hanoi seems cleaner and more metropolitan than saigon which surprised me. or maybe it just appears that way because everyone is dressed in long sleeves and pants with shoes. we only have one night here before we take off on a two day three night tour to sapa in the mountains. but we made use of the day thanks to roel. if it was up to me i would have slept for the morning to feel 100% again.
we started off by going for a walk down the main shopping street. roel had to stop about every 20 paces (he was shivering he was so cold) to look at the goods on display and do some haggling. we ended up at some tour offices as recommended by lonely planet to pick out our tours. we opted for sapa and halong bay tours. we used hanoi as our homebase between our tours. i'll expand on each tour in seperate blog entries after this one.
we bought tickets for the 5pm water puppetry show. it is an old art form that rice farmers used to use on flooded rice paddocks to entertain each other. it was pretty lame by today's standards but the mechanics behind it were a little mind boggling to figure out.
the puppet masters coming out for a bow after the show. they are standing in waist deep water hidden behind the background during the performance.
we managed to get in a walk around hoan kiem lake which the city is centered around before the show. roel said it reminded him of a very tiny central park in some ways. it just seemed alive and where the action was at. we got a coffee from a shop overlooking the park from the fourth floor patio. beuatiful lights around the lake with many restaruants and cafes to choose from.
on day two we went to the ho chi minh mausoleum. i didn't know what a mauseleum was! ha i thought it was just a fancy burial site. i now understand all the security precautions. it was actually a little unnerving - all the checks we had to go through. a soldier in uniform tapped me on the arm because i had one hand in my pocket as we went through the complex (a no-no). it was one looong single file line that moved at a steady pace. if you stopped or slowed down an armed gurad would race towards you blowing a whistle.
it was fascinating to see a perfectly preserved body that died back in 1969. apparently hi chi minh's body goes to russia for three months of the year for restoration. the grounds also had his personal residences and different artifacts and points of interest. such as his badminton court and car collection. ho chi minh is considered the father and reunification leader of the country for those unfamiliar with him.
in the afternoon we took a cab across town to the major theatre complex (tiny compared to what north americans are used to). the only movie playing at the right time that we hadn't seen was percy jackson and the lightning thief. a terrible movie. the good news is that the experience only cost us $15 including tickets, popcorn, m&m's and two soft drinks. it was also a great cultural experience as most of the young adults who filled the audience were there to learn english. every line was repeated over and over. haha it would have been annoying anywhere else but we found it quite amusing. we found an interesting shop in the mall. this one's for you peter:
oh and roel found his favourite vietnamese restaurant that we managed to somehow eat at three times in about 30 hours! the next morning we left for our sapa tour. good thing roel had bought a thermal long sleeve shirt at the mall. it gets pretty chilly in sapa at night. it was an inner struggle as he purchased for function, not fashion. as my dad said over a game of golf (card game) at christmas, 'i had to retrain your mother over a number of years after we got married'. hahaha
roel chowing down on the second floor at our restaurant. balcony through the door behind him.
when we got back to hanoi from sapa we went out to a gay friendly bar we had read about on the internet. they played good music and had a fun crowd. a good mix of locals and foreigners that were all pretty friendly and chatty. the only thing missing was a dance floor. it was more a stand and socialize kinda place. we went to a cool lounge off an alley with some fellow travellers from england and italy to cap off the night. it was off to halong bay the next morning!
when we got back from the halong bay tour we had dinner out at our favourite restaurant again and relaxed in the room after. the next day was our last free day in vietnam. we had big plans but were mostly just exhausted from the previous tours. we ended up back at the same movie theatre and saw alice in wonderland. a really fun movie and another great vision by tim burton.
the next day we fly out to koh samui in thaland via bangkok. good thing we don't have to leave the airport in bangkok...we can avoid the political demonstrations. looking forward to some cheap relaxing beach time! first i will write about our tours.
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