Well aware that I'm slacking on my posts but things have been a bit busy recently. End of term always brings the deluge of tedious report writing - who is this kid I am writing about? and testing "no, I said NO cheating" and far too much paper-pushing - now where did I put that form? oh, I pushed it into the bin, must get another one. And then come the holidays - yay!
We decided to go to Vietnam this time. My grandfather was born in Hanoi so I wanted
to check the place out. I only had 5 days off work so there wasn't much time to travel but we still got a good idea of the place. Coincidentally a couple of our mates were heading out there so we met up in a Hanoi for a few days. Hanoi was everything I expected it to be and more. It is one of the best places I have been to in a long time. One major bonus was that it was a lot cooler than BKK and so it was a lot more pleasant to wander round during the day. It also actually has pavements, which makes exploring all the easier.
As you can see Hanoi is made up of higgledy piggledy houses that are really thin but really tall. They look really cool. It was nice to be in a city that had a European feel to it for a change. Of course, the French food and cakes were a great bonus!
The first day we were there we went in search of the golden tortoise. Legend has it he resides in the lake protecting some sort of sword. What did we find? A bloated, floating dead rat. At least they have a real giant, golden tortoise on display just so you know what you are looking for!
After our fruitless expedition, a sorrow healing creme caramel, off we set for my favourite conversation of the trip. We walked round the lake and on the way we happened upon a city map we thought we'd check out and see what was in the area. Soon enough along came a very happy looking guy in a light orange unifrom:
EP (excited policeman): Hello, I'm a policeman, may I help you?
Me: No, it's ok thanks we're just looking
EP: Oh, please let me help you (grin)
Me: Ok then, what is this big thing on the map, just down the road? we can't find it on the legend.
EP: Ah yes, go 300M and turn left.
Me: yes, I can see that, but WHAT is it?
EP: Yes, go straight, cross road, round corner and turn left.
Me: fabulous. What...is...it?
EP: or 300m straight and second left.
Me: excellent! Thank you so much for telling me what I had deduced from staring at the map myself, I shall now just walk 300m and turn left and answer my own question.
We found, this:
A whopping great cathedral. Haven't seen one of them in a while. Let's go in! Walk in and think to myself, hmm, nice church, erm, why is the priest holding a microphone? and what are those two people doing standing rather stoically at the top of the aisle? uh-oh. It's their wedding -out! out! out! Joy. Oh well, noone seemed too bothered and I swear the couple sitting in the front pew wearing bermuda shorts and sunhats were not part of the invited congregation. Noone stopped us from going in is all I have to say. We spent the rest of the afternoon bimbling and drinking incredibly good Vietnamese coffee - one sip will get you charged for at least 8 hours. Great stuff.
However, bimbling can sometimes be tough when you try and cross the road and are met with things like this:
this:
and this:
It's certainly interesting crossing the road and looking out onto it! But really, it doesn't feel that dangerous because as long as you walk slowly and with purpose they go round you so actually it is quite fun, though to be fair, I may have been the only person in our group that found it fun.
Was very excited to try the beer as had read in the guide book that the brewing process was introduced to them by the Czechs. Bia Hoi is a beer that you can drink on the street on little stools (they are quite fond of little stools it is like being in Kindergarten again) and it is the grand sum of 5p/10cents a pint so who wouldn't be excited to try it? It didn't quite live up to my expectations and it was bordering on a surreal experience sitting so low to the ground at a little table with what felt like giant waiters serving me. All other Vietnamese beer though was really good. At midnight the fun police come out and drive around in a van with speakers and chase people back into theirs homes before we all turn into pumpkins. People scatter about like rats and cyclo and taxi drivers scoot off only to return as soon as the police have turned their attention onto other party people around the corner.
We went to check out the Hanoi hilton. Found the sign outside quite interesting.
Well aware tha
After trying our hardest to refrain from frolicking in the prison we set off to see Uncle Ho. Unfortunately, he was on his yearly restoratative holiday in Russia so he wasn't in. We got to look at the mausoleum (I was disappointed, it has to be said, we missed him by 8 days) and also his residence. I spent a lot of time taking pictures of official looking buildings which could have been customs houses where my great-grandfather worked. I think I found it. I tried to get into the National archives but they threw me out, in fact I didn't make it far past the gate let alone get a sniff at the front door.
Halong Bay was on the list of must-see sites so we went on a day trip there. This is where a dragon carved a path through rocks in the sea. There are caves and stuff to see also. This is the place that a lot of people think of when Vietnam is mentioned. I was excited to see the boats with funny sails but they didn't have them up that day. It was super misty too so we couldn't see that much. I always get excited about these things and then spend my time grumbling. First off, I don't know if any of you have noticed but every cave looks the same! Every time, I'm like ooh cave yay! and then it's like wait a minute it looks a lot like the last one I went to. Of course, when on an organised day trip you don't get to choose who you end up with which is clearly the biggest disadvantage for me. And boy, did we meet an absolute gem of a lady.
Took us quite a while to get to the bay on a packed bus, I was starting to get a little submarine syndrome by the time we arrived. The guides seemed to be having problems locating our boat and so by the time we finally got on there and lunch was about to be served I was looking forward to a nice, quiet little boat trip and a spot of lunch with my friends.
For some reason, the boat people were insistent on having 6 people per table and so we were joined by two ladies. One from San Fran and one from Russia although she Russian claimed she was from San Fran. Russian girl asks if we are a family travelling together?!? erm, I'm with J and a gay couple - what kind of messed up family could we possibly be? Plus, she's already asked where we came from, two Americans a Welsh girl and a Czech. She then proceeded to bang on about her travels - I am really beginning to get annoyed by these people who travel for 8 months and think they know everything about the world better than you do. Not all of them are like this of course, but some really need to face facts that just whizzing through a country a week doesn't mean you know it or your observations are accurate neither does it instantly make you more worldly. When food arrived she was the only one with chopsitcks so I asked how she got them and she replied that they were for the culturally aware only. This obviously was the record scratching moment where all who know me fell deadly silent and just waited for the carnage to ensue. I mean, the gall of the woman, I've been in Asia for 3 years one of which was in Korea, admittedly I was pants at using chopsticks when I first arrived but now I am proficient. She's lucky I didn't carve a pretty little picture in her face with my chopsticks. Smoke was literally coming out of my ears but I controlled myself.
My mates don't eat fish, they just don't like it and being at sea lunch was pretty fish centric and she just spent the time going on at them about how amazing it could be that they don't like fish - erm Cz is a landlocked country and when the only fish you get is xmas carp, it can put you off. Then she further dug her grave by banging on at J about how truly amazing it was that he was from Alabama and has made it out of there, he must be the only guy from Alabama who has ever left the state, how could it be possible? Really, thinking back, I now can go 12 rounds in the ring, my trainer has recently unleashed me and I'm allowed to really hit people so it truly is a miracle she didn't at least get a slap. We all just tried not to engage in conversation, and at on point she turned round and asked "what is wrong? you all look depressed, you are on holiday you should be happy". The problem of course, was her.
anyway, this concludes the stories for this entry. In Part 2 you can look forward to water puppets, Czech embassy dinners and much, much, more.
2 comments:
I can't believe that you managed to avoid thumping that woman. You've changed....I'm nervous. There's a log fire and labrador with your name on it...
I wouldn't go that far! It probably has something to do with the 4 hours of boxing training I do every week. You would be nervous if you saw me with my gloves on and mouth guard in! aahh log fires, I hardly remember what those are used for.
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