Finally Hanoi...

We had the foresight to request our hotel to collect us from the train station in Hanoi. Really, as bad as the Hanoi airport is with fake taxi drivers, it's got nothin' on the train station. Even at 4:30 in the morning when we arrived, the place was pulsating with people and waiting xe-oms. Our guide led us by the arm out of the madness, and into the quiet of sleeping Hanoi. In Saigon, the city would be coming awake and traffic would be picking up at 5am, but in Hanoi things start slightly later.

When we arrived at our hotel, our guide knocked on the glass door to wake up the hotel clerk that was sleeping on the floor by the front desk. Apparently this is normal here, but we found it very bizarre. We sat in wait for about an hour until breakfast began, then after eating we took our tired selves around the city a bit until we could check into our room.

A tale of two cities:
The best way to describe Hanoi is really in relation to its sister city in the south. Where Saigon is big and bustling, Hanoi is cramped and crowded. As I have mentioned, the Vietnamese always have something to sell you, but in Hanoi they are more experienced and distinctively more aggressive. Case in point: the women walking around with those hanging balances of fruit will try to sell you fruit, and when you refuse they try to put the hanging balance on your shoulder so that you and your compadre laugh and take a picture and then she can charge you for the "fun" she provided you with. We saw this in action quite a few times, and one time I literally had to run away from one of these ladies trying to unload on me. In Saigon, you refuse, they smile, walk away. Hanoi has a lot of rich history, and is traditionally viewed as more cultured than Saigon. I'm sure that at one point Hanoi was very charming, but in its forceful attempts at remaining charming, it has now become less so. Saigon just felt true, while Hanoi felt a bit contrived. And Saigon has better food. In many ways, Saigon and Hanoi are like Florence and Rome, respectively.

The weather in Hanoi was not ideal. Cloudy, wet and muggy. The wet weather made the streets filthy, and we had to make frequent stops at our hotel to wash our nasty feet. We have no idea where the dirt came from, since there is not much grass to speak of. Disgustingly enough it was probably from the food remains that people cook and eat literally on the sidewalk.

We of course payed a visit to the famous Ho Chi Minh mausoleum and it was an eerie experience. The whole complex, which consists of the mausoleum, a museum, HCM's former bunkers and garage, is incredibly protected, and whilst walking around you are obliged to maintain a "respectful demeanor" and exposed knees and shoulders and other "provocative attire" are strictly forbidden, as are covered heads. At one point as I was walking into the mausoleum a guard made me take off my hood and the person behind me take their hands out of their pockets. Ho Chi Minh's body is kept in a clear container in the mausoleum so you can actually see his dead body, which is impeccably maintained. It is mused that Madame Tussaud's is now in charge of his "preservation" and if so, I have renewed respect for their work! Walking through this place was an assembly line, with guards watching your every move. One guard even pushed me along when I took too long glaring at this dead body on display. Needless to say, photos were strictly forbidden.

One highlight from Hanoi was the coffee - very strong and served with sweetened condensed milk - yum! In Hanoi the streets were originally named after the products that were sold on that street. To some extent that is still the case, but mostly not. For example, there is a silk street and there are some tailors there still, but there are also travel agents and cafes. There are also new streets, like one devoted to shower caddies! In my search for essential oils, I came up empty, but we did come home with some great teacups. If you find yourself in Hanoi, definitely check out Hanoi Moment on the Silk Street. As far as restaurants go, there is no lack of them, and our favorites tended to be the Vietnamese-French fusion places, like Green Tangerine in the old quarter. Very unique food!

Whilst in Hanoi, we did take a few days to do a Halong Bay junk tour - which was incredible! Halong Bay is the other UNESCO World Heritage site in Vietnam (the other being the old town in Hoi An). It is basically a mass of huge limestone formations that jut out from the sea, with islands and grottoes and caves to explore. We thought we had seen beautiful limestone formations in the Phi Phi islands in Thailand, but they do not compare to Halong Bay.

Some say that Halong Bay is very touristy, and it is to some extent, but this can be limited by choosing the right travel company. We chose Red Dragon, a bit more expensive than the other ones, but this junk goes around, while all the others do and out and back (for 1 night tours, at least). Also the junks are smaller - ours held 8 people but there were only 6 of us.

For 2 days we sailed in our pirate ship around Halong Bay, with drinks on the deck, plenty of food (too much even, a 10-course lunch!), and great company. The boat manager and crew sang Vietnamese songs for us and even gave Matt and I a happy honeymoon cake. There is still one fishing village that is active in Halong Bay, and it is subsidized by the government. We took a tour on small boats rowed by village women around the village, and it was fascinating to see how some people live - literally on the water. There is one school in the village, and the teachers are volunteers from the mainland universities. We also stopped by a pearl factory and saw oysters being pulled out of the water and the pearls extracted. We also saw how some pearls are extracted then put back into an oysters along with the skin of another oyster in order to make it grow larger. It was such a unique experience, and I have a beautiful pearl bracelet as a souvenir from it!

Some are lucky to see the sunset over the limestone formations, which must be incredible, but most of the year the weather over Halong Bay is cloudy and misty. In many ways, this really adds to the mysticism of the place. On the morning of our second day, we took kayaks out on the water and also did a tour of a cave. Coming from the U.S. and seeing how many cares are given to tourists so that they don't injure themselves (and then sue), it is amazing to me how little warning you are given of some of the dangerous things you may be asked to do. Climbing up to the cave, which was not the one that most tourists go to, would be pretty difficult for elderly people, and many of the tourists to Vietnam are retired people. Somehow they make it though!

At this point in our trip, we were happy, relaxed, well-fed, but pretty exhausted from all of the traveling. During these 3 weeks, we did not stay in one place for more than 3 nights. Packing and unpacking our backpacks was starting to get old. But we had one more jaunt ahead of us - one very different from our Vietnamese experiences, more posh and sophisticated and international - Hong Kong!