The next stop on my trip after Ho Chi Minh City was the capitol city, Hanoi. While in Hanoi I also did a one night cruise on Ha Long Bay.
Hanoi is a beautiful bustling city. Where Ho Chi Minh had big wide avenues with trees and sidewalks, Hanoi still has the tiny winding alleyways only big enough for mopeds and pedestrians. Hanoi still maintains many of its guild streets. You will find wood street, silk street, flower street, metal street, glass street and many other streets named for the guilds that used to run the street. The beauty is that many of these streets still maintain the businesses that gave the street its name. It was so fun to wander around and guess what the next street would be selling.
This is Hoan Kiem Lake which is in the middle of the city. In Vietnamese the name Hoan Kiem means lake of the restored sword. There is a legend that a turtle god appeared to an emperor on this lake asking for the emperor to return the magic sword and the emperor did after using it to defeat China. There is a temple on that island in the middle of the picture.
Hanoi is a city where you have to look up. Most buildings have shops or cafes on the first floor and can look really run down, but when you look up to the top floor the buildings are stunning.
Airconditioners and power lines always get in the way of nice photos.
While in Hanoi I found a shop with piles and piles of antique textiles. The women in the shop was so nice to explain where each of the pieces were from and what they would have been used for. All of the countries I visited were never single countries until the French came to colonize them. Before the French there were many different tribes each with their own chunk of land. This blanket was made by a tribe called the White Thai and would have been part of a woman's dowry when she got married. The blue and white part is woven on a loom by the woman then the borders are added.
No matter how many times I saw it I loved seeing the women in their cone hats walking around selling vegetables and fruits.
After one day in Hanoi, I signed up for a one night cruise on Ha Long Bay. I was picked up at my hostel at 8;00AM. We arrived at the bay around 12:00 and got on our boat. When you arrive at the pier there are at least 50 other boats just like yours in the harbor. It takes away a little bit from the experience as this is a major tourist destination but it is stunning nonetheless.
Ha Long Bay has close to 2,000 limestone islands sticking out of the sea. Ha Long Bay is one of the new 7 wonders of the natural world.
This was the first time on this trip that I had a room to myself, and it was amazing. I went to bed at 9:00 and didn't wake up until 8:00 the next morning.
My friend Beth carries a stuffed bear with her on every trip and takes pictures with him in front of important things. She has a facebook photo album titled, "Adventures of Little Bear." The photos are for her nieces so they will get excited to see where little bear goes next. I thought that was such a good idea, so I brought sadness from the movie "Inside Out" along. Unfortunately I only remembered to take photos with her in Ha Long Bay. With how amazing this photo turned out I wish I remembered to take her out more.
Everywhere you look and for as far as you can see, there are limestone cliffs rising from the water.
The cruise was extremely scheduled. We had 30 minutes to kayak and swim, then it was back on the boat to tour an oyster farm, then it was back on the boat for dinner, then karaoke, and so on. The scenery was so beautiful that I wish we would have been left just to watch it go by.
But the oyster farm was interesting. We were able to see how they implant a grain of sand in the oyster to make pearls and then watch them open the oysters to see what size and color the pearl was.
These men were cleaning the shells off. The people who work on the oyster farm used to live in a floating village nearby. There used to be 4 floating villages for about 1,600 people living on the bay. However the government has closed these villages and forced the people to live on the mainland so that the children can attend school.
The next morning we woke up and went to see a cave. I like caves and all, but I would have appreciated just having a lazy morning.
After we got back on the boat after the cave we had a cooking class to make spring rolls. The best part about the whole cruise, aside from the view, was the food. Every meal was served family style, so we were given about 6 different plates of meat, fish, salad, fruit, and spring rolls each meal to share between the four people sitting at the table.
This picture looks super cool like the bay is foggy, but actually my camera lens just had condensation on it.
That is it for rock pictures, I promise. The drive back to Hanoi was beautiful. We passed through the countryside and were able to see rice paddies on one side and mountains on the other. Again, cone hats!
Even new houses are very skinny and tall, just like the old buildings.
I tried desperately to get a good picture, but I couldn't. Every time it started raining out came the cone hats, on bicycles and on motorcycles.
Another picture I tried to get, not only do the people wear cone hats, there are water buffalo grazing in the rice paddies! It is real, I promise!
After Ha Long Bay I spend two more days exploring in Hanoi. Sorry for all the building pictures, but they are just so pretty!
My arm looked like Neapolitan ice cream; white, pink, brown. Ha Long Bay was the only place on this trip that I got sunburned!
This is the prison that was known as the Hanoi Hilton, during the Vietnam War. Here John McCain and many other POWs were held during the war.
The museum in showed the POWs as having Christmas parties and receiving letters from home and as the sign says they were treated justly. From the memoirs written by many of the POWs we know that this is definitely not true, but the North Vietnamese definitely did not do anything that the US did not do to the Vietnamese POWs.
There were stray dogs everywhere in Cambodia and Vietnam. Most of them were obviously mutts, but then every now and then there would be a pure bred dog like this dalmatian. He has no collar but he obviously can't be a stray, right? A week later in Laos in a very small village I saw a husky, it was the weirdest thing ever.
This is the entrance gate to the Temple of Literature. This was the first university in Vietnam and was built in the year 1070. The royalty and nobility would study here. Each year students had to pass regional tests in order to gain entrance to the royal exam. The royal exam was held at court and the emperor himself would ask the questions and grade the students.
I am not sure if this is supposed to be a cat or a mouse but who doesn't love animal shaped hedges?
These are turtle steles. Each rock is carved with the names of the students who passed the royal exam that year. each block is on the back of a turtle as that turtle is a symbol of wisdom and longevity and is one of Vietnam's holy creatures.
I'm slightly obsessed with bonsai trees. Look this is like a Vietnamese version of a fairy garden!
I think Pixar stole the design of Kevin the bird from "Up" from Vietnam. I have no idea what this bird represents but from people rubbing his belly/chest, I assume its for good luck.
After the temple I walked to see Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. The area around the mausoleum is full of beautiful old houses. Now all of these buildings are embassies or government buildings.
I'm kind of glad the mausoleum was closed. Its creepy thinking about seeing someone's body when they have been dead for 47 years. While I was in Hanoi, his body was in Russia for maintenance. Ho Chi Minh declared independence from France in 1945. He then became president of North Vietnam until 1969.
This was on the top lists of things to see in Hanoi, but I really have no idea why. This is the One Pillar Pagoda and was built in 1049. And now as I am reading the wikipedia article about the pagoda I see why, this is actually a replica built in the late 1950s after the original was destroyed. I was wondering how a pillar built in 1049 had a concrete base.
Since this trip I have also decided that someday I will have some songbirds for pets. During the day the shopkeepers would bring the birds outside and hang the cages on the trees. Again I had to learn to look up to find the source of the beautiful song.
My last night in Hanoi, some girls from my hostel asked if I wanted to join them to see a water puppet show, since I had no other plans I siad why not? This form of puppetry originated in North Vietnam in the 11th century. Villagers would perform the shows when the rice paddies were flooded. There is a rod attached to the bottom of the puppets so the rod is under the water and the puppeteers hide behind the curtain in the waist deep water.
The following day, my flight left at 5:00PM so I decided to have a lazy morning treating myself. The first stop was to try egg coffee. The recipe was first invented when Vietnam had a milk shortage. It is made by mixing whipped egg yolks with coffee and condensed milk. Its served in a bowl of hot water so the cup keeps its temperature, otherwise you would have scrambled eggs in your coffee and no one wants that. While this sounds disgusting it is actually super delicious.
After my egg coffee I decided I should probably get some food as I was feeling slightly faint. Before this trip I never realized how much an effect the heat has on your body, combine that with not drinking enough water and not eating enough and there were a couple of days where I thought I might pass out. Needless to say I learned my lesson and took better care of myself on the second half of my trip.
So far on this trip I had been eating really cheap food from carts on the streets or small restaurants that the locals eat at. So when I passed a fancy looking restaurant and the host handed me a flyer, I didn't even look at it until I was halfway down the block. When I did look at it, the flyer was advertising a set lunch menu of three courses plus drink for $12. So I decided to treat myself. The restaurant was gorgeous and I was extremely under dressed in my t-shirt and leggings, but it was worth it.
I was able to sit outside in the courtyard and eat some of the best chicken and pasta I have ever eaten, along with another amazing coconut shake.
For dessert I had this amazing and fancy creme brulee.
The lunch was a great end to an amazing time in Vietnam. Of all the countries I have ever visited there are only two that I feel I have to go back to see more; Japan and Vietnam.
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