Hanoi - Part 3 (I've Forgotten How This Goes)

I've forgotten what order some events occurred in, so here're some photos with explanations. As I recall we woke up one day and went to some museums for a while, so here's some of that.

I think this is where we ate the first day in Hanoi, but here it is now. Nice place, a bowl of pho with a beer for about $2.50

My finger at the bottom there. Not sure what or where this was

Museum of Revolution, containing a lot of the weaponry of a few different factions of uprisers, as well as a good bit of captured war prizes like vehicles and uniforms

Captured American military planes and artillery pieces, including the tail-up one in the back there that crashed at some point and was collected and scraped together. A symbol of American defeat I suppose, because they're big on that over there

Before continuing it's worth noting that all in all, Vietnamese museums are a strange cultural experience. While pretty much every form of historical documentation is propagated to some extent for every country, in Vietnam they unabashedly take the opportunity to weigh their displays and commentary on the side of justifying the position and legacy of the current Vietnamese state. That's fine and all, it's their history to write as they see fit, but it's unusual reading the signs for the collected weaponry used by Vietnamese revolutionaries that detail how many people ("enemies") they were used to kill (or "annihilate" as the signs would often read). It was how precise their numbers were that was even stranger, like the combatants were all keeping strict score like a game of laser tag and then handed their weapons in immediately for induction into the museum, lest they be mixed up somewhere along the way and assigned the incorrect kill-count. Needless to say it all felt very artificial and "state approved". 

Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum

At this point we got talked by a xiclo driver (see previous post here) into taking a ride around the city, and it turned out to be worth it not only for leisurely reasons, but also from the unique perspective it gave us of the city during rush hour. None of the following picture from street view do it justice, but it was madness, and with Vietnam having barely anything resembling traffic rules, every turn and merge was a front row seat to their unique brand of chaotic order. I put off discussing it until the pictures were here to provide a visual element, but crossing the street or being driven around in Vietnam is an incredible experience. There are no such things as lanes or even proper directions, there is only functionality in the immediate moment. I never once saw an accident, or felt unsafe crossing the streets once I'd gotten used to how it works. You just sort of walk out into the stream of traffic and assume it'll all work out, which it does. Almost everyone drives around on a moped, and there're thousands of them everywhere at all times, so it's total madness everywhere you look, but because it's so unbound it also feels much safer. In Canada, if you walk out into the road there's a good chance you'll be hit by something because we're very passive drivers most of the time. We have lots of rules regulating how fast we go and where we can be and where we turn, but in the end that just seems to lure us into a state of non-vigilance. We assume everything will be fine because there're rules in place, and surely everyone will follow them, so we're less reactive to the unexpected. Vietnam is hectic, sure, but if you suddenly wander into the middle of a busy road they'll all avoid you without batting an eye, reacting in a group mentality like a skoal of fish. It also helps that they're on mopeds going 40 km an hour, so even if they hit you it's probably not going to kill you or anything. I believe it was the second or third day when an old lady with a cane and traditional Vietnamese dress saw Harrison and I waiting to cross the street, perhaps looking somewhat uncertain as to whether or not we should make our move, and took Harrison by the hand and guided him through the oncoming traffic as if he were a small child. 

Here's a pagoda we visited on our xiclo adventure as it started to get dusky

These are awesome and were pretty common in museum, government, or historical areas. It's basically a big bonsai in a stone trough, but the interesting part is that they make little shrines and steps on a lot of them

Back to the madness. This accurately sums of the experience of being in a xiclo or on a moped

It was getting dark and everyone was heading home from work, and I'm actually surprised by how the pictures do no justice to just how populated the road was at the time

Earlier that same day (because linear time in the blog world, much like that of the waking world, is an illusion) we saw this statue

And this guy, who was friendly and perhaps quite proud of the statue

Him and his buddies were having lunch or something. Perhaps they were working. It's hard to tell in Vietnam sometimes from what I saw. Lots of napping going on

Not sure what this was, but the lotus was a nice touch

The most empty street there ever was

This was the history museum, which contained artifacts from prehistory to the early 20th century. Some of the things on display were suspect as to their authenticity, but that's only because when I see what's purported to be the jaw bone of early man, I have just enough education under my belt to know that we were not at one time horses

Vietnam - Hanoi Part 2

So we found the backpacker district and got our bunking situation worked out for the night, and the next door the place we were staying offered a walking tour of some of the city every morning, so we checked that out. I don't remember learning anything, but we were shown a pretty cool coffee place you'll see later. 

More wires

Even the cats here own mopeds

People sell fruit from their bicycles all day, but there are also many women (I only ever saw women doing it) who carry these around all day serving up food on the sidewalk with little stools and tables (those red things there) as a portable eating area that they could drop down any time someone bought a meal. The cardboard is insulating her cooking area, so she's basically carrying around a kitchen all day

Hoan Kiem Lake, where something about a magical sword being entrusted for protection to a turtle took place. You might be able to take a boat to visit that structure in the middle, but I never saw anyone do it. It's lit up at night though

This couple was getting wedding photos done, pretending to be staring deeply into one another's eyes while the photographer presumably told them to stare deeper into one another's eyes

Happy New Year! I think. It's just a guess really, but that's probably it

These are called Xiclos, and you can hire a guy to peddle you around the city for a negligible fee while you get a front row seat to the traffic experience of Vietnam (it's pretty cool, I recommend it)

Three trees of Hanoi are insane and they dominate the sidewalks and corners too

So we headed into this coffee shop that you would never know how to get to if you weren't in the know because you have to walk through a shirt shop out front and go into the back like you own the place before you even get to it

Then go up winding and cramped iron staircases surrounded by plants and incense

Looking down from the top of the stairs

Egg coffee: A whipped concoction of condensed milk and egg yolk that sits on top of Vietnamese coffee

View while drinking said egg coffee

Then we found a place that sells beer (purportedly German beer [or Bier]) in 1.5 litre babies like this. It's not just the distance factor either, mine actually is bigger than his

It's worth noting that Hanoi is an amazing smelling city. They burn incense all day long in temples just off the streets, home idols, the street curbs, or even in the trees. They just place a stick in the trunk of a tree on the street and light it, or wrap vines around a glass bottle, fill it with water, and put flowers in it. Public space is thought of in such a unique way, and creative ways of making the city more pleasant just keep popping up.

Hoan Kiem Lake at night

Their concept of how you use space is amazing, and the thought of just stringing your sell-able goods up the length of a tree trunk is so simple, yet so alien to me

Hanoi at nighttime was like an entirely new place compared to the daytime. Everything is lit up and the streets are alive with people sitting down everywhere and eating a meal, playing badminton, drinking, or just walking around. Markets thrive a bit more with everyone off work, and everything is very relaxed. The feel of Hanoi was never bested on our trip, so in a lot of ways the highlights came first. Also English in Vietnam is pretty well spoken, and foreigners are much more common so for once it didn't feel like we were always being watched like in Korea. Koreans are often subtle about it, but you always know they're staring at you. Here, they might ask you to buy something or pay them to drive you around, but they don't really find you that amusing beyond that so you feel more free to forget that you're an outsider.

Vietnam - Hanoi Part 1 [A Long Time Coming]

Between my trip lasting about three weeks and the time it took to get back into the flow of things and filter/edit my travel photos, it's been a while since my last post, but here we go.

So Korea's never managed to wear on me too much, though there are times when the day to day pattern gets stale and it's time to get out and do something new for a while. So for winter break this year, Vietnam and Thailand got thrown on the agenda for three weeks (2 in Vietnam, 1 in Thailand). On January 13th my travel companion Harrison and I stepped out onto the cold morning streets and began the first day of our exploration with a smoothness that can only be achieved by forgetting to have arranged for two entry visas rather than one. There was much celebration, followed by a night in the airport sleeping on benches waiting for the payment and bureaucratic processes to go through the next day (Monday) that would allow us to book another flight and get into the country. Luckily everything else went smoothly, which is to say unluckily everything else went wrong. The only place in the airport to sleep was having remodeling done in the male facilities, and not possessing the correct anatomical bits to make that one fly, we proceeded in a dejected manner to a place to grab some food and console our ill-fated selves. We got in line, made our choices, and were promptly informed that the cutoff for new customers ended after the person just before us, leaving the rest of the waiting customers (just us really) to make our way to wherever else could serve us, which as I recall, was nowhere but MacDonald's. You win by default MacDonald's, though I will compliment you on somehow getting Koreans quicker at serving food, a seemingly impossible task.
Anyway, after a night of late emailing and payment processing from my phone on an airport bench, we managed to book a new flight for the Wednesday, and spent a hell of a lot of time getting to know the ins and outs of Incheon airport. Which includes Korean James Bond.

See him in his latest adventure, "Skyfarr"

So we flew.

We arrived in Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi at around 10pm, and got our visas processed before walking casually through no customs or immigration counter whatsoever. Apparently those shut down at some point in the evening, and then you can just walk right on into the country as you please should you happen to have landed after that point. I respect the relaxed perspective.

Hanoi (and much of Vietnam that I saw, really) has a way of transforming at night when all the shops close and the roll down doors are locked up. It can look empty and cold, with only a few signs of life from people passing on mopeds or hanging out in alleyways. In a lot of ways it looks like a vacated war zone, with many of the buildings in ill-repair and few sources of light. Such was our introduction, and I was a bit surprised and perhaps a little disheartened that despite it being close to midnight, there seemed to be little that would have drawn me to a place like it. The next morning however, our first day in Vietnam, brought it all to life in a way I wasn't at all expecting, and after a breakfast at the hotel of chicken pho and one of the better cups of coffee I'd had in a while (Korea, you have no talent for it whatsoever) we walked out into the streets and figured we'd wind up somewhere we could sleep at some point before the sun went down. So here's how that went.

This cat seemed a little strange looking, and also it's on a leash, which is a strange thing in general to do with a cat

The thing I loved about Hanoi was that all around the city people would hang bird cages out on the street with exotic (to foreigners at least) birds. Makes for a pleasant environment, which Hanoi was above all else

An electrician's dream. A black wire isn't working properly, look into it

Anything and everything is going on at all times, and even though it looks like an insanely busy city, there's a lot of just hanging around, sitting, napping, and conversing going on at all hours. Not sure what people do for a living, but it seems to work out somehow

Nice city for alley-wandering

Nobody was watching over these pots or appearing to be around to sell them. In the west someone would just steal them, even if they didn't want them. We're a bunch of dirty thieves, is what I learned

Beer Temple: It's 10:40 am, close enough. This place had the best selection I've seen since Canada for really reasonable prices (by western standards), so it was a hell of a good find for an aimless wandering

They'll transport anything on their little motorbikes, doesn't matter what it is or how big, they'll do it. I saw a whole bunch of people moving entire fruit trees on theirs. There are very few cars or trucks in Vietnam and it's amazing

Memorial statue dedicated to martyr soldiers

The site of my first haggle, and I talked him down by 60% by accident, walking away out of genuine disinterest rather than strategy, but I got a large complete map of the city in English out of it, which was handy. I'm really good at things sometimes

The districts that perform certain trades have people working out on the sidewalk, just setting up a small table saw or drill press on the curb and working at what seemed like a pretty casual pace. There doesn't seem to be a similar perspective to the west on segregating space between where work is done and where other things are done. On the sidewalks you sit, walk, eat, sleep, whatever

They totally wear those hats on an everyday basis, it's awesome

Many people go about their day wandering around selling fruit on their bikes, since so many people spend time outside or working on the corners, I guess it's really convenient to just buy stuff as it comes by

You can find some peaceful places just off the streets without any effort, and with the insanely low cost of everything in Vietnam you can spend your day restaurant surfing around the city and probably only spend 10 bucks all day

I don't want to make my posts too long from here on out, being heavy in pictures, so it'll be coming out in parts.