Hanoi
Very sorry to have let this go for so long! Hanoi seems like a million years ago. On our return from Halong Bay we tried to check back into the same guest house we'd stayed in our first night there. The owner had asked us for a deposit in order to reserve the room, which seemed shady so we said no.
She was shady alright.
Upon trying to check back in she failed to tell us that she didn't actually have a room and kept trying to get us to pay her before seeing a room. Then another couple would come in to check the rates and rooms and she'd show them a room. We were upset because we couldn't understand why she kept showing other people the room but wouldn't show us.
Turns out the room she was showing had already been reserved via email. She was trying to give it away! It was more than we wanted to pay so she wasn't offering it to us.
Then she tried to get us pay her again. We asked to see the room and we were walked across the street to a really dirty hotel we'd passed on staying in that first morning at 6am.
Some kind of shady!
So we promised her we would come back in 30 minutes when she might have rooms (magically?).
We asked at another place on the same street and we walked to their #2 location. Clean and quiet. No shady dealing. DONE!
We grabbed our bags and checked in for 5 nights. Shady lady lost our on $60 from us.
Hanoi was another city n Vietnam. We liked it alright and the Old Quarter was cozy and colorful. People from everywhere were everywhere. A moment of distraction and you'd be run down by a motorbike, step into someone's sidewalk frying pan, or smack into a row of motos parked on what you thought was the footpath. Busy and hectic and exciting... and cold! Another week of cold is not what we needed! Luckily we had a few warm days in there.
One day for lunch we stopped at a street corner crowded with locals of all ages and economic means sitting on dirty little plastic stools designed for kindergartners. The all greedily slurped at bowls of what looked like pho. We found some empty stools and ordered one each, just 30k dong, about $1.50usd. It was a crab broth with noodles, handfuls of fresh herbs, large bits of tofu seasoned with chilis and tomato. It was absolutely fantastic! Maybe the best thing we ate in Vietnam..
We walked everywhere because we're cheap-ass bastards and because you can eat more sweets and ice cream if you burn a few more calories in a day.
We walked at least 20km one day roundtrip. We started at the Thai embassy (another 60 day visa- still free). We got there too early and decided to grab breakfast from a noodle shop around the corner. We'd recently been warned to ask the price first. We did. Twenty thousand dong, about $1usd. "Sounds great," we said with smiles.
Suddenly a feast was set before us. "Did we order this?" and "oh well, can't be more than a dollar," was our response.
The food was good and definitely topped-up or appetites. When it came time to pay things became interesting. I think the exchange went something like this:
"300,000 dong."
With a sudden fury, "Um, no. I don't think so!" Leighton fired daggers from his eyes. I think it scared the lady because she was pretty meek about it.
We spent a couple minutes trying to tally and used a calculator to communicate. She really did want 300k dong ($15). For those of you thinking, "that's not too bad" you should remember we were spending about $8-$9 a day, of which $5-$6 was for a room. Paying 300k dong for noodles was like paying $80 for a hot dog. Ludicrous!
So we decided to stand up for foreigners and hopefully make rule think twice before trying to rip us off again.
We gave them 100k total and yelled and called them lying thieves. We took pictures of them and plan to post them on travel sites and to send a scathing email to the Vietnam Tourist Police as well. No one will eat there again. Not that we saw anyone eating there any of the times we walked by after that.
Anyway, after the Thai visa was dealt with we walked to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. As creepy as it sounds. Rumored to be wax, the embalmed remains of 'Uncle Ho', the leader of the revolution, sit on a massive square that you can't walk on. The concrete structure is only accessible
After security checkpoints akin to an airport, checking of cameras and all other electronic devices at a depot, and removing all hats and glasses. We were quietly whispering about the experience and were angrily scolded for talking in line 100 meters from the entrance. Then I tried reading the section of the guide book on the mausoleum and was angrily scolded for reading while still 50 meters away. Mind you the scoldings came from guys with machine guns.
The body was creepy and should be disposed of. Let's get that out of the way. Icky old man who looks very dead and waxen and not at all dignified or glorious.
A minute later we had our cameras back and were avoiding the entrance fee to see where Uncle Ho "grew up" and his presidential palace (opulent for a communist...)
We decided to walk another 7pm from the Old Quarter and visit the Museum of Ethnology. It was really fun! We learned about the various ethnic groups of SE Asia and saw very good exhibits on their culture, rituals, and housing. We even went into some reproductions in the sculpture garden out back.
The rest of the week we just bummed around as per usual in Vietnam.
The Monday morning we had our flight a taxi picked us up and off we went. Bangkok called our names! We heard it, carried in on the warm morning wind. "Come back! It's warm and delicious here!"
So off we flew.
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After Halong Bay we didn't know what to expect of Hanoi. We'd heard it was fun. We'd heard it wasn't. After the hotel debacle was cleared up we found a supermarket and stocked up for dinner. Along the walk we got hungry and stopped for a late lunch (yes, after our massive lunch earlier in the day). It was hard to find something that wasn't exorbitantly overpriced. We got angrier and angrier as prices reflected the greed of the shop owners rather than their supposed aptitude toward being more friendly than the more capitalist southerners. "Yeah right!" we said.
Eventually, exhausted and hungry, we stumbled across a lady serving people from a street corner. She had set up her stove and some plastic seats a la
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