Cool change in Hanoi

We caught the sleeper bus from Hue to Hanoi, this took about 14 hours, which was fairly uneventful (thankfully). We are getting quite use to long distance travel now, the kids are generally very good, they know the drill.

I mentioned uneventful, well everyone else appeared to have a good nights sleep, while for some reason, I found myself wide awake at two in the morning, only to see a truck that had just overturned, with people crowded all around. Next we go past the other vehicle involved, which looked like a minibus with its front all smashed in – suddenly I’m even less likely to sleep!

I looked back at my family, they were all sleeping peacefully at the back of the bus, and again like a few times on this trip, I heard the voice in my head saying, you shoudn’t be doing this trip, its too dangerous – followed up by the voice saying, you shouldnt be doing this, you should be at home working like everybody else.   I write this, not to sound kooky, but to let other readers know, especially those people planning a trip like this, not to let anyone or anything rob you of the dreams that are placed inside of you.  

The bus dropped us off at the outskirts of the city, this happened in Saigon as well. So we then got  a taxi to The Old Quarter of town.   Hanoi is a very old city, this year it is celebrating its 1000th year. The site where Hanoi stands today has been inhabited since the Neolithic period, and it was in AD 1010, that the then Emperor moved his capital here.

The weather in Hue was really hot and humid but Hanoi dropped to about 15C and very misty and overcast – time to dig out our jackets.

 We have based ourselves in the Old Quarter of town (OQ), this area is the heart of the city, it is made up of about 50 streets, with the majority of them having their name begining with – Hang – meaning Merchandise, followed by the name of the product that was traditionally sold there, our Hotel is on Hang Hanh – meaning Onions were once sold here.

We are having  a bit of a recharge here, before we head to China, but we have still managed to tick off the highlights.  We have walked around most of the OQ – meandering through little alley ways (avoiding those crazy motorbikes who like to speed down crowded alleys and up on the footpath).

One of the recommended tourist attractions here is the Water Puppet Theatre.  This is apparently an age old traditional stemming from using wooden puppets in the rice paddies.   Unfortunately, we thought it was a bit of a tourist rort.

The other big tourist attraction here is to visit the mausoleum of  Ho Chi Minh (HCM) – the founder of Vietnamese communist ideology.  I have to say this really was the most bizarre thing we have done so far.

Uncle Ho didn’t live to see the “liberation” (aka the fall) of Saigon – he died in 1969 and contrary to his request for a simple cremation, his frail, pale body has been embalmed and on display in this massive building purpose built for the people to forever revere him. 

Apparently for the Vietnamese, it is something of a pilgrimage. Visiting HCM was more like going to an international airport, first there was the bag search,  followed by the baggage scanner and walking through the metal detecters.  Then we had to hand over all cameras and “electronic instruments” but could keep my Iphone(!).  

Next we had to form two straight lines which went for about a km (the lines have to be straight or the soldiers who line the route blow whistles and yell at you to get orderly!).  When we finally reached the mausoleum complex, we were all ushered to keep quiet- the couple in front of us were told off for talking and another was told to take his hands out of his pockets!

HCM’s body is located deep inside the building, set in a glass case – surrounded by a number of soldiers.  He looks a bit like the sensai in Karate Kid!  It really was bizarre and apparently you can do the same thing in Beijing and visit Mao.  Looking forward to that!