Hanoi is like nowhere I have been before, it's blooming mental to be honest. It's super crowded with people, cars and motorbikes coming at you from every direction. All of your senses are attacked by the sound of (unnecessary and continous) beeping, delicious smells of both the sweet and savoury variety, and the need to keep your eyes and ears open in an attempt to avoid getting mowed down by the surrounding traffic, especially seeing as people even drive on the pavements! I have never seen so many motorbikes in one place at once. Literally, it is unimaginable.
There really are absolutely no rules when it comes to crossing the road. Traffic lights and pedestrian crossings are completely ignored so, if you wanna cross that road, you gotta walk and keep walking! Don't even think about changing your pace or hesitating; if you want to live, just walk! (Suits my awful road awareness I suppose).
The long:
Saturday:
I had a very smooth journey from touch down in Hanoi to arriving at my hotel, which I was extremely appreciative of. There was some debate at Immigration as to whether I needed a visa, but provided I'm out of the country within 15 days I won't get thrown into a Vietnamese prison! I must admit that as we got closer to the hotel I couldn't quite believe the way that my driver was driving; practically just holding down the horn and overtaking every single car, regardless of oncoming traffic. But I made it in one piece, which is all that matters. I checked in and almost cried with joy when I was shown to my room, having worried myself into a frenzy about what the hostel conditions were going to be like during my travels, but I needn't have lost a wink's sleep over it, as my room was nicer than a lot of expensive hotels I've stayed in!
It had strong wifi; cable TV; a mini bar & fridge; AC; a fan, and even a bleeding desktop computer, all for $24 a night which, granted, is not a cheap room in Vietnam, but was the luxury that I needed to start my trip and was worth the marginal extra few dollars! After watching half a film I dozed off and gratefully had a wonderful night's sleep.
Sunday:
After a bit of a snoozey lie-in I got up and ready for my first day of solo sightseeing. Despite being a little anxious I had decided to embrace the day and be positive about the whole experience and, as it turned out, I had a pretty good day considering I spent it on my own. I started by wandering through the Old Quarter, making my way towards Hoan Kiem Lake, which is smack bang in the centre of the city, offering a nice bit of tranquility in the middle of all the madness.
The lake has several bridges and religious areas where people can and were making offerings.
From there I went and took a peek at the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre, which is supposedly meant to put on a pretty decent show, although I didn't have time to actually watch it.
I stumbled across a rather nice old square, where I believe a bunch of bridesmaids(?!) were being photographed.
It was here that 3 young girls approached me with a camera, and I wrongly assumed that they were asking me to take a picture of them as, next thing I knew, they were all rotating to have their picture taken with ME! I was happy to oblige but thoroughly bewildered. Perhaps they don't see many tall blondes?! Who knows. Anyway, after grabbing a Starbs (some habits die hard), I headed towards the Vietname Women's Museum.
The museum was beyond interesting. I started in "Women's Fashion", learning about the significance of the traditional dress and how it has evolved over the centuries.
The next section was devoted to "Heroic Mothers", and detailed the sacrifices that these women made during the Vietnamese War.
I was most stunned by the "Women in History" section, however, which highlighted the depth of womens' role in transforming Vietnam into a free and democratic country. One quote read "When the enemy arrives on the gate, even the women must fight", which was proven entirely true from the fact that women represented 40% of the guerillas in the South and women platoons overthrew numerous enemy control posts.
The "Family Life" section described the contribution that women have made to sustaining both their families and society at once, including their parts in agriculture
and in protecting their children, which involves knitting caps with special patterns, silver coins and amulets to protect their babies from evil spirits (very cute).
The "Marriage" section outlined the different regions traditions and customs when it comes to marriage. I absolutely loved the quote, "Wife and husband are as inseperable as a pair of chopsticks". It showed the traditional dress and explained the procedure in both the run up to the marriage and after.
In matrilineal socitieties the groom moves into his wife's family home; pretty cosy living, eh? It definitely made me stop and think about how truly important family is to some people, and actually made me a little sad at how easily and happily we disregard its power in the West.
I left the museum thoroughly impressed and continued on my sightseeing route, which took me via lots of back streets filled with teens sitting on stools sipping weird coloured drinks and eating street food, which was a wonderful sight.
I went to Hao Lo Prison next, built by French colonials during the Vietnam War to detain political prisoners. I must admit that history is a seriously weak point for me so the prison really taught me a lot and was definitely the highlight of my day, despite being obviously rather morose.
The prison reconstructed the prison environment and detailed the conditions, which were simply unbelievable, particularly considering this all took place less than 50 years ago.
^ I think this table puts life in Hao Lo Prison into perspective rather succinctly. Another post detailed what the prisoners were fed, which was on the same rotation every week and consisted of 1 meal of pork that was either sow meat or stringy; 3 meals of boiled old and tough buffalo meat; 3 meals of small chub gut boiled with soybean jam, soya curd and mouldy dry fish, all served with vegetables that varied on a seasonal basis and old rice containing parasites, which caused many prisoners heart oedema due to eating that kind of rice for a long period of time. Apparenly in 1 month 40 prisoners died from the food alone. English prison is luxury in comparison.
I never knew the extent of the international uproar and protestation against the Vietnam War. It was amazing to read the efforts that were made by all kinds of people around the world hoping to convince America to withdraw its troops. Some of the American pilots captured during the war were also held in Hao Lo Prison, which is where things really got confusing for me, as the photos and explanations showed that the Americans were given special treatment, with nicer beds and food, and were even allowed to celebrate Christmas by decorating their rooms and cooking and enjoying the traditional Christmas meal. I asked two different people about why they think this happened and I am still at a loss; the best explanation that was offered was that the Vietnamese wanted the war to end as soon as possible, so treated the Americans with kindness in the hope that such actions would be returned. If someone could please educate me that would be wonderful, as I for one would find it hard to be so kind if I was the Vietnamese!
I joined forces with a young Irish couple in our attempt to find our way back to the Old Quarter, during which we were fortunate to happen to pass St. Joseph's Cathedral, which was putting on some kind of Asian nativity play. The Irish couple described it as "amazing" and "epic", but I personally can't keep a straight face when it comes to this kind of thing, with Phuket Fantasea springing to the forefront of my memories.
It was nice to interact with some other people and definitely made me feel more relaxed about meeting more people in future, as everyone really is so open to chatting and making comforting small talk. We parted ways as we neared our hostels, where I ate a meagre dinner of nuts in bed and watched Spiderman (I refuse to eat in a restaurant on my own). To be honest I was more than happy too as I think this coming week's tour is going to be rather hectic and I may miss my own space and a good night's sleep before long. I do have my fingers and toes crossed though that there are some nice people on the tour. Wish me luck.
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