Sunday, October 19, 2008

Good afternoon Vietnam, (Hanoi)

We touched down in Hanoi, the Capital of Vietnam, mid-afternoon and took the transfer to our hotel in the old district of the city. We ventured out for a quick look around, quickly adopting our Chinese policy of lane-by-lane dodging of cars to dodge the mopeds - then realising that not looking and walking at a steady pace was slightly less alarming. I think the owners of Katie Melua's 9 million bicycles in Beijing have all moved to Hanoi and upgraded to mopeds...On our first night, we walked down to the beautiful lake at the centre of Hanoi and found our way amid the back streets deep into the old quarter and to Ma May Street which was delightful. All the shops/restaurants were refurbished to the traditional tube French Colonial/Vietnamese style houses and we sat on the balcony of one such house for our evening meal - the first meal which can be classed as delicious in over three weeks.The following morning, we went back to the old quarter for breakfast - we took a good walk through all the streets densely packed with people absorbed in their day-to-day business. Each street is named after the products which are/were sold in it - we saw Shoe St, Food St, Bag St, Silk St - there are apparently a total of 36 different streets each named after the products sold. My favourite street is Ma May Street - it is full of wonderful little restaurants and shops with street people selling flowers and fruit from large wicker baskets supported over their seller's shoulder by bamboo. We later walked to Hoan Kiem lake in the park and sat on benches relaxing for a while before heading off to find the Opera House in the French Quarter (with a lot of Art Nouveau style buildings) and then for lunch.In the afternoon we walked to Hoa Lo Prison, Maison Centrale, more famously known as Hanoi Hilton. It is best known as the place where the American POWs were held (incarcerated) during the Vietnam War but was designed by the French to hold the more outspoken/patriotic Vietnamese during their rule of the country. The guillotine was regularly used and heads were put on display to try to dissuade further uprisings. Unbelievably, prisoners were still tortured at this prison until 1969. To top it off, as recently as 1953, over 2,000 prisoners were being held at this prison in a space to fit 500. It was quite alarming.An amusing story we heard whilst inside was about a couple of US Air force officers who were captured and had concocted a story (rather than face torture) about two other members of their squadron who had been court-marshalled for refused to fly US missions against the north. Thrilled with the propaganda, visiting Japanese communists were told this and it filtered back to the US. Unfortunately the officers had named their imaginary pilots as Ben Casey and Clark Kent and when the Vietnamese found out they had been duped, the prisoners were tortured again!We met our new group in the evening - a total of 7 people including us - and went out for another fantastic meal. The group Kitty(NZ), David(NZ), Tracey(CAN), Jenny(US), Paulette(AUS) and our tour leader, another Tracey(AUS) immediately hit it off - we have been so fortunate with both groups.The following morning, we travelled northeast to Halong Bay. Arriving at the port around mid-day, we set off immediately and had a fantastic seafood lunch on the boat (a mix of a junk and a pirate ship!) We cruised along passed beautiful karst peaks in the water which with the misty sky made for some fantastic views although not such great photographs. We sailed through communities living on the water and visited some amazing caves resembling lunar landscapes - then on the way back stopped for a little swim, arriving back at the harbour early evening. We dined at a small local restaurant and had a brief look around the market before heading to bed.The following morning, the bus took us back to Hanoi and we decided to head to the Military museum to have a look at the old US aeroplanes and helicopters. Mark became terribly excited when he spotted a Huey and so we spent a while taking photographs before heading back to the hotel in preparation for our overnight train to Hue.NB: One of the girls on our new tour was supposed to be travelling with a friend through Vietnam but unfortunately her friend was in an awful mini-bus crash (killing 3 people) whilst on the road (the same route as us) to the The Great Wall of China.

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