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Hanoi. 31 Aug - 4 Sept 2015.
I flew in from Hong Kong to Hanoi which felt like the shortest flight I'd ever travelled on. No sooner had we taken off that we were provided with an in flight meal and had landed. Following a short minibus airport flyer to the centre of Hanoi, I hopped onto a motorbike taxi to take me to my hostel. These taxi drivers are the craziest, most skilled bikers who weave in and out of traffic and take corners at a speed that seems to defy Physics. By the time I arrived at the hostel it was getting late so found the nearest electronics shop to buy a phone to replace the one lost in HK, ate some noodles, sunk a few beers and called it a night.
The following day Barry arrived after a long journey overland through China into Vietnam to Hanoi. Close to the hostel was the Ho Hoan Kiem lake which is a tranquil area amongst the busy city. Around the lake are various cafes and restaurants so we spent the afternoon on a beer and coffee crawl. The chilled Vietnamese coffee is famed and renound for being extra strong and by the end of the day I was a mixture of merry and buzzing. Halfway round the lake we were stopped by a Vietnamese man who taught English. He asked if it would be okay to talk with his students and answer some questions. We were more than happy to and spent about half an hour talking about our countries, interests and families. By the end, the teacher still wanted to squeeze as much as possible out of the encounter so asked if we could sing a song. We however turned this around and got them to sing a song about Vietnam for us. Still not content the teacher wanted everyone to dance (not sure how this helps improve their English) and started playing Happy by Pherrell on his phone. Everyone exchanged awkward glances at this point so we made our excuses and left.
That evening we went to the rooftop bar at the hostel for beers and drinking games. Drinking starts early in Hanoi as I was surprised to learn that a government curfew enforced by the military closes the bars and clubs at midnight. During the bar crawl we were taken to the sister hostel of the one we were staying which was much more lively. We also went to a club called Hangover which discouraged me from drinking due to the reminder that I may need to recover the following day. At midnight on the dot the curfew was enforced, the music in the club promptly shut down and we were handed plastic glasses to decant our drinks into to drink outside. The military also go from bar to bar ensuring that each one closes rapidly. It was all very surreal. At the hostel I was surprised to learn that the hostel had a piano! For those that have been tortured long enough by the limited number of songs I know by heart on the piano you can imagine my delight and also the songs I performed before getting bored and going to bed.
I woke at 6:30am the following day. It was the 2nd of September, the Vietnamese national day and was a big celebration as it marked 70 years of independence from France. The reason for the early start was to watch the parade which begun at 8am. A large group of us from the hostel walked over there mostly still hazy from the previous evening and waited in the heat and humidity for the parade to start. By the time it had reached us we had waited for the best part of an hour next to a crying baby, in the heat, with limited water. The parade was good and featured various marching groups from across the Vietnamese armed forces however I did expect to see a few more vehicles than the three 4x4s on show.
The remainder of the day was quite quiet and the majority of our time was spent debating which tour to book for our Ha Long Bay excursion over the following few days. We also went tea tasting which was interesting to see the comparison between the Chinese teas. At 9pm we went back to the lake we circled the previous day for the celebratory fireworks. We got there with about ten minutes to spare and the crowds were already settled in the best spots. Considering that the lake edge is circled with trees perfect to obstruct the view, it was an interesting choice for the location of the fire works. Whilst we were still looking for a good spot to watch, an ear pounding explosion went off behind us. The crowd screamed, we jumped and turned to vaguely see the fireworks begin over the lake from behind the trees. The sound from the fireworks was insane and were relentless for about twenty minutes straight. It was the best firework display I never saw.
After the fireworks we went for a few beers back at the Downtown sister hostel of ours and then sampled a few street bars that line the narrow streets. Once the curfew kicked in we returned to the hostel by cycle tuktuk ridden by the craziest rider in all of Hanoi. Once back at the hostel I tried my luck again with the piano and was rapidly told off by the night staff and told to stop. Supergrass will have to wait.
Max.
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