Hanoi, all the fun of Saigon, packed into a smaller city!

I like this city, I really do.  It's got it's ups and downs, and it really is crazier than Saigon, because of the smaller streets, and smaller city layout, but it has an energy and a "old school city" feel that Saigon lacks.  Like the soul of Boston with the hecticness of NYC, multiplied a few times..

We have been here two full days, with a trip to Halong Bay in between, as recommended by our first hotel (more on that later).  The first day was spent hanging out around the old quarter, an area of town that is like a big market.  The streets were named a long time ago based on the craft guild that settled there, so each street is named "teapot street" or "shirt street" etc..  The streets are narrow, and the sidewalks are lined with motorbikes (with and without people that push you to ride them.  Some things are constant throughout the country), so you must walk in the street, and it's much freakier than Saigon in that regard.  But, the streets are also lined with cool little shops and tons of street vendors.  Also, there are markets and little alleys full of cool street shops seemingly around every corner.  There is also a nice sized lake for walking around directly south of the Old Quarter, so it's a nice respite from the streetwalking.

And walking is what happened.  The archatecture is still French inspired, but since the North of Vietnam is so close to China, the people look distinctively more Chinese, and so does some of the city buildings.  Much was eaten, as Hanoi (and of course, this is the big reason why I like this city so much) has such a wide variety of street food.  I have had countless types of things I can't totally identify, and 95 percent of it has been pretty freaking delicious.  The only exception was a hen's egg that was allowed to mature a bit longer than a normal egg.  When I started crunching into wings, I had to stop.  I got halfway though before I had to quit (I'll do a post on food later, don't worry, I've been eating...). 

The city is very cosmopolitan and modern, and it's a great city to wander.  People are friendly for the most part, although everyone isn't as crazy tourist friendly as Saigon (although, that may have been the area which we were staying in Saigon, which is known as the backpacker district...).  It's a great city to experience, although after almost 2 months of traveling, I am getting a bit on the weary side, and ready for some English places again.  This language is so hard to even try and pronounce, and I'm usually made fun of.  In addition, I'm not sure the literacy rate is that high, so some people can't even understand when I point to a word in the phrasebook/dictionary thing I carry around.  All of this makes communication very difficult.

So we did Halong Bay, which the next post will be about, and got back (after 3 days) yesterday afternoon.  Our guesthouse, which I had booked on both sides of the trip, told us they had no rooms, but had gotten us rooms in a place nearby.  At first glance, it seemed nicer.  Bigger beds, bigger rooms, nicer furnishings.  However, the beds were less comfortable, the toilet/faucet seem barely attached to the floor/wall, and the staff is considerably less friendly. 

Immediately after putting our bags down, the desk clerk asked:

"You want to take a city tour tomorrow?"
"No thanks, we want to walk around."
"City tour very nice!"
"We have spent too much time on a bus already."
"Only 15 minutes on bus, very short trip."
"No thank you!"
The pushiness of everyone is insane.  It feels as if everyone is in cahoots with everyone else to try and get commission and obtain as much money as possible, by squeezing it out of tourists.  And this is probably my least favorite part about the country, as well as the most tiring part.  There are really good people around, but it's very hard to find them, and it's very hard to trust anyone as a result.

That being said, today was a very good day, filled with nothing of the sort.  I started by walking to Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, where he is entombed for all eternity.  These guys really really like him.  Every year for two months, he goes to Russia for "maintenance" (or his "vacation", as the hotel girls put it), and he just got back.  It's a very somber affair, with very strict rules.  No sunglasses, long pants, no open toed shoes, double file, hands to the side, don't put your hands in your pockets, etc..  There are guards every 20 feet to make sure these rules are adhered to, as well.  I did get to see the guards change, an event Lonely Planet says is very cool to see, and it was... think like the guards at the palace in London. 

As the guards were changing, the guys behind me were remarking: "Isn't it funny how all totalitarian goverments/dictatorships have a goosestep?"  Seemed like the wrong thing to me to be mentioning near armed guards at such a sacred place for Vietnamese Communists...

Also in the area is the One Pillar Pagoda, a pagoda standing on one pillar (surprise!) designed to mimic a lotus flower.  Cool, and crowded, but kinda just another pagoda.  I then walked to the Temple of Literature, a very cool place.  It was created by one of the first Kings of Vietnam as a place to study Confucianism, and has evolved into the top university in Vietnam.  There was a graduation ceremony going on today, and I arrived on the tail end, but it was cool to see all the students in really traditional garb, and the GIGANTIC amounts of flowers all of these kids got!  The school was divided into 5 sections, based on water/trees/fire/earth/wind (heart?), and the coolest part were the turtles (symbol for long life) with stones on their back, where all of the graduates' names were etched for eternity.  There were of course giant statues of scholars, a big bell, and a big drum.  Also, in the back there was a gift shop, and a room where traditional musicians would play a bit and then push their cds on you.  I didn't even really hear any of the music, I sat down and then they finished their set and tried to sell me a cd!

However, it was a cool place, and I lingered in the quieter areas because it was a great oasis from the hubub of the city.  Right next to it was a restaurant I read about in Lonely Planet (Usually something I avoid like the plague) that seemed like a great idea...

KOTO - Know One Teach One was developed by a Vietnamese-Australian as a way to get kids off of the streets and doing something with their lives.  The program (now almost 20 years old) puts kids in an intensive 2 year hospitality course, learning about front/back of house at restaurants, and they train/work at a restaurant in Hanoi right next to the Temple of Litearature. 

With such a cool concept, I had to stop in.  I was there from 12 noon until almost 3PM.  The food was great (the desert was the best part, an out of this world chocolate tart), but the service simply blew me away.  These kids understood and could speak English extremely well, had been ridiculously well trained in how the front of house works (crazy efficency behind the bar, I dropped a spoon accidentally when eating desert, and a new one was brought immediately without asking), and to top it off, they were super friendly and bent over backwards to provide all sorts of service. 

I ate for a while, and as I was leaving I ran into an Australian family that had been on the Mekong Delta tour with us!  So I sat down and was chatting with them for almost 2 hours, and it was great to hear their stories (they got hardcore taken advantage of at every step of the trip.  I feel as if people can read how much money you have, and how much they can get out of you up here...), and their little girl was very cute (and a great traveller! 6 years old and telling me stories about falling off of elephants and her favorite ice cream).

After this, I did more wandering back towards the hotel, eating copious amounts of street food along the way.  I was having some meat on a stick, and this really old lady started speaking me to me in French! "Beaucoup Bon! Beaucoup Bon!"  And, she even bought me a shot of rice wine.  I've got a great picture of her, and it was totally weird to have to speak french in Vietnam (but it makes sense, and lucky I know a bit...). 

I ended up on the lake (Another thing about Saigon is that the same road has a new name every block or two, and it's really hard to navigate unless you know the city or have landmarks), and sat down on a bench to chill for a bit.  Before I knew it, two girls walk up to me and say they would like to have a conversation.  They are two University students, studying economics and finance (one wants to be a CEO and have a big house/car), and they like practicing English when they can (one of them did, the other was very shy... I can't picture a shy CEO...).  So I was sitting with them and chatting (I was told I was handsome... Many Vietnamese keep telling me this, it's great for the ego.  Maybe I should move here... who's coming with me?), and this really weird guy starts looking over our shoulder and giving us big smiles.  We try to talk to him, and nothing comes out for a few minutes.  Then he hands me a spec sheet for some sort of electrical engineering project, pointing out to me how heavy (in kg) things were...  The girls and I were thrououghly confused (and a bit creeped out) when this guy launches into fantastic English!

"HELLO! HOW ARE YOU!!?"

He then goes on to tell us (and show us) how he is an electrical engineer, does deals with people all over the world, designs transformers and turbines, has been to Switzerland ("Have you been to Zurich?" he asks me...), and is moving to Milan in a few months.  This talk goes on for a while, him dominating the conversation, and then he mentions a few times how he is a single man, and very skinny (He takes off his jacket and turns sideways to emphasize this).  He wants a nice girl to settle down with, and he gives the shy girl his phone number and email address to "practice English" with.  After this, he says he has to go, and just disappears.

While this is going on, no less than 3 random passerbys stop and watch us, sometimes coming right behind the bench and looking over my shoulder.  Quite an unnerving experience, but I got out of it alive. 

Immediately, another guy comes and starts talking with us, much less weird, much more amicable.  He was also an electrical engineer (I then murmered how it was a small world, and had to explain the meaning of coincidence to three Vietnamese at the same time.  God bless cell phone internet.)

Yeah, then they left, and said they hope I come back soon.  Nice people, finally found in a country where it seems to be dog eat dog.  At least when it comes to getting tourist's money...