Photos: Food stall in Old Hanoi / Me, first day, got conned by the passing ladies who shoved the hat and fruit on me, then demanded money for a picture / Hoam Kien Lake / Hanoi Opera House.
Old Hanoi, Vietnam. Sept 13 2009. 1200Hrs. I have been in Hanoi for 3 days. After a week of down time in K.L. I am glad to be on the move again. It's such an adrenaline rush to wake up each morning and not know what to expect in a place where your native tongue is not spoken. My 3rd day in Hanoi, and I am already missing the crazy Indian culture...after the fact where I can get a good laugh at what happened to me...here in Vietnam, the culture is pushy, ... and rude. The Vietnamese are rude. Well, some of them. They have no flexibility to haggle, which, already loses many points in my travel experience. I really don't know why other travelers whom I have met on other continents tell me that when traveling in Vietnam, there is no problem with English. Contrary to this point, I have had nothing but problems getting a correct response to a question, whether it be for landmarks, directions or food. Yeah food. I am in search of the pho with beef balls, not beef flanks. Whenever I ask if they serve beef balls, they always think I am asking if they have a "bowl". Forget speaking French, the younger generation don't know it. Even with the older folks, Russian works better than French. So, the one thing I really wanted to see was the preserved body of Ho Chi Minh in the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. Just like his Russian counterpart, Lenin in Moscow, 2 months a year, the body is sent to Russia for touch up, re-embalming, whatever it is they do. At the moment, that is the case, so the whole area... the Mausoleum grounds, Ho Chi Minh's house, and Presidential Palace are closed to tourists. I don't understand why they have to close everything, when one could walk around and take photos from outside. There are "Do Not Enter" signs near the Mausoleum area all over the place. The alternate way the Vietnamese refer to "Do Not Enter" is "Wrong Way." LOL, ve-lly funny lah. I am told that I will be able to find pho with beef balls in Hue where I will pass later on with my group. The other thing I was looking for is Vietnamese coffee served in a drip into a cup with condense milk in it. The way they serve it OUTSIDE Vietnam, like in the U.S. It appears they don't serve it that way in Hanoi. But the coffee I have drunk so far has been good. Good old strong Vietnamese coffee. Yumm. Hanoi is also the most expensive city in Vietnam. Most things touristy are quoted in US dollars. I find it more expensive than India and Buenos Aires. I am rather surprised at the prices. I have been hanging out with an English girl who has lived in Taiwan for 5 years. Together we have trolled the streets looking for cheap food and also visiting famous landmarks like the Hanoi Opera House, Hoam Kien Lake & temple, and the Revolutionary Museum. We both were in the same taxi pickup from the airport to the hotel. Hotel rates run around USD15 for a single in Old Hanoi. Yesterday we ran into a Dutch guy and German girl nearby the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, also trying to get in, but not since the whole area is closed for the next 2 months. We hung out with them for most of the day and found out more cheap places to dine at. Oh yeah, and cheap beer. When we got hungry, we followed the Dutch guy from restaurant to restaurant in search of cheap food. He has been traveling for 5 months with the better part in Vietnam so he knew where these places were. Most restaurants have a menu out front. He would flip the pages and comment on prices and we just stood there to see his opinion on the prices. I honestly thought we were crazy to walk and walk looking for food when most places were higher with a difference of around usd 1-2.00, well, that's backpacker budget for you. We finally found a place the Dutch guy and German girl had dined at before and sat down to chow. I have been going there since. The food is GOOD and CHEAP. All the street names have the word "Pho" in front of the name. In Vietnamese, the vowels have different accents on them and intonations, like Mandarin. The street "Pho" is different from the "Pho" beef noodle broth. But as far as I am concerned, all Vietnamese words sound like food to me. Since I can't understand anything anyway, and all their street names have the word "Pho" and half the street names look like names out of the dining menus, that I just think the whole languages is all about food. HaHa. It just occurred to me that Vietnamese sounds a bit like Portuguese, with its nasal vowel intonations. The religion in Vietnam is a mixture of Buddhism, Taoism and one other. I see quite a few Chinese characters all over the place, primarily near temples. That explains it. I had been wandering why the Mandarin characters were all over the place. My next stop will be Halong Bay. As of yesterday there was a typhoon warning, so hopefully it will clear by the time my group heads to Halong Bay. Apparently boats were not going out due to the warning, so people who had booked tours were SOL. The Vietnamese do not give refunds for already paid trips, well, at least the non established agencies (i.e. some hotels.)
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