reach Halong Bay.

We get a goodnight's sleep and grab breakfast. Our tour guide picks us up and we follow him as he corrals other tourists from various hotels. We get into the bus and enjoy the view of lakes and rivers in the countryside. We hit a few small towns along the way and when we reach our destination, Halong Bay, it is raining. The weather looks gloomy, we are thinking we may have come on an unfortunate day. We get into our boat and sit amongst two older ladies from Argentina and a guy from Austria. We all sit at one table and eat our meal of rice, shrimp, tofu, fish, chicken, and morning glory. The food was decent and filled us up. Our boat ventured away from the dock and we were out in the open bay, beginning to approach the roughly 1,900 limestone karsts jutting out of the bay. We venture to the top deck to take in the scenery and get some fresh air.

The boat pulled over and gave us all the option to kayak. Sophea and I were in one and Hugo in another. The above picture is one I took from inside the kayak. Straight ahead you can see two large karsts adjacent to each other, we would kayak beyond that and to the larger karst in the background on the left side. We returned through the right passageway to the boat.

After kayaking the boat took us to a nearby cave. We ascended a number of stairs to reach the cave's entrance, along the way were some viewpoints, this being one of them. The cave was expansive at parts but all of the stalagtites and stalagcites were dry. It was not as beautiful as Carlsbad caverns, but it was still a nice place to see. The lighting had variations of color which was great for pictures.

Here we were on our way back to land and caught the sunset. This was one of the most relaxing parts of the trip, enjoying Bia Ha Noi and the sunset simultaneously.

Now, for the return trip from Halong Bay. I'm not usually one to complain about bus rides, but the bus we got onto had the most uncomfortable seats ever. Though we were all tired and WANTED to sleep, it was impossible. We had a large bench seat made of hard metal springs covered by the smooth material used for the backs of seats and bench seats of older cars in the States, naugahyde. Obviously there is a reason why that material is used for the backs of seats and not the front, every time the driver made a turn or hit a bump (which there seemed to be infinite) your head moved and made a loud noise against the naugahyde, making it impossible to sleep. Eventually we made it two hours and took a bathroom and rest break. The bathroom turned out to cause a big raucous for the women. Their stalls turned out not to have any doors, there were only two that had doors and the rest we for all eyes to see. In the male restroom, it was the same thing, no partitions and 4 urinals on each side, two toilets with doors. Most of the bathrooms here are like that, lacking partitions. I've spoke with my best friend before and we agree, partitions make for a much more comfortable bathroom experience, at least there's some idea of privacy, rather than a hey! look at me! design. Granted there are many restrooms like this in the States and so this comment is not directed solely to Vietnam, I've expressed this dissatisfaction long before arriving here. Anyhow, so when I met with Sophea after her bathroom experience, she was laughing along with her newfound Argentenian friend about the awkward bathroom situation. Many of the women were saying they had never seen that before. We grabbed some rice cakes while we waited for the bus to call us over. We browsed the store and saw some snake whiskey, and some alcohol with geckos inside. The glass gave the illusion the geckos were as large as your feet, but Sophea told us if you open it up, they will be their small, regular size. We decided to pass on this appetizing conoction and hopped onto the bus of torture for another hour. Miraculously, Sophea was able to fall asleep for a little bit of the ride home.

We get back around 9pm, shower, and go find a place to eat. We venture to a club primarily filled with Vietnamese and try to dance, but the place gives you the feeling like you're a sardine in a tighly packed can. You can't move without touching anyone. We stay in the crowd of sweat for about 10 minutes till we decide the higher temperature is not worth the toil and we reach the stairs of space. We can breathe again and decide it's time to go to a bar where we can talk and hear each other. We find a small place on a corner. It's a really cool place that even reminded me of a bar in San Diego I can't remember the name of as I had only been there once. However, at this bar, there was only two workers, most of the customers were French with a few other foreigners from different countries, the music was not overbearing and it was a smaller quaint place. Similar to a dive bar, but with modern bar seats. Unfortunately, our time here would be cut short, the Ha Noi Police showed up and shut down the bar. We headed to the bar we went to on our first night and they were also closed, the Police made it there too. Apparently, there is a curfew and things tend to shutdown from 11pm-midnight. In Saigon the Police will come to places and try to shut them down, but the bars pay them off. That doesn't slide in Ha Noi. So we head back to our hotel for some sleep.

Sunday we decide it's museum and sight seeing time. We take a cab to visit the Temple of Literature, it is also the first university established in Vietnam. It was built in 1070 and now has a beautiful garden area. There is also a picture of this complex on the back of the 100,000VND note. It was a beautiful area and when we went, there were many Vietnamese women dressed in traditional ao dai. So we took pictures with some of them.

(Garden area)

This is one of the stelaes of doctor laureates.

(Us with Vietnamese women modeling their ao dais for us)

(We walked through a park that led to a giant statue of Lenin)

(Flag tower in the army museum courtyard)

(Parts of airplanes shot down by the Vietnamese during the Indochina war and Vietnam war)

(View from the flag tower)

(Hugo was able to get a hat very similar to the guards at Ho Chi Minh's museum complex, we tried to have him take a picture with a soldier, but they all declined the offer)

(Where Ho Chi Minh's body is usually kept. Unfortunately we missed his body as it was sent to Russia for maintenance)

(Hoan Kiem Lake, a beautiful lake in the heart of Ha Noi, wish Saigon had something similar to this)

(Tough Guys)

After we made it to the temple of literature we walked around and grabbed some fresh juice. Then we went to some silk shops as Hugo wanted to buy a silk tie for his work. We continued walking till we made it to the Army museum, along the way we ran into Lenin. After the army museum we continued walking and made it to the presidential palace and to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. After a full day of walking, we decided it was time to catch a cab back to the hotel. We then went to walk around Hoan Kiem Lake right as the sun was setting. We didn't have too much time as Sophea and I had to catch a flight at 8pm. We walked around the lake which was refreshing and ran into some Vietnamese guys who saw Hugo and I taking ridiculous pictures and wanted to join in on the fun.

Sophea and I caught our plane and made the trek back to home in Saigon. The next morning I dropped her off at the bus station and she returned to Phnom Penh. Luckily, I made it to work at 7:59am, a minute early. 

Here is a video on our way back.