Hanoi

Hot and muggy. Hustle and bustle. Beeping and motoscooters. Constantally. All day, everyday. Hanoi is what I had suspected it would be. Lots of crazy Vietnemse cruising around at high speeds without paying particular attention to any traffic signals. They do have lights and crosswalks at some of the busy intersections, but even then people just sort of do what they want to do when it comes to driving around. Mostly you see motoscooters and bikes. Occasionally you see a car and even more rarely you see a bus. I arrived after about 28 hours of traveling and plane hopping (4 different flights and layovers to hassle with) to arrive in Hanoi yesterday afternoon. Mike was waiting for me on the other side of customs and we arranged a taxi into town. We negoiated the price first, which is great because our driver drove around in circles to find the place. Ah well ...

Our little hostel is called Bodega Hang Bong Hotel and is located in the 'old quater' district of Viet Nam. Their slogan is that they are "your family in Viet Nam." Cute. The place is a whopping $3USD a night and is alright. It's reasonably clean, breakfast is included with your stay, and they have free internet which is why you're getting a nice installment on the blog about my adventures. Our room does have AC but it doesn't run constantally and the last girl to get in last night turned it off for some insane reason. Whatever.

This morning Mike and I were up really early -- about 7 am, since we were so exhausted and in bed early last night. We scoped out the breakfast (2 eggs, bread, and jam with coffee or tea) and then headed out into the city. The hostel offered to book us on a tour for $18/day, but we figured we'd just do it on our own which I think is much better. We tracked all over town. We started out heading towards Ho Chi Minh's Moseleaum and we apparently arrived too late. You may only go see Uncle Ho between 7:30 AM and 10:30 AM. We got there at 10:20 and they wouldn't let us go even though we said we'd be quickie. Total bums. Apparently, it's the same with the Presidential Palace which we only got to peer inside the gates.

There are loads of people every where offering to sell you something, give you a taxi, or a ride on the motor. They are usually not too bad and you can send them away with a simple no thanks once or twice. You are constantally saying no but people aren't too in your face about it which is lovely. I hope that it is not worse in other parts of SE Asia.

We ended up getting to see a beautiful lake with Paragoda in the middle, the military citiadel musuem, the vietnamise history musuem, and the infamous "Hanoi Hilton." We actually saw two Hanoi Hiltons. One is actually a modern Hilton Hotel, the other is an old prison that has been turned into a musuem. The prison was orginally opened by the French Colonists in the 1890s and remained active until about 1973. Initially it held Vietnemese dissidents. They turned the tourterous place into a revolutionary hot bed school. Many of the leaders of the Vietnemese rebellion with the French spent time "in training" here. After 1954 when the North Vietnemese declared their independence and created a seperate country, it transferred hands and the Vietnemese Communist put political prisoners in of a different nature. After the "War of American Distruction" (as this is how the Vietnemese labeled what we call the Vietnam War in the different exhibts) began, POWs were detained here until 1973 when they negoiated for their release. It was quite a moving experience to see all the different areas and to know for years tourture of many types was oppressed upon a variety of different peoples.

It's evening time and we haven't yet eaten, but so far we've found very filling food for under $8 a meal and bought some bottled water for .50 at a shop. They have all those great knockoffs all around and a versache belt would run you about $9USD. SO tempting to buy some fake Prada or D&G... but this is only the first day! I have barely been in Vietnam for 24 hours ... this could get dangerous ....