Traveling to Hanoi
I found myself going though the same routine that I did less than six months ago, except this time I was also tossing a voltage converter in to my pack. I called up a friend and begged for a ride to the airport to catch my 1 AM flight on China Air from Seattle to Taipei. From Taipei I would transfer planes and within 22 short total travel hours would, for the first time in my life, set foot in a communist country, beginning my adventure in Hanoi, Vietnam. My friend was a little concerned that he would not have enough room in his car for my luggage and was quite surprised that all I was bringing was a single backpack. Although he would not be the only one to comment on it. Vietnam requires a visa to enter so I was required to send my passport to the Vietnam embassy in Washingtion, D. C. for processing. It was a bit of a gamble in that I only got my passport back days before my departure, and with a nice visa approval stamp in it, but hey, it was enough time and I was good to go.
I found China Air to be disappointing, and would recommend choosing EVA air over them when possible, however they were the only one to offer a clean run in to Hanoi. Their seats were much tighter then EVA making sleeping even for the most advanced quite difficult. Not being able to sleep I began scanning their crappy selection of in flight movies, they were all so bad I can’t even remember the titles. The flight attendants service and food was also poor, EVA personal made you feel welcome, were there to help, and gave you those nice slippers to wear and traditional meals, China Air was just going through the motions. I guess you could say China Air was just like any American airline. In fact when I flew EVA, the announcements were in a foreign tongue and I was one of only a handful of white people, where China Air made their announcements in English and there were quite a few of us white fellas.
We got to Hanoi and I got off the plane, man it is hot here, within minutes I was sweating bullets. It was a very small airport, only a few gates and what they did have was quite out of date. Never the less it only took a few minutes to clear immigration, unlike the more advanced USA where my return took over an hour of waiting in lines to re-enter the US, and I’m an American. I had to check my pack as it was over 10 kilos (another plus of EVA was that I could carry on my pack). I waited forever for my pack to arrive, finally I peaked my head out of the open door and saw four Vietnamese guys running back and forth with carts manually unloading the plane. Boy it sure is hot here. Anyway I got my pack and cleared customs. I then jumped in a cab and handed the driver a printout, in Vietnamese, of directions to the Sunway hotel, a place I found online that looked like a good place to crash for the first night. The ride to the airport was a real eye opener. This place is not just third world, but its crazy old skool third world. As we drove down the “highway” we were forced to go around such things as people on bicycles, water buffalos, and just general poor road conditions.
When we first pulled up to the hotel I thought I had made a bad choice and that this was in a bad neighborhood, however as it turns out its just what all of Hanoi looks like. The hotel in fact was awesome, nice and clean inside, and very friendly and helpful staff. Plus my room had a view. 
And it’s always good to see things like this.
They seem to be trying to save water in that almost all the toilets I used / saw in Vietnam gave you the option to flush depending on the size of your, well you know, do you need a 3 liter flush or a 6 liter flush? It’s important to note that pressing both buttons at the same time does not give you a 9 liter flush. Something else that I found interesting but never did get to the bottom of was that the restrooms were marked with “WC”, no idea what this stood for.
After I settled in I decided to check out the town, plus I needed cash, in this case Vietnamese Dongs. I asked at the front desk and was handed a map and given directions to a bank that would take VISA. While the map contained English letters, they did not really spell English words. I found matching and “reading” the phonetic English spellings to Vietnamese words much more difficult then Thai words. Armed with my map and directions I headed out, dang its hot here. The streets look much poorer then Bangkok and people all over the street were doing everything from cooking to playing games. At first I felt very uncomfortable and scared, but within minutes I realized it was just my American prejudice. These people are good people and I actually soon felt safer then on the streets of Bangkok. I also quickly realized that this was not a tourist destination as I was the only white guy in sight and it would be that way for most of Hanoi. Which also meant that if I needed help I could not just pop in to a store for directions as no one really spoke English or even knew what it was outside of the hotels.
Kids going to school.
The first thing that any outsider will notice in Hanoi is the traffic. This makes New York look like Amish country. I mean everyone is going every which way all the time. It’s never and I mean never without absent of a car or motorbike horn either near or in the not too far distance. I think they drive on the right side of the road but was never really able to tell for sure. I also did not see many traffic lights, but then it seemed no one else did either as no one seemed to obey the few I saw. The roads are not just filled with countless motorbikes (basically a moped that you can shift gears on), but also bicycles, people on foot, animals, and the occasional car. These people are amazing, they can carry anything on their motorbikes, 10 bags of rice, an armoire, the entire family of 5, even another motorbike. Sometimes they can’t even fully see, having to stand up to see, then sit for a while, then stand up again to see where they now are.
On my last day in Hanoi, when I could take a few more risks, I decided to jump on the back of a motorbike taxi and film some traffic, it’s a crazy ride without a safety harness.
I soon faced my first test in Hanoi, crossing a street on the way to the bank. I stood there watching for over 10 minutes trying to figure this out as no one stops ever. I watched the locals and they just crossed right in the middle of everything, seeming to avoid the motorbikes just as the motorbikes were avoiding them. I felt like I was ready to give it a try and literally stepped out in to the middle of traffic. My head was spinning as stuff was coming at me from all directions, finding myself in a real life game of Frogger. I was caught in the middle, scarred, but then figured I would just keep walking and whatever happens, happens. However once I got to the other side I realized I was really screwed because the corner I thought I came from looked totally new to me. I first I thought it was because all the goofy writing looked the same to me and it seems once you see one street in Hanoi you have seen them all, but then I realized that during all the confusion of my crossing I actually crossed two of the six streets that met at this intersection. Which according to my directions meant I had to cross back again. After five to six crossings and you get the hang of it. I soon found myself at the bank and an instant millionaire as I pulled out two million Dong (about $120 US dollars). I would later learn that a lot of places actually accepted US currency, unlike Thailand which did not at all. It was good I pulled out the cash though as the places I was heading to would not accept US currency and VISA is not everyplace you want to be. I would later have to make one more stop at the bank for another 500,000 Dong after I returned from Sapa. It was at this point when I realized that my entire time in Vietnam would cost under $800 US dollars (with tours and hotels included). I thought, America, the land of the free, what a bunch of crap, stuff cost more in America then anyplace else.
With cash in my pocket I continued my exploration. Some lady came up to me, I guess I had tourist written all over me, and gave me her fruit basket thing and said “foto, foto”, so I put on her hat and basket thingy and got a picture. I should have seen this one coming but the minute the picture was snapped I was being forced to buy some of her bananas, probably extremely over priced at 20,000 Dong. Oh well at least I’m learning a new trade in case I ever want to change jobs.
Some old men passing the time playing games, and why not, the government is paying you.
The map from the hotel had some highlights on it so I first stopped by the Temple of Literature, where the Vietnamese of the past would study and learn the written word.
Close to it was the One Pillar Pagoda in the shape of the Lotus flower.
Next was Ho Chi Mein’s Mausoleum, the man who brought communism to Vietnam, for a dead guy he never looked better, other then maybe on a 100,000 dollar bill.
This was right next to the presidential palace. Most government buildings are painted in the same color yellow because of when the French recently occupied Vietnam. All yellow buildings were built by the French in their architecture.
These flags are all over, on people’s houses, boats, bikes, or just anyplace that does not yet have one.
It was right around this point when I got my first taste of communism as it was 16:00. There are speakers all over the city and every day at 8:00 and 16:00 they would come to life, while I was never able to know for sure what they were saying I got from most people that it was the government’s orders for the day.
I headed to Hanoi’s Old Quarter, this place is amazing, they have entire streets dedicated to a single item, such as flip-flops. So for four blocks, store after store sold nothing but flip-flops, it was crazy, but then they get paid by the government, so it’s not so much in what they sell or don’t sell. On this trip I found myself being introduced to new very unique and often rather foul smells and it was the market just a few blocks over, small, dirty, and full of things I could never put in my mouth.
On the way back to the hotel I came across this lake with a small temple island. I would learn that they worship the turtle for its long life and stock this lake with numerous turtles.
If you have ever taken a computer programming 101 class you have probably heard of the “Towers of Hanoi” puzzle in which you have to write code to recursively solve for N. Well, it was not until I went to Vietnam did I understand the puzzle origins, their architecture consist of tall skinny structures, “towers”.
What an amazing opening day, once back at the hotel I made friends with the local bartender who spoke at best broken English. He was very helpful, kind, and patient with our communication barrier. However we broke through this barrier and really got to better understand each other and our cultures. I found it amazing how open he was in speaking out against the communist government. He also said it was almost impossible for him to get a visa to travel because the government fears that once he leaves the country he will never come back, so a trip to America can be nothing more than a distant dream to him. After some great conversation, trying out a few new beers like Halida and Hanoi (geez, its still hot), it was time to get some sleep. I had booked an early morning departure aboard a Chinese Junk (boat) to make the two and a half day journey up to Ha Long City.