We arrived in Hanoi (by train from Da Nang) at 330pm. The train ride was comfortable but I realized after India I was really done with trains for a while....the constant stop & go from station to station was just starting to get to me. Nonetheless, the scenery was beautiful. Striking green rice fields with mountains in the backdrop, the ride was like a postcard slideshow! As we arrived in Hanoi, we immediately noticed the change in weather. Hot, humid, sticky Ho Chi Minh weather made way for colder, foggy, rainy Hanoi weather. St.John's memories perhaps? The sky was gray with fog (or maybe smog? We are very close to China after all...) & the air was on the chilly side (almost too cold for shorts! All I brought was shorts! Ahhhh!).
We walked to our hotel from the train station. We were staying in the Old Quarter of the city, considered the heart of Hanoi. It is a busy, bustling place, the usual hectic chaos of Vietnam. However, with all of the bad (and good) influences the city has historically had, there are many sections to the city. The newer area to the west is where you see the communist influence the most. It is newer and greener & contains all the parliament buildings, presidential palace, Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum --he is embalmed AKA mummified in a tomb that can be visited by tourists , as are most great communist leaders. His wish was to be cremated, but they chose to ignore that request because tradition is tradition!
Side note: Ho Chi Minh (Ho Chi Minh city is named after him ....clearly) was the man who unified North & South Vietnam. He had heavy Communist/Socialist influence because he actually lived in Russia for a while (to escape French rule in Vietnam) and upon his return was a very instrumental figure for the Vietnamese people. The French tried to stop him from coming back, but after some hardships he did become leader, and a unified Vietnam was accomplished under communist principles. That is the reason the Vietnamese are so pro communist (maybe not in theory but definitely in practice)--communism is technically how they were liberated to unification & independence, a very important thing for the Vietnamese who have always had aggressors and 'influences' on their land--Chinese, French, American (the disgusting Vietnam War). So you can imagine that a concept (communism) that in a way makes you independent as a country, will be welcomed here. As to how many Vietnamese actually believe in communism & its ideals I have no idea, and there is a long history of fleeing this country during times of hardship including communist rule so it is hard to say, but that is the general situation behind all of this. Also, Hanoi is considered the cultural heart of Vietnam, and was more affected by outside influences than Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) so it can be argued that Hanoi is more pro communist than the south, while Ho Chi Minh is more capitalistic and business driven-- an interesting contrast to see.
Back on topic: Other important places in the new part of town include the Temple of Literature. It was closed when we got there & I am really sad we didn't get a chance to go inside. It is the oldest university in Vietnam and a birthplace of Taoism & Confusionism teaching. I just wanted to feel all intellectual & philosophical while sitting inside the place. But instead, I had to try to get a feel from the gate :P
Another popular spot to visit in that part of town is the Military museum. Vietnam has a long history of military and cultural influences (incredible how resilient, hard working and forgiving the Vietnamese people are after all of these trials & tribulations), but this museum focuses heavily on the American/Vietnam War---a terrible event that still haunts this country to this day--I am not well versed in the Vietnam war but I do encourage everyone to learn at least a little about it--learn from history so that history does not repeat itself!!!
There are also plenty of lakes in Hanoi, just for taking a stroll or for exercising. A very common & cute sight to see around the lakes are MANY elderly Vietnamese men & women stretching and doing Tai chi (? I think) in the park & going for brisk walks, both early in the AM and in the evenings. There are also plenty of parks with exercise equipment in them for public use. Very refreshing to see people so active and the elderly so limber! :P Maybe we wouldn't be dealing with so much obesity in North America if we had a culture surrounding these 'park gyms' & elderly workout sessions! ;)
We would only have 2 short days in Hanoi since we wanted to do Halong Bay for a few days too. It was probably enough to actually see the sights & sounds but you could easily stay a week and just enjoy the place, the people & the food :) our plan was to spend the first night in Hanoi, book a Halong bay tour, leave for Halong Bay the next day, spend a night on the boat (the 'junk' as they call them, the traditional boats in the bay), and then return to Hanoi for another night before our flight to Ho Chi Minh to go back and hang out with Julia and Bart :)
We didn't have a lot of time to shop around for the cheapest &/or best Halong Bay tour, but we knew to be cautious about who we book through and how much to pay. I had a vague idea from my brothers previous experience & from our guide book, but for a base we started at our hotel. Our hotel was actually a great place, with free good breakfast & nice rooms and the most helpful staff on the planet. No wonder I found it on trip advisor as one of the top budget hotels in Vietnam ;) $19/ night total!
There are 3 ways you can book a Halong Bay tour: the backpacker way and go with the cheapest price, the so called luxury packages, and somewhere in the middle. I read a few forums online about this and the messages were similar: the backpacker experience is obviously a big drinking party, but it’s cheap and fun. The luxury boat might have better service and food, but no one really vouched for it and most people said somewhere down the middle is your best bet if you don't plan on getting wasted on your boat cruise. Funny enough, I also read that the middle range tours often used the same boat as the luxury cruises and that certain inevitable circumstances remain no matter what cruise your on (I'll explain this later--needless to say our Halong Bay experience turned out to be an interesting one). Our hotel catered to a bit more upscale crowd and quoted us $70/ person as the cheapest price for a 2 day/1 night package--that was pretty much their mid range price. We decided not to buy from them and do a little shopping. We actually booked with the first travel agency we found because we felt it was a decent deal (which we later figured out it was probably one of the best deals) & I think it was recommended in our guide book (I say I think because every travel company in Hanoi claims to be one of these recommended tour groups so you have to be cautious with addresses of places because names of places can be copied on every block -funny!). The lady was hilarious, clearly a clever saleswoman banking in her next commission cut. She whips out the luxury boat package book before even asking us what kind of tour we want (surely, I must not look that that rich?!). She has a huge smile on her face telling us we will get a very good deal if we go with the luxury boat because we would be the last 2 couples on it. $67/person (funny enough, we later learned that this was actually quite a good price for the luxury boat package). She showed us the 'amazing' itinerary and every picture had rose petals on it lol. I'm sure it's the rose petals that cost the extra money :P
She continued talking about the luxury boat tour until I finally had to interrupt her and ask about the cheapest option. She quickly took out another booklet and told us only drunk, partying backpackers go on the cheap boat , $43/night & that we definitely shouldn't do that one (we must look too sophisticated lol). She didn't seem to be a fan of backpackers. We were tempted to just book that one to piss her off. Within a minute, she was back to the luxury boat. I had to interrupt her again to ask about the middle option. She took the book out , but instead of handing it to us she actually put it under the luxury book & I had to dig it out myself! Hilarious! The pictures of the mid-range boat looked incredibly similar to the luxury boat in all aspects, including the itinerary. But wait, the rose petals were missing!! Lol
It took a good few minutes to get any decent info out of her about the mid-range option--turned out it was practically the same as the luxury option except 'much better food' & 'much nicer accommodations' & 'much better service' on luxury boat as she claimed. $47/person for mid-range. First off, the accommodation looked the same (minus the rose petals scattered everywhere!) & I am not sure how much better you can make classic Vietnamese street food --it is cheap good street food! Also, my book tells me more about Halong Bay then the guide can tell me anyways! So we decided after all her insisting that we will go with the mid-range choice ----we learned that we probably went with the right choice in the end (as we saw on the actual trip).
Getting Halong booking out of the way, we got some good grub at one of the recommended street kitchens. We had a popular Vietnamese dish- cold noodles with beef & greens & some spring rolls too --called bun cha???? So filling! We ate too much!
So filling but so good! We got a motorbike for the evening in order to explore the places too far by foot. Tom navigating through the hectic streets of Hanoi (our guidebook highly recommended not to motorbike in Hanoi lol) was a bit chaotic, but we managed! All of the major attractions were closed at this point, but we wanted to check some of them out after hours, including Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, the Temple of Literature and random temples scattered around the city. Renting the motorbike turned out to be a great idea because we saw a lot of the city in a short time and on our own pace. Tom even found a popular ice cream place that seemed to be packed with locals which = good ice cream! We were not disappointed for the 25 cents we paid for each cone! So much so that we had 3 cones each!!
The plan for the next day was Halong Bay. We called it a night quite early since we were quite exhausted from our train ride and still full from our early dinner!
