Hanoi Is a Wonderful City!

Note: I used the computer in the hotel yesterday, and it is very slow. I had problems with posting to the blog. It finally told me it had posted, but I was unable to get the blog open to see. I'm on the same computer today, so I hope I am successful again.

Monday, Aug. 28, 2006--Hanoi (Continued)

I spent more of the afternoon walking after resting a while in my room. Hanoi is a fun city to just walk up and down the streets watching the people and interacting occasionally with one who wants to talk. Of course, the ones who want to talk the most are the motorcycle drivers who want you to hire them to take you on a ride around the quarter. But they are friendly and nice and tend not to be too pushy. Sometimes, however, an ordinary person on the street will speak. As I said yesterday, the streets and are alive with people. And the buildings are interesting to see. Unfortunately, I haven't taken many photos. The streets are too narrow and there are too many trees obsuring the view to get any really good photos of the buildings other than the largest ones that are museums or government buildings. While walking, I came across a supermarket and bought some snacks. Then I stopped at a juice shop and got a blended milk and watermelon. It was so refreshing after all the walking!

After returning to the room for a while, I went out early to dinner. Vietnamese eat early themselves, and I had picked out a small place which I knew would become crowded. As a single traveler, I'm not comfortable taking up a whole table when others are waiting. So I had dinner at 6 p.m. To get to the restaurant, I had to walk down a long, narrow alley far from the main street. I twisted and turned and eventually came to a small lighted dining room with about 10 tables. The specialty at the place is beefsteak cooked French style. It's was two pieces of sliced beef that had been tenderized and embedded with lots of garlic and cooked in a dark juicy sauce with a side of French fries. Everything else was ala carte, so I ordered a tomato-cucumber-onion salad, a loaf of French bread, and a Hanoi beer to go with it. The meal was so delicious. The tomatoes and cucumber tasted just the way they should but seldom do. I gulped down the salad. The meat was wonderful and the fries crispy and hot. The bread was perfect for sopping up the gravy from the meat along with all the bits of garlic in it. And the beer was very cold, since they serve it here over ice (manufactured and pure). That whole meal cost me $2.87!!

Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2006--Hanoi

I started today with the Vietnamese beef soup for breakfast. It was filling and tasty. They didn't make it here at my hotel. They sent an employee out onto the street to buy it from a street kitchen, so I was having the same meal that most Vietnamese eat themselves for breakfast.

I have had some problems at my hotel. When I arrived the first night, they seemed surprised that I was here, but they gave me a room. I showed them my reservation confirmation form, but it seemed to be news to them. Then this morning, I was told they didn't have a room for me tonight. I commented that I had a reservation. The response was that it was for only two nights. Then I produced my form showing that it was for 3 nights. They relented and said I could stay. But what a hassle!! And I wonder who will have to suffer for it. I could offer to share my room if necessary with someone else who has a reservation if they are short a room, but I decided to let them solve their own problems.

That did scare me into making plans for traveling tomorrow. I just have not been in the mood for planning how to move onward. But now I have decided to take a train to Haiphong tomorrow and then catch a ferry to an island. I'll write more about it later.

The museums were open today. I walked straight to a history museum and tured it, then I went across the street to another history museum which told the story of the revolution and wars. The history museum had a fantastic exhibit of pottery from one community here in Vietnam from ancient times to the present; the modern work is really outstanding, and I wish I had a way to buy something and send it home. Both were very nice museums--so much better than I have encountered in many Asian countries. In fact, Hanoi is surprising me as a city in the way it is so clean, cosmopolitan, etc. It definitely is one of the better cities in Asia--more compact than Bangkok, cheaper than Singapore and Hong Kong, lots more atmosphere than Singapore or Seoul, so much cleaner and developed than Yangon or Vientienne, so much better in all ways than Manila.

All museums here close from about 11:30 until 1:30 for a lunch break. So when I had to leave the museums, I went to the train station and bought my ticket for tomorrow. I have to leave the train station at 6 a.m.!!! What a horrible hour. I had one other choice--to leave at 5 a.m.! So 6 didn't sound so bad as I thought about my choices.

From the train station, I walked to the part of town that has the Ho Chi Minh tomb, the big square for communist parades, the presidential palace, and another lake called West Lake. I walked around part of West Lake watching men fish, people ride on swan boats, etc. I took a photo of a pagoda. Then I walked back to the hotel. I've thoroughly enjoyed myself, although as I look back over what I have done, it doesn't seem like much. I prefer seeing people, watching them going about their daily lives, seeing the food being cooked at the street kitchens, interacting with the children, etc., to spending all day going in and out of temples and other tourist sights.

After resting in the room and trying to plan where I will go once I arrive in Haiphong tomorrow, I went out in the late afternoon. I walked to Keim Lake in hopes of finding an ATM to get more cash before heading out into the hinterlands. I did find an ANZ Bank, one that rejected me Sunday night at the airport, but this time it gave me cash.

I walked around the lake watching the people. It is one of the main gathering places in Hanoi. Nights are more alive than the daytimes, since people are off work. I talked to a motorcycle driver who just wanted to be friendly and to a young man who hoped he could make some money off me. But I knew what was happening and just enjoyed the experience. Afterwards, I walked a couple of blocks from the lake and sat on a balcony where I had Vietnamese fried rice with chicken and draught beer. It was a relaxing place to be. The price was less than $2!

Tomorrow ill be an early day and a busy day. Hope it goes well. I changed my mind this afternoon about where to go. Rather than tell you now, I will wait to see if anything goes wrong causing me to alter my course. The problem is that I cannot stand organized tours. Yet that is how most people go to the area where I hope to go tomorrow. But they get trapped into boat rides that involve stopping to swim, stopping to cook fish and eat it, etc. I would be bored to death being on such a trip alone. So I am hoping to see the highlights without the crap that goes with the tours. Maybe it will work; maybe it won't. Whatever will be will be.