Vietnam – Travel from Hanoi to Hue: Day 8

 General, Meanderings Abroad  No Responses »
Aug 052009
 

A full day of traveling to our next destination was spent for our half-way mark of our travels through Vietnam.

There was a bit of waiting around as our boat made its way back to the port and we were shuttled back to land. In some ways it was a relief to return to a more comfortable form of life on land after being away in the quiet and watery-world. In others, I immediately missed the breeze and peacefulness of the boat bobbing along the waves.

We boarded our bus heading back to Hanoi where we were to catch our night train down to Hue. The bus was slightly delayed in traffic due to an accident with a taxi and tourist bus, but after a bit of honking, people-watching and swerving in and out of traffic, we were on our speedy way. The bus driver was on the short-tempered side in his driving as he sped by other trucks, cars, and motorbikes driving the bus at a bouncy clip so that we could have been on a trotting horse rather than in the back of a bus. With an interesting “shortcut” that took us down a bumpy dirt road and lost time from the regular road, we made it in good time to Hanoi back to our original hotel where we had a couple of hours to spend before heading for the train station.

Craig and I went for a quick Pho dinner while Roman caught up on his internet. Then, we took a quick taxi ride to the station. Now, our hope had been to get the Livitran for our 13-hour night journey to Hue. However, when we asked at the hotel, they told us it was all sold out. The next best option was for a soft-sleeper bed, with four bunks and a bit more space. Sadly, also sold out. So, our personal trip to the station to get tickets resulted in the three of us getting very cheap tickets for the 6-bunk hard-sleeper bed train. This website shows the different options pretty well.

When we arrived at our car, there were already three or rather four (two women were sharing one of the bottom bunks) people settled in. I took the top bunk and the boys got the two middle bunks. It was an experience… no-smoking cars that allowed smoke, so that it traveled through the air conditioning system right above my head, very little head space and a precarious decline to the ground were a couple of the adjustments needed to be made. Still, I have to say it was not as bad as it could have been and I felt like I got to see how the locals would travel, which is better in a way than using my wealth for comfort. One night of less comfortable environs was worth being able to write about.

In the morning, most people were in the hallway looking out the window and trying to take in some “fresh” air as the scenery flew by. We arrived in Hue without incident and were greeted by our pickup for the hotel.

More to come…

-T

Vietnam – Hanoi: Day 5

 General, Meanderings Abroad  No Responses »
Aug 032009
 

Cities used to be my favorite places to be, but now I’m reconsidering if I’m a city-girl or not. Walking down the streets of Hanoi is so stressful to me with the incessant and mostly-unnecessary horn-honking. The sidewalks are full of motorbikes or squatting people having a chat, so pedestrians are mostly forced to walk on the street. So, it’s not really fun to walk the city – though it is still infinitely better than Ho Chi Minh.

We set off to see “Hanoi Hilton” or Hoa Lo Prison in the morning. In my junior high gym class, my teacher – an Army reserve person – would make us do obstacle courses and called it Hanoi Hilton. So, for some reason I imagined some sort of obstacle course for the real place…of course, it wasn’t quite the same. The prison was pretty interesting. The pictures showed soldiers having a “good” time during their captivity and made it seem less terrible as a prison should seem. Makes you wonder about the truth as is true with all historical places. In any case, it was nice to read some descriptions that didn’t include the evil Americans, but rather the evil French! ha ha.

From the prison, we made a short rest stop and then headed out to the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology. This was definitely worth the trip out. The inside of the museum was pretty good with representation and explanations of the various tribes and ethnic groups in Vietnam throughout history. There were exhibits of the usual cultural artefacts and such. However, the best part, I thought, was the outside exhibits showing the life-size houses/dwellings and replication of the lifestyles. We also saw a water puppet show that can “only be seen in Vietnam”. It was humorous, but overall not so interesting to watch. I think seeing how the puppet-masters worked would have been more worth it, but what can you do? πŸ™‚

 
 
  

All this was done pre-lunch, though we ended up having a fairly late lunch and thus a ridiculous amount of food at the Hanoi Garden. The food was excellent and tided us over for the rest of the night. So, we found a pub from the Lonely Planet called “Polite Pub”, which was quiet and nice. Then, we decided to wander to another venue and found “Avalon” overlooking the lake. It was a middle-class bar for the young Vietnamese folk, which made it a bit more interesting.

Overall, our last day and night in Hanoi was pretty good despite originally thinking it would be too much time in the noise-polluted city! Our trip to Halong Bay is going to be soooo good with some peace and quiet!

More to come,

T

Vietnam – Hanoi: Day 4

 General, Meanderings Abroad  1 Response »
Aug 022009
 

Realizing that we had a day longer than we thought in Hanoi, we decided to have a fairly lazy day starting with a bit of a lie in (aka 7ish).

After a breakfast downstairs we settled on a plan to head to the train station to get our tickets down to Hue after we return from HaLong Bay.

The train station was pretty easy to find and though slightly chaotic, it was quick to get our tickets. The more comfortable night train cabins were all booked up so we are in a hard sleeper car with six bunks. Should be interesting!
 
From the station we parted ways with Roman and headed up to the Ho Chi Minh masoleum complex. Neither of us needed to wait in the long line to get up close to the ashes of the great leader but we did head in to the museum. That was mind-boggling. Perhaps modern/contemporary artists would appreciate it more than I did with an abstract setup and non-linear layout. I appreciated that it was different but am not sure I learned anything about the man or country.

From there we visited the Presidential Palace grounds where HCM had a couple of different houses. The lines were nothing like those seen in Japan but the site was moderately interesting to me. At least I got some history in, right?

It began to rain when we finished so we caught a taxi back to the hotel where we pretty much relaxed for most of the afternoon. We did go out for a really good lunch at the Ladybird restaurant, another LP listed place.

In the evening, we met up with Roman again for dinner. We went nearby to Baan Thai, which was good but paled to our lunch. After dinner Craig and I went in search of somewhere to grab a drink. We found Hair of the Dog, which had an eclectic mix of 80’s music, entertaining drink explanations and very well-mixed drinks.

It was a lovely end to our day with one more to go in Hanoi. What adventures will we find tomorrow?

-T
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Vietnam – Hanoi: Day 3

 General, Meanderings Abroad  No Responses »
Aug 012009
 

I had a terrible night’s sleep with backpacker’s alley being a busy locale until 3am and restless dreams the rest of the night. However, we were up bright and early to head out for our flight to Hanoi.
We took Vietnam Airlines up. It’s just two short hours and the flight seemed alright though I was half awake for most of it. πŸ™‚

Our airport pickup for Hanoi Boutique hotel was there to greet us for the hour journey in to the city. It was quite nice to see the mountains and countryside on the drive in.

I was struck by the orange or red roofs everywhere. I’m not sure why, but it seems somehow strange to see them. I wasn’t withit enough to take photos but maybe later pictures will reveal what I am talking about.

The city is smaller, thus fewer motorbikes but still a ton! Most buildings are tall and narrow which I haven’t quite come to understand because space doesn’t seem to be that much of a problem. Perhaps it is money….

Our new hotel is lovely and the staff is very friendly. We are located in the Old Quarter which is pretty convenient for seeing most things.

So after settling in, we headed out to explore. The streets are filled with stores/vendors and the honking of horns. The cyclo riders made frequent attempts to get us as customers but we walked on. After a bit of meandering we found the Hoan Kiem Lake and had a walk around that.

In search for lunch we took a very long detour and somehow ended up in the northwest along the shores of Ho Tay (West Lake). Thankfully, the boats had food so we ate on the Potomac. Though the food was pretty average we watched our first downpour.

Once refreshed, we took a bit of a wander along the lake shore which seemed to be the backside of the South American embassies. There wasn’t much to see other than a few crazies swimming in the water getting their next meal perhaps.

So, as the next downpour began we caught a taxi back to our hotel.

In the evening we went to a popular place recommeneded by Lonely Planet called 69 for drinks and dinner. It was pretty good and thus was our first afternoon in Hanoi!

More to come,

-T
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