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Arrived in Hanoi around 08:30 and feeling alright considering I'd been up since 03:30ish. Made my way quickly to the immigration desk and joined the queue. Took around 20 minutes to get through, fingers crossed it's that quick when I arrive in Heathrow but I'm not holding my breath after the recent horror stories (e.g. 1km long, 2 hour waits). Get through to the Arrivals hall and start looking for the tourist information and ATM as I hadn't arranged transfers nor had any Vietnamese dong on me. That's right, no dong in my bag. I had a bit of a struggle coming to terms with the exchange rate and currency values with AUD$1 buying about 21000 dong. That's a lot of dong for a dollar and I wanted to make sure I wasn't carrying too much dong (get it? Enough dong jokes). I sorted out a transfer to the hotel for my stay in Hanoi for a reasonable price of US$30 or about 600000 dong. Off to the ATM to draw out a few million dong. It's not very often I get to call myself a millionaire, shame it wasn't worth as much as I'd like it to be. Oh well.
Jump in the car for the drive to my hotel, looking forward to the sights on my hour long drive to the city and I wasn't disappointed. The pick-up point alone was chaotic with horns blaring from taxis, private cars and public buses. Vehicles everywhere. Get outside the airport and to the first roundabout about 2 minutes away and it's just a mess. The roundabout itself is no more than 2 metres in diameter surrounded by plenty of road and filled with scooters, motorbikes, taxis, cars, buses, trucks and push bikes. It was a free -for-all. If you find a reasonable gap then go for it. I should mention at this point there is no seatbelt. On the way I see plenty of vehicles whizzing by and as I whizz by. The most interesting sights were: A) The husband and wife on their scooter holding a white door. The husband was in front controlling the bike while the wife was on the back holding on to the door which sat in between them. I imagine it must have been creating a bit of drag however I'm sure that was minimised by the missing window pane at the top. And B) the farmer with 2 pigs strapped to the side of his scooter in what looked to be chicken wire cages. They were facing backwards at axle level.
I arrived at the hotel in one piece, checked in and sussed out my room. Pretty nice (Hung Ngoc 5) for about US$50 a night. The hotel was also the meeting point for my intrepid tour the following evening. I whack on some sunscreen and aeroguard, grab my map and plan my firsts Hanoi adventure to the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh or as the locals call him, Uncle Ho. Now I'd only been outside and walking for 5 minutes before the sweat starts dripping. It is very hot and very humid. I find out later that day it was at least 37 degrees. The air was thick and there was no escape if I wanted to explore so on I go. The streets in Hanoi are very narrow on the most part. No more than 2 cars in width and they're filled with scooters, motorbikes and the occasional car or taxi. The population of Vietnam is about 90 million and there are about 30 million motorbikes/scooters. The roads are bedlam. Crossing the road in Hanoi is a thrill seeking sport in itself. I have to remember they (generally) drive on the right hand side of the road and take into account that they don't really follow the road signs or rules. To cross the road you have to kind of look for a reasonably safe gap (if you can call it a gap) and make your way across as quickly as possible. It's important to remember not to stop or hesitate. Once you step off the kerb you need to commit and don't stop until you reach sanctuary on the opposite kerb, and that's if you can find room as it's quite often filled by parked scooters/motorbikes and/or stalls or locals sitting outside an café or bar. It's a hectic experience and gets worse when you reach a main road such as the ones nearby Uncle Ho's.
Unfortunately Uncle's Ho's house is closed today but I do snap a few pics from outside. Fortunately, I get to visit him on my tour. Behind the mausoleum is the one pillar pagoda, the original of which was built oodles ago by a medieval king but was rebuilt in the early 20th century. The one pillar pagoda was designed to represent a lotus which was in a dream of the king who built it. In the king's dream the lotus presented itself and opened to reveal a son he had long wanted. There was something else about him having to marry, or take on as a concubine, a peasant woman in order to have a son but you get the gist. Plenty of locals pray here and elsewhere. I learn later in my tour that most Vietnamese do not have a religion however they are highly superstitious and they'll pray anywhere spiritual. A bit like agnosticism in a way "not sure what's there but I'm sure something is there so on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday I'll pray at the pagoda and on the Sunday I'll pop by the catholic church". From the pagoda I make my way to the Dong Xuan markets. Turns out they don't really get cracking until the evening and I don't blame them. It's f***ing hot! On my solo journey around the city I see many government buildings which were easily identifiable as being from the French colonial era. They're quite nice buildings and painted this bright yellowy/orange colour. Apparently it helps to minimise moss growth.
I'd spent a few hours walking the streets and get back to the hotel around 13:00ish. Head straight up to my room, strip down to my grundy's and stand in front of the air con to both cool down and dry off. At this point I feel a shower is the best option and staying in until at least the evening. I do just that, have dinner downstairs in the restaurant and spend the remainder of the day watching movies.
The following day do pretty much the same, avoiding the heat and relaxing. Oh, and doing laundry. I have no idea where the Laundromat is and I only have a few little things to wash so hand washing in the basin it is. Such is the life of a backpacker. Hang up my smalls on coat hangers around the room dry and sit back and enjoy a movie and the latest news on BBC. Meanwhile, WTF Australia? Where are these gold medals the experts were predicting? The medal count has Kazakhstan ahead of us!
I meet my tour group at 18:00 and we go through introductions. There are 12 of us plus our guide Khoa (pronounced Kwah). A middle aged British couple who are actually a lord and lady (Ian and Jeanette). They bought their titles and are now the lord and lady of some British allotment south of London. I think they grow carrots there. A middle aged Aussie couple (Greg and Alison). A couple who live in London, they guy a kiwi and his girlfriend a Hungarian (Matt and Vicky). 2 Aussie girls about my age who are friends (Tash and Suzie) and a British girl and another Aussie girl (Monica and Krystal) who are also friends. There's also another middle aged woman from Australia (Annie). We all go out for dinner to a nearby restaurant and get to know each other and get an overview of our trip ahead. The British lord quickly begins to annoy me as he insists on telling everyone that he's a lord and beginning stories only to ask his wife if she wants to tell the story that he's started.
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Karen Oh so jealous. Reading this at work. Take note of the power poles with a birds nest of cables, too funny.