Hanoi - where are the damn towers?

After Hoi An, it was off to Hanoi, where I was hoping on seeing some towers that I could rearrange by moving increasingly larger discs from one stick to another...

From the relative calmness of Hoi An, it was a bit of a shock to arrive in Hanoi and be confronted again with the extreme traffic that we had left behind in Ho Chih Minh City. Other tourists had told us that the traffic in Hanoi was better than in HCMC, but I am not sure that I would agree. It is hard to say if it was better or worse, it was simply different. eg. In HCMC you can pretty safely cross the road at any point in time, as long as you are confident and committed to the crossing - the traffic will dodge around you. In Hanoi they are not so willing to dodge, as Belinda found out on day one as she was collected by a motorbike coming through the traffic in the wrong direction. Luckily it was very light, and she only got a few bruises on the shins from the whole affair, but it was enough to make us doubt our road crossing skills for the rest of the trip.

One other thing that is different in Hanoi are the beggars and roadside vendors. In HCMC they will ask you once if you want to give them something or buy something from them, and that is it. In Hanoi they are all very persistant, and will follow you for
blocks offering you different things (vendors) or begging for money with their blind uncle in tow. The vendors here will even offer to let you hold their baskets and wear their hats for the purpose of a photo - with the expectation that you will buy something off them in return. You have been warned. :)

Hanoi is also a city where you can find a lot of copied and real name brand stuff being sold from small shops all over the city. For example, you could get your hands on hiking packs and other backpacks from Crumpler, Lowe Alpine, Jack Wolfskin, etc just near our hotel. Or there were other sections of town that were dedicated to shoes, clothing, electronics, or even optomotrists that could copy your existing prescriptions and put them into brand name frames for peanuts. Bel's mum took these guys up on their offer and was very happy with the results. Suz also took a lot of them up on their sunglasses offer... :)

On our second day in Hanoi we booked with another tour company to do a tour to the Perfume Pagoda, which is a cluster of pagodas in the perfume mountains, about 70km from Hanoi. To reach the pagodas we were rowed for about 1hr in a metal canoe along a river between fields and mountains. With the mist in the mountains, it really was quite amazing. Then to reach the largest of the pagodas - a temple inside a large natural cave - we took a gondola (built by the Swiss, thank God or Buddah) up into the mountains, which was a lot faster than the 30min walk back down again.

After a buffet lunch of questionable looking but delicious foods, it was back into the boats for the 1hr ride back to the tour bus. The piece and tranquility of the ride back in the boats was destroyed a little by the stress associated with the expected tip at the end of the trip. The "done thing" is to give them 50,000 dong and leave as fast as you can, because they will try and squeeze you for more. This happened to me after getting out of the boat first and holding it so that the others could get out. After they had given the guy the 50k, he tapped me on the shoulder and was asking for more. What did I do? Well, I just walked off... Don't know what all the stressing was for. :)

Back to Hanoi for a bit more "experiencing the city" - including two guys going at each other with sticks on the street - before packing again and heading to the train station for the overnight train to Sapa. But that's a story for another day.

Tschüß,
'Brushy