Heated in Hanoi (and Halong Bay)

The red bridge connecting to the Ngoc Son Temple

      We arrived quite early in the morning to Hanoi, and thankfully the taxi driver was there to pick us up. Not in a good mood (because apparently our hostel didn’t tell him our flight was delayed for five hours), he was silent the entire way. Arriving at our hostel-which was barred and locked down at night, our taxi driver woke up the hostel worker to let us in. Immediately falling asleep in our very clean, extremely cool and well kept room, we were awoken abruptly by a call in the morning. Breakfast was over but they were going to let us order for another half hour because we had gotten in so late the night before. Putting our contacts in, we headed downstairs and enjoyed the best breakfast we’ve had so far- fried eggs, a crusty loaf of bread, cheese, jam and bananas. We looked forward to the morning every day. Back to out room and changing, we headed out for the day.

The water puppet show

Following the map we were given, we headed toward the Hoan Kiem Lake and the Ngoc Son Temple. It was extremely hot and humid out. The number one thing to do in Hanoi is see the water puppet show, so Becca insisted that we go and buy tickets, because they sell out days in advance. We found the theatre, and were able to buy tickets for the show that had just started. Heading in, Becca was excited and I was apprehensive. I don’t really like cartoons, and this didn’t seem much better. The water puppet show was complimented with live music and singers, singing about the Vietnamese folk tales that we were watching. Overall,  Becca enjoyed it, I would have preferred Fantasia. I actually really wanted to watch it after the puppet show. Stepping out of the theatre, we saw that a monsoon had begun. And we were yet again without our ponchos. Sitting inside the café, we ordered tea and coffee and waited it out. And then decided to see a movie, since we didn’t want to walk around in the rain.
We found a theater, made it inside after a couple attempts with different doors, escalator rides, and elevator incidents. We chose a movie, Just Friends, bought popcorn and hoped that it wasn’t dubbed. It wasn’t. We spent a blissful couple of hours in the cool air conditioning, listening to perfect English. Leaving the theater, we searched out fish fry, didn’t find it and made a horrible mistake. We ordered Western food and it was awful. Chicken sandwiches and salad have never been so disastrous. Learning our lesson (especially after the waiter kept asking why we weren’t eating), we walked back to our hostel, stumbling upon a hidden gem on the way-the night market.

girl selling "ears" of all kinds at the night market

Walking into the throngs of people, we were immediately confused by the Minnie Mouse ears, light up star wands and bright, shiny outfits. THIS was the night market? Teens in short little outfits, dads carrying their little children with masks on, and the unintelligent people trying to ride through on motorbikes. They literally had to walk them through the crowd. Snapping pictures of the colorful blow up balloons, face masks and cotton candy, we vowed to come back another night to partake in the festivities.

Halong Bay

We woke up early the next morning to go to Halong Bay, or the Bay of Descending Dragons. Picked up in a bus, we headed out for the four hour drive. And again stopped part way at an American “art market.” Where the prices were in US dollars. Finally reaching the bay, we climbed aboard our boat and sailed off into the mist.
They cooked us lunch, fresh fish, a green vegetable, cucumbers, French fries and spring rolls. After lunch, we docked within a floating village. Each house was on its own little floating section, which seems like it would be difficult to make into a neighborhood. There were dogs running around in their respective areas, but there wasn’t grass on them, so it seemed a little strange. We hopped off the boat and onto a small floating section, where there were kayaks and torn, ripped life jackets. Becca and I decided to kayak through some small caves and around the bay. I tucked my camera into a plastic bag and we kayaked around, getting extremely wet in the process.

After this, the boat headed off to a cave-Heaven’s Cave. Walking up the steps, Becca listened intently to our guide pointing out different formations like “fairy woman” and “Buddha” while I wandered around. Back to our boat, we watched schools of little fish jumping out of the water as we headed back to the dock
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Back at our hostel, we were given directions to a good local restaurant-Highway 4. Inside, we ordered a few things to split: spring rolls, fried fish and little corn. We’re getting insanely good with chopsticks. Well, Becca is still working on it. Everything tasted vaguely of Wasabi, and we were not as satisfied as we were hoping for.

moon cake

salted duck egg inside the mooncake

The next day we walked around looking for the art section, because we really want to get artwork in many places. We found a nice art gallery, where we bought small paintings in bright colors. Then, we decided to try Moon Cake. In the autumn, Moon Cakes are a specialty, and there are many different kinds. With a stand or shop on almost every corner selling them, we walked up to one and chose one with a pink label, hoping it was some sort of berry. We were thinking that it would be like a fruitcake. Finding a bench by the lake, we opened the packaged cake with preservative little packet. Hmmm. Splitting it open, we were surprised to find a large, orange, moon shaped object. We later found out that this is salted duck yolk. ---I made Becca try the cake first to make sure there weren’t nuts. There weren’t. But it was definitely not good. It had a strange flavor, was heavy and not what we were expecting. Moving past this delicacy, we walked on to the night market.
There are two sections to the night market, a shopping area with clothing, makeup, cell phone cases, purses and wallets and a festival area with balloons, face masks, drinks in bags, cotton candy and bright lights. We first walked into the night market and bought a few items to replace some items we had brought. Becca bought some tank tops and shorts, and I bought underwear (instead of washing mine) and shorts. Pleased with our seven dollar (total) purchases, we headed into the festival.

at the night market

Much more crowded than the previous evening, we were pushed and shoved around by good-natured, cheery people. Everyone was in a good mood and thoroughly enjoying themselves. Surrounded by the bright lights, sparkles and bubbles, it was difficult to believe that this place was fairly recently ravaged by war and destruction. We will definitely come back to Vietnam.

Scintillating Saigon

overlooking the Saigon River, at the Majestic Hotel

       We arrived mid-evening to Ho Chi Min City, and grabbed a cab from the airport to our hostel. As we were dropped off, the trouble began. Our cab fare was eighty-three thousand Vietnamese Dong and we only had large bills. Becca handed the cab driver a five hundred thousand, he gave her change, and we got out of the cab. Then came the “Ummm, wait, I’m confused” The cab driver had given Becca thirty thousand in change, which was definitely not correct. As the guy at the reception in our hostel came out to help us, our cab driver started arguing with him. Becca handed back the thirty, and he handed over one hundred thousand, which was still not correct. Our hostel helper finally sighed and the cab driver drove off, after insisting we only gave him two hundred thousand. We explained the situation and our hostel helper called the cab company and they said they would “look into it.” Aka tough luck. Slightly annoyed, the woman and young guy at the desk tried exceptionally hard to be cherry and make our stay there enjoyable. We headed up to our room-which for some reason Becca could not sleep in-and went to sleep.
The next morning, we awoke to a lovely surprise. Two, in fact. Curled up, lying on their backs were two three inch cockroaches. Ick. Good thing they weren’t moving, but one did keep twitching. Leaving the room, we stopped by the reception desk and asked directions to the city center. Extremely helpful (and with a slight British accent) we were given a day guide sheet and directions to a “very good restaurant.” We stopped at a little French bakery instead and bought orange poppy muffins and pastries. Hopping into a cab, we made it to the city center and ate our breakfast in a park.

Reunification Palace

After this, we began the day tour on our sheet, starting at a cathedral, walking down the “richest” street in Saigon and ending at the Majestic Hotel. We walked into the upscale hotel (secretly wishing we were staying there) and headed to the Skybar to overlook the city. Sitting at a table, we ordered smoothies and lingered a bit. And then it started to downpour, and we did not bring our rain ponchos. So Becca ordered coffee, fell in live with the mini-brew pot, and we stayed a lot longer than we planned on. Finally braving the rain, we headed out to the Reunification Palace. The President of South Vietnam lived in this palace and conducted business here. It was also the ending place of the Vietnam War, when a North Vietnamese Army tank crashed through the gate. There are two tanks outside on the lawn. It was eerie and a bit strange that everything was left how it was originally.

Outside the War Remnants Museum

      Then, we headed to the War Remnants Museum. Outside the building were fighter planes and tanks, while inside random remnants, like gas masks, were interspersed among photos and short essays on peoples’ experiences within the war. We spent a long time in the section about Agent Orange, and read a letter from a victim to Obama, asking him for help for her country because there are many like her that are unable to lead normal lives or have children because of it. We’ve both read and heard about Agent Orange victims, but it seems like it’s shuffled aside in light of other issues. Both a little more quiet and lost in our own thoughts, we walked through the rest of the museum. Leaving at close, this was one place that we wished we had a bit more time.
Walking around the city, we happened to leave at the same time that schoolchildren were getting done with class for the day-5pm? Much later than our school days. Weaving in and out of motorbikes with private school students and their parents, we stopped at a café for dinner. Dining on pumpkin soup, curry chicken and seafood fried rice, we were much happier with the food here.
The next day, we woke up early to go to the Cu Chi tunnels. Hopping on a bus, our guide tried to make jokes in broken English. Similar to every other country, we stopped at an “art shop” on the way, where artisans were creating carvings from pearl and inked drawings. And then we were on our way again. Arriving at the Cu Chi tunnels, we were seated in a hut and a propaganda movie was put on. Made in 1968, the narrator’s high pitched voice discussed the “crazy devils” (Americans) bombing the “peaceful, happy “ Cu Chi people. And then showed black and white images (we weren’t sure if they were real or staged) of Cu Chi people protecting their land. We left the movie room and headed out to the tunnels.

Examples of "traps"

On the way to the tunnels, they showed us entrance ways to the tunnels, and how tiny, small and hidden they were. As the fighters would wiggle into the tunnels, the tunnels would split off and have fake ways to go, just in case Americans found their way in. We then went to displays of traps against American soldiers. These were horrifying and awful. The first one was a door that would fall in when stepped on, releasing the unsuspecting victim onto many sharp spikes. The others also involved spikes, but in different ways. Some were on revolving doors, so it kept impaling you on the way down. Some had spikes on the opposite sides of the doors, so it would get your sides as you fell in. And yet others were up on doors, so as a soldier would kick in the door, spikes on a wood block would fall and stab him along the length of his body. Moving past the vicious, deathly traps, we went to the tunnels.
Here, we were able to crouch and wiggle through part of the tunnels, albeit ones that were enlarged for Western visitors. As Becca and I stepped down and hunched over to wiggle through the tunnels, I decided I would not be able to survive through these small, hot tunnel ways without feeling trapped. Claustrophobia wins again. But we got the idea of what it would be like to live in one. Before leaving the tunnels, we were given a snack of some root vegetable with crushed peanuts and sugar and hot tea. Leaving the Cu Chi tunnels, we were again a bit more quiet than normal.

At the salon!

Back in the city center, we walked to the Ben Thanh Market. This large market encompassed anything and everything you could ever want, crammed into tiny little stalls. I bought  a pair of sunglasses-that I hate- and Becca bought a wallet- that she loves. After walking around a bit, we decided to brave a salon and get our hair cut. Vietnam was also famous for its hair-washing, so we were intrigued by that as well. Choosing a salon at random, we walked in a bit nervously and asked for haircuts. As a woman immediately started chopping away at Becca’s hair, I was pounced on with shampoo and another odd liquid. Both liquids were rubbed into my head (without water), and it was like a mini-massage. As she washed it out, my scalp was also massaged again-it was definitely the longest hair washing I’ve ever had. After Becca’s hair was chopped off and layered, the same woman began cutting mine. The one woman there that spoke English was translating for all of them, they kept talking about how pretty we were, but all we wanted was hair like theirs, straight and shiny. After our hair was straightened, we headed to a café to get some ice cream before we left for our delayed flight.