I Always feel a little funny about going to communist countries. I suppose I buy into the cold war ideas about surveillance and repression and evil empires, I grew up in the days of Ronnie Raygun and Leonid Brezhnev, and my education about Vietnam came from Platoon, Full Metal Jacket and other films and stories about the "police action" in Vietnam. The real story was never really known by those of us who just existed on the periphery of the conflict. Vietnam had been under an awful lot of thumbs in it's pre-liberation days. The Chinese repeatedly invaded, the French colonised and were duly exorcised, and most famously the Americans, in their attempt to save south Vietnam from the domino effect of communism (their words, not mine), tried to spread their special brand of colonialism, and failed. Uncle Ho and the battle hardened guerillas of the Vietnamese countryside repelled a very insistent American force, creating the unified country of Vietnam. Today's Vietnam is not the agent Orange defoliated, bullet-ridden hotspot that memory and mystery inform of. Although the attitude towards the Americans is outwardly forgiving and accepting, a seething animosity is still just under the surface, evident in the words of tour guides telling us that they like Americans, their smiles just a little too wide, the words rehearsed and forced. Every informative film and museum showpiece and display makes mention of the war and the atrocities committed by every invading force throughout Vietnamese recorded history, from the Chinese to the French to the Americans, and how the valiant farmers and average citizens banded together every time to repel the forces of oppression, and especially how the brave members of the communist party were forced to even repel their own people when they sided with the American puppet Saigon government. For such a forgiving people, they are pretty bitter.
That being said, Hanoi is a pretty loose feeling city, like anything goes and absolutely anything can be had for an exceptionally reasonable price. The motorcycle traffic is truly mad. There seems to be no organisation or road rules except "try not to be in my way when I come through, and I am coming now". There is a people to motorcycle ratio of 2 to 1, and with 8 million people in Hanoi, that makes for a pretty insane traffic snarl of motorcycles and scooters going every way they can go. Lanes are simply suggestions, scooters carry about as many people as your average SUV, and honking has replaced every signal and indicator that was created for traffic use, including traffic lights, hand signals, and stop signs. It takes some getting used to. For the first couple of days, you wonder if you will actually make it across the road before midnight, and by the third day you find your window in the traffic, take it, and don't look back or second guess yourself, or you'll die.
As bananas as the traffic is, I found myself really quite enjoying Hanoi. The shops sell a pretty wide variety of things, and things that I would not really expect, like coffee. Quite a few little shops sell Vietnamese coffee with names like Golden Weasel. Vietnamese coffee is served hot or cold, and frequently comes with sugar and condensed or fresh milk, making it very thick and very sweet. If you actually like the flavour of black coffee like I do, the coffee is a revelation. It seems spiced and a little sweet, its so nice just on its own. Viet food has long been one of my favourites and I had been looking forward to it the whole trip. It was pretty much what I expected, very fresh and savoury flavours, but not much heat. From what I understand, the flavours in the north of Vietnam tend to be savoury, in central Vietnam they are spicy and in the south, sweet. Siobhan found it all a bit sandy and dull, but I loved it. We only had a couple of days there before we go to Ha Long Bay, so we try to investigate what we can, including a trip to the infamous Hanoi Hilton, Hi Lo prison. The other important sights are Tortoise Island in the middle of Hoan Kiem lake, the single pillar pagoda, the temple of literature, and the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh, where his body lies in state, although some think it is just a wax dummy. I have been told that Hanoi is more sedate than its southern sister city, Saigon. I can't believe that a city could be crazier than this, so I am not really looking forward to that, but there's time before we get there.
I am also told that the hotels in Vietnam take your passports because the police come every night to ensure that all tourists are accounted for. That sort of breaks the spell of comfort and ease I had been feeling here, knowing that in some way we are still being tracked and that this is still quite a repressive regime, like the communists of old. Tourists are tolerated for their money, and a hand is almost always in your pocket. Tips are the order of the day, and if no tips are forthcoming like at grocery stores, then there never seems to prices on anything so the shopkeepers can rip you off at their leisure, just making up prices as they see fit. The principle is sound, if you have more, you should be able to pay more. There is no concept of relative poverty, as no tourists sleep on the street, and no tourists go without. It makes sense to pay a little more, but when you know what something is worth and you know that you are being smiled at and ripped off at the same time, its a little galling. At this point, I should mention that this does not just happen to tourists, but also to wealthy Vietnamese as well. It is seen as culturally proper for the wealthy to pay more. In many respects I agree with this philosophy, but it feels as though this practice is applied only to outsiders. Tourists are seen as two legged wallets first, people second and if you are American, two legged scum wallets. Fortunately, I am Canadian and British, so I am simply a cash cow and not a pig.
Griping over. There's really a lot to like about Hanoi, even the supertouristy things like the water puppet shows are actually pretty cool, transport is pretty affordable if you've managed to get a properly licensed taxi, like Taxi Group. You roll the dice with taxis as many of the drivers will positively fleece you. Even the ones that have meters have been fiddled with, so that a 60000 dong ride will cost 300 000 without even noticingBut the liscensed cabs are easy to find and very cheap.
To balance this gripe is the fact that so many Vietnamese words cause my inner juvenile to snigger constantly. Even the currency is funny. Dong. Heh heh heh. Phuc Long Dong. Surely they know how funny this is? No? This means something not filthy? Hmmm. Nope, still hilarious.
Anyway, Ha Long Bay is next for a couple of days, and later on Sa Pa in the mountains. Should be fun!
That being said, Hanoi is a pretty loose feeling city, like anything goes and absolutely anything can be had for an exceptionally reasonable price. The motorcycle traffic is truly mad. There seems to be no organisation or road rules except "try not to be in my way when I come through, and I am coming now". There is a people to motorcycle ratio of 2 to 1, and with 8 million people in Hanoi, that makes for a pretty insane traffic snarl of motorcycles and scooters going every way they can go. Lanes are simply suggestions, scooters carry about as many people as your average SUV, and honking has replaced every signal and indicator that was created for traffic use, including traffic lights, hand signals, and stop signs. It takes some getting used to. For the first couple of days, you wonder if you will actually make it across the road before midnight, and by the third day you find your window in the traffic, take it, and don't look back or second guess yourself, or you'll die.
As bananas as the traffic is, I found myself really quite enjoying Hanoi. The shops sell a pretty wide variety of things, and things that I would not really expect, like coffee. Quite a few little shops sell Vietnamese coffee with names like Golden Weasel. Vietnamese coffee is served hot or cold, and frequently comes with sugar and condensed or fresh milk, making it very thick and very sweet. If you actually like the flavour of black coffee like I do, the coffee is a revelation. It seems spiced and a little sweet, its so nice just on its own. Viet food has long been one of my favourites and I had been looking forward to it the whole trip. It was pretty much what I expected, very fresh and savoury flavours, but not much heat. From what I understand, the flavours in the north of Vietnam tend to be savoury, in central Vietnam they are spicy and in the south, sweet. Siobhan found it all a bit sandy and dull, but I loved it. We only had a couple of days there before we go to Ha Long Bay, so we try to investigate what we can, including a trip to the infamous Hanoi Hilton, Hi Lo prison. The other important sights are Tortoise Island in the middle of Hoan Kiem lake, the single pillar pagoda, the temple of literature, and the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh, where his body lies in state, although some think it is just a wax dummy. I have been told that Hanoi is more sedate than its southern sister city, Saigon. I can't believe that a city could be crazier than this, so I am not really looking forward to that, but there's time before we get there.
I am also told that the hotels in Vietnam take your passports because the police come every night to ensure that all tourists are accounted for. That sort of breaks the spell of comfort and ease I had been feeling here, knowing that in some way we are still being tracked and that this is still quite a repressive regime, like the communists of old. Tourists are tolerated for their money, and a hand is almost always in your pocket. Tips are the order of the day, and if no tips are forthcoming like at grocery stores, then there never seems to prices on anything so the shopkeepers can rip you off at their leisure, just making up prices as they see fit. The principle is sound, if you have more, you should be able to pay more. There is no concept of relative poverty, as no tourists sleep on the street, and no tourists go without. It makes sense to pay a little more, but when you know what something is worth and you know that you are being smiled at and ripped off at the same time, its a little galling. At this point, I should mention that this does not just happen to tourists, but also to wealthy Vietnamese as well. It is seen as culturally proper for the wealthy to pay more. In many respects I agree with this philosophy, but it feels as though this practice is applied only to outsiders. Tourists are seen as two legged wallets first, people second and if you are American, two legged scum wallets. Fortunately, I am Canadian and British, so I am simply a cash cow and not a pig.
Griping over. There's really a lot to like about Hanoi, even the supertouristy things like the water puppet shows are actually pretty cool, transport is pretty affordable if you've managed to get a properly licensed taxi, like Taxi Group. You roll the dice with taxis as many of the drivers will positively fleece you. Even the ones that have meters have been fiddled with, so that a 60000 dong ride will cost 300 000 without even noticingBut the liscensed cabs are easy to find and very cheap.
To balance this gripe is the fact that so many Vietnamese words cause my inner juvenile to snigger constantly. Even the currency is funny. Dong. Heh heh heh. Phuc Long Dong. Surely they know how funny this is? No? This means something not filthy? Hmmm. Nope, still hilarious.
Anyway, Ha Long Bay is next for a couple of days, and later on Sa Pa in the mountains. Should be fun!
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