Northern VietNam

Hanoi and Cat Ba Island

January 15-21, 2010

Alan and I are just beginning to discover the polarities between Northern and Southern Vietnam. Along our 23 hour bus journey on several modes of transportation (a mini bus, a boat, a local bus, an overnight sleeper bus, another mini bus and finally another local bus) from Cat Ba Island down to Hoi An on the southern central coast, I voiced my concerns about the Vietnamese people.

From the moment we crossed the border from Laos into Vietnam there was an instant rigidity and change in demeanor in the border officials, who were very formal dressed in crisp military uniforms flanking the entrance. This comes in comparison to the Laoians who are very casual and sometimes a bit too relaxed. Our arrival in Dein Bien Phu, Vietnam tested my patience especially since we were already a full day into our journey with still 12 hours to go. The only way I can come up with to describe the scene was like an India flashback with a very different type of people. After a month and a half of limited haggling and bartering, we were once again thrust into a sea of touts from the moment we stepped off the bus. However there are two major differences, there is aggressiveness to the touts in Vietnam; where as in India there is a playful game like aspect to their prying. Second, in India if you ignore someone or say “no thank you”, eventually they leave you alone, in Vietnam they continue their bombardment with voices blaring. If that doesn’t get your attention they touch you, poke you and/or pull at you. There is an underlying force and hostility to the way they try and persuade you. Their invasion of personal space made my skin crawl.

Apart from my initial uneasiness with the male population, the beauty of Vietnam has a way of making the testosterone raucousness of the male egos fade into the background. Hanoi is a modern, clean city with delicious food, a needed refresher from the overwhelming amount of sticky rice we consumed in Laos. We also had our first sample of Bia Hoi or “fresh beer”, brewed by the locals who set up small stalls all over town, perfect for sampling and people watching.  For more details see Jonah’s blog at http://www.jonahessers.blogspot.com.

We also made some time to visit the Hoa Lo Prison or as the Americans coined it, the “Hanoi Hilton” where John McCain was so famously imprisoned. We were able to see old American pilot paraphernalia as well as lots of photos. Photos of the prisoners decorating Christmas trees, going to Church, having Thanksgiving dinner, the smiles and fun looked endless and real. At this point we questioned everyone’s credibility. Who’s telling the correct version - Vietnam or the United States?

Perhaps the weirdest thing we encountered was Ho Chi Min himself, who is regarded very highly by the Vietnamese for facilitating the unification between the North and the South. When he passed away his desire was to have a simply cremation, but the people loved him so much that they put him on display. Yes you too can visit Ho Chi Min’s sarcophagus with the thousands of others, but there is a long list of rules to follow: no talking, no sniggering (which we still haven’t figured out what this means yet), no hands in your pockets, no pausing in line, no cameras, and you wear appropriate clothing, etc. Needless to say we all got our fair share of scolding by the guards. Oh, and just make sure you do not go during the 2 months out of every year when his embalmed corpse is sent to Russia for “maintenance.”

After much debate to choose the breathtaking hills of Sapa in the North, or the superb, unique ocean side cliffs of Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island in the East, we chose the latter- basing our decision solely on the weather. And so we embarked on our last journey with Alicia and Jonah.

We managed to hook ourselves up with a boat tour through the islands without paying the tour price the only kicker was no lunch and for 40 minutes, while most of the boat explored a cave, we had to stay put.  The tour guide was also very unpleasant and tried to leave the port without us! For what the boat was, it was entertaining. We left the bay with hundreds of identical what appeared to be old fishing boats now adored with sleeper cabins and roof decks. We embarked on a five hour journey though the endless islands of sheer, limestone karsts that jutted out of the water, until we reached Cat Ba Island. In August this island becomes a huge Vietnamese tourist destination but while we were there the town was quite quiet. It was a slap stick concoction of concrete, unattractive, tall buildings surrounding the port, with no rhyme or reason to their construction. Typical of the communist architecture.

Soon after arriving in Hoi An I discovered my initial assumption of the Vietnamese demeanor does not extend into all of Vietnam and we were welcomed into the south with wide open, friendly arms.

-Mika

You can always find a local making offerings to the spirits in the street, a typical offering is to burn money, but it is always fake money. This is their way of tricking the spirits because they do not know the difference.

Local Street Food

There are over 2 million motorbikes in Hanoi!

Boat Ride to Cat Ba

As we were just ordering dinner Alan was having some serious back pain, luckily some local rock climbers at the table next to us could recommend a masseuse. They called him and 15 minutes later Alan had a table side massage. We learned to love Mr. Vu who was one of the best masseuses we have ever had and the best priced one hour for $5 bucks.

The cliffs make this island a rock climber’s paradise, so how could we not test them out?