With
a late night flight from Hue to Hanoi I decided ( for once) to be
organized and book a room in advance so I wouldn't have to wander
around a new city after midnight looking for a bed. I found a bargain
deal at a four star hotel through agoda.com and landed in Hanoi
feeling organized and prepared. Of course my taxi driver got lost and
had to stop and ask about six different people for directions :P
Still he finally found the Rising Dragon Hotel and I was greeted by
the smiling and ever helpful night clerk Coung.
Now
I had hardly been slumming it in Vietnam, the rooms were so cheap I
hadn't really needed to stay anywhere too dodgy, but my room at The
Rising Dragon was so nice I never wanted to leave it!So imagine my
disappointment the next day when I asked to book for one more night,
and I was told that they were full. Still, Coung helped me sort my
visa for China and offered to store some things for me for a week or
so. I was placated and went off to find another place to stay.
I
spent the day wandering the streets of Hanoi's old town and got
myself well and truly lost a few times. Busy and noisy like HCMC,
Hanoi had a more friendly and accessible vibe to the place. Even as
found myself lost, again, I knew that eventually I would see
something that would lead me back to the central landmark, the lake.
I was supposed to meet Scott and Jo ( the honeymooners) at the Bamboo
guest house at 7pm... but the Lonely Planet map was not matching up
with the reality of the streets???? Thank goodness it all worked out
in the end and we met up at the right place and at the right time.
Despite that sneaky map's best efforts ;)
And
so began the honeymoon bomb, my few days in northern Vietnam with the
newlyweds Scott and Jo. We explored Hanoi and enjoyed a rooftop
dinner overlooking the city. We caught a local bus out to Halong Bay,
on which Scott counted a max of 37 people on a 20 seater bus. Due to
this squeeze I spent most of the trip with a middle aged Vietnamese
guy sitting on my lap, not an exaggeration. We drank too much cheap
vodka in Halong City, became obsessed with the idea of singing
karaoke and dared each other to purchase gaudy velour track suits at
the Halong City Markets. Jo also bought an excellent tea set... which
Scott was unimpressed about due to its size, weight and his doubt
that she would ever use it. Ladies it must be agreed upon that we all
use Jo's tea set at every given opportunity whenever Scott is around
so that he will have no reason ever to say, ' I told you so!'
After
much research and exploration we chose a company to take a 1 night, 2
day trip through Halong Bay on a Chinese Junk boat. We spent two
lovely days sailing, kayaking, fishing, playing drunken games of UNO
( evidently none of us remembered the rules), sunbathing and watching
the beautiful scenery pass us by. Jo even got the chance to sing
karaoke ( I made a weak attempt) on the boat with some hard partying
Chinese businessmen. That's no joke, they slammed into a bottle of
vodka at lunch on the first day. Halong Bay is a truly beautiful
place. Sadly the smog and haze that surrounds it cannot help but act
as a reminder of how badly we are trashing our planet.
We
left the boat and headed to Cat Ba Island. I had come down with a bug
so I left the honeymooners to explore the beach and go extreme rock
climbing while I caught some Zzz. Even if I hadn't been feeling sick
I wasn't hugely motivated to haul my fat arse up the side of a cliff.
Funnily enough the pamphlet at the rock climbing place had a counter
point for every excuse I had for not doing it. Apparently, having no
upper body strength, being a bit over weight and being uncomfortable
with heights are no good reason to avoid rock climbing. Still, I have
a fever and I don't want to do it are good enough reasons to get out
of it ;)
Suddenly
it was time to head back to Hanoi so Mr and Mrs Haliburton could fly
to Kuala Lumpur and I could head off to Beijing. But before we parted
company... THE SNAKE CHALLENGE. I had heard from some friends I made
whilst traveling in Laos that there was a place in Hanoi where they
would kill a snake, remove its beating heart and let one of your
group eat the heart. Scott had also heard about this, and he was very
keen.
We
got the concierge at my hotel ( I was able to book in and stay at The
Rising Dragon again <3) to arrange a taxi to take us to and from
the snake restaurant for a reasonable price. The three of us entered
the building, climbed the stairs and took a seat at a table in the
empty restaurant. I wasn't even eating the snake and I was jumping
out of my skin with nerves.
What
followed was one of the most disgusting, fascinating, nauseating and
funny experiences ever. A very calm Vietnamese guy came out, pulled a
roughly 1 meter long snake out of a hessian sack, slit its throat,
sliced it's belly open and removed its heart. The heart, still
beating, was put into a shot glass filled with vodka. The man set to
work draining the snakes blood into a bottle and then once he was
finished he drained its lime green stomach bile into another bottle.
I don't handle blood and gore too well so all of this left me feeling
pretty squeamish.
Scott
and Jo both took a shot of the snakes blood, Scott tried the snake
bile and then... finally... Scott drank the shot with the snake heart
in it. He tried valiantly, but even Scotty couldn't swallow the still
beating heart of that snake. We were then presented with about 7
courses of food all prepared with the remaining parts of the snake. I
tried a little bit, but to be honest I was struggling not to be ill
after all the blood, stomach bile and heart action. What can I say,
I'm a princess at heart.
After
all that Jo and I decided a stiff drink was in order. We headed to a
bar named, The Pub and had a cocktail. One cocktail soon became
several and the night ended with Jo and I following Scott down the
street singing The Cruel Sea's ' The Honeymoon Is Over.' And sadly,
it was :( I said goodbye to the honeymooners and began my journey to
Beijing.
