Vietnam: Hanoi & Ha Long Bay

I flew from Laos to Hanoi, Vietnam a broken man. Injured and sick, I booked myself a hotel room for 2 nights just to relax and recooperate. My first impressions of Hanoi weren’t good. Thick smoke, run down buildings.. it’s not a nice drive from the airport. The hotel though was incredible for $6 / night. The owner was clearly trying to make a good impression. When I woke up the first ‘morning’ at 1pm, he asked if I wanted my free breakfast. I did, but I said no, because I felt guilty claiming my free breakfast 3 or 4 hours later than breakfast was supposed to end. Nonetheless, when I sat down at the computer to research what I was going to do that day, he appeared with bananas and pineapples.

After consuming my fruits, I headed to Ho Chi Minh museum. Ho Chi Mihn is roughy equivalent to God in Vietnam. Everyone loves him, because he was instrumental in achieving independence for Vietnam and reunifying North and South Vietnam. The museum had very abstract exhibits, which had nothing to do with Ho Chi Mihn, but were quite impressive.. well mostly.

Here’s an impressive structural exhibit:

Here’s an impressive painting:

Here’s a drawing in the renowned style of David Vella:

Here’s a similar drawing of well.. something..

After leaving the museum, I purchased more fruit from a lady on the street, then stole her fruit holding apparatus for the sake of a photo:

I then flagged down a taxi to go back to the hotel. The taxi driver turned on his meter and started talking to me. He was very friendly, which is usually a sign that something bad is, or is about to happen. After maybe 3 or 4 minutes I looked at the meter, to see that it was already at 300,000 dong (around $15) and turning over at a furious rate. The whole trip should have cost $5 at most and I was less than halfway back to the hotel. I told the driver that when I got back to the hotel, I was going to ask the owner what a fair price was for the trip, and if the meter was over it I would call the police. At this threat he stopped the meter, but refused to drive right up to the hotel. After three times trying to get me out of the taxi, he eventually dropped me in front of the hotel. By this stage he was getting extremely angry, so I gave him 200,000 dong (around $10) and walked away. I had memorised his name and number to report to the police, but promptly forgot it and couldn’t be bothered reporting it anyway.. I’m sure the police don’t care enough to deal with it.

The next day I then went to the Army museum, only to be told by a tuk-tuk driver that it was closed, but he could take me somewhere that was open. Seen that trick before buddy! I told him he was full of shite and walked to the entrance and low and behold it actually was closed. My pride shattered, I went back to him and got in his tuk-tuk.

That night, I went to a Vietnamese water puppet show, which is basically a musical involving puppets in water:

Problem is, the music was crap and it was all in Vietnamese, so I had no idea what was going on. The puppets were mildly entertaining though, and despite eyeing off the well-lit ‘Exit’ sign a few times, I stayed to the end.

Now I was somewhat recovered, and it was time to be one with the backpackers again. I checked into a hostel and booked their Halong Bay tour. Halong Bay is quite a beautiful bay surrounded by limestone cliffs:

This was a booze cruise though and the tour guide was handing us drinks from the moment we got on the boat. We briefly went kayaking to some caves, then returned to the boat for further drinking. Our group was very tame however compared to the other boats, where everyone ended up naked and doing all sorts of crazy things.

Summary

Awesome:

Ha Long Bay

Craptacular:

Hanoi - boring and scammers abound

What's Next

Central Vietnam - where the old historic stuff is.