Hanoi Again

We are back in Hanoi - big capital city, with a french flavour especially in the old quarter where we are staying. Large statues of Vietnamese soldiers (men and women) in strong and defiant poses are spotted around , the streets are bustling with street vendors and motorbikes (aka motos) everywhere, even on the footpaths, so you have to walk on the road & weave your way in & out of oncoming traffic, that goes everywhere and anywhere. Somewhat treacharous, but we're getting the hang of it.

There is a beautiful lake in the middle of the city called Hoan Kien, it has lovely well kept gardens with tall willow like trees looming around the outside, many family's and locals go there and just sit around it. I don't blame them, I could happily go there with my book and do the same. If you go early in the morning at 6am you can see the locals doing their daily exercise, like something out of the 1950's - or a weird 80's jazzercise video. Quite amusing.

Today we did some more wandering through the streets and we came across a very funky little clothing store called "Elizabethan" where I purchased x3 tops and a pair of sandals. The shopgirls where very funny and spoke no English other than "you buy." We had great fun communicating to each other via hand gestures including "thumbs up" if I liked and laughing lots. One even took Tere half way across town on the back of her Vespa to go to the ATM. How's that for service. I thought it only fair that I bought a few things...haha

The con's (excuse the pun) a few downsides...of being a tourist...

We've thoroughly enjoyed our trip so far, although we have run into a few occasions more so in Vietnam than anywhere else where we've being "scammed". It is very hard to know who to trust, especially with language difficulties.

One occasion a young man at the train station showed us his "conductor ticket" and said he would show us to the correct platform. He then took my backpack off me offering to carry, he was all smiles and good nature, we followed him onto the train and to our carriage. Once inside we thought we'd give him a small tip for lugging the bags - but he was of the mind we pay him $10 US!! We were like "bugger off" we most certainly are not paying you that - then he started waving his arms around and having a tanty, an official conductor walked past and we explained to him what had happened, he didn't want to get involved. Tere finally managed to calm him down and paid him something and ushered him out of the carriage. As the scam-artist left the train, Tere saw him slip some of the $ into the official conductors hand...

Also moto drivers can be a bit dodge, we've been here long enough to know that you agree on a price prior to jumping onboard. We had 2 guys take us to the other side of town, before leaving we agreed, including them, to a fare price for them to take us there and back. Once we returned we paid them the amount mutually agreed - they then played the we can't understand you card and said the price was triple what we initially agreed.Tere and I stood our ground and explained to them that we had been in Vietnam long enough to know that they were ripping us off.SO from now on we will definitely look for drivers who can speak and understand English.

It's a real shame that these situations happen, as most of the people we've dealt with are genuine and friendly and we have been treated really well, but there are always a few people trying to take advantage of the situation or the tourist. Immediately after the scams we were both quite angry, but I guess it's all part of the travel experience and learning how we'll deal with things if they occur again.

But the majority of great and amazing experiences, definitely outway the bad experiences.

Tomorrow we are planning to visit Uncle Ho's (Ho Chi Minh's) Mausoleum,apparently it's very tightly guarded and controlled. Women are required to cover their arms & shoulders and you have to walk through in pairs, no talking or photography is allowed. If you infringe on any of the regulations you are escorted off the premises. So we will make sure to be on our best behaviour.
Uncle Ho himself is sent over to Russia 3 times a year for maintenance and grooming, so will be interesting to see what sort of condition he is in...apparently somewhat "waxy."


We also thought we'd go one evening to the water puppets, apparently the show's are really amazing with wonderful lighting and traditional Vietnamese music, so I'm looking forward to that.

We've both got a bit of a cold at the moment, Tere got it first & has got a bit of a cough & I've got a slightly sore throat and blocked nose. Think it may have something to do with the air-conditioning.

It's 11pm as I'm writing this in one of the many internet cafes, we've just come from a small local bar, where we watched World Cup Soccer - Japan vs Aussie. We were cheering for Japan, the locals where backing Aussie. Aussie won - BOO SUCKS. I'm looking forward to watching Aussie vs Brazil, that'll be a different story.