Good morning......Vietnam! After a good nights rest we are now ready to explore what Hanoi has to offer, but not before bfast. The guest house included bfast and we got to choose between pho, fried noodles, cereal and north American bfast. We started it off right with a bowl of pho, local watermelon and bananas.
First stop, Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum. This place is enormous! What we didn't know was that they actually preserved his body and we coulee actually see it. There are very strict rules about entering the mausoleum.
1) no cameras or electronic equipment
2) no hats or sunglasses
3) hands must be visible and be at your sides
4) complete silence
I was told to remove my sunglasses and take my hands out of my pockets before going in. The visit lasts about 20 seconds. You walk through single file at a constant pace without stopping. There are guards at each corner of his see through casket with lights inside so you can see his body. Not gonna lie, very creppy! It looks like a very pale wax figure. It looked so perfect to all pictures of him, it looked fake, but the books all say it's his body. They truly do honor him because they don't charge to visit the mausoleum. They have many guards and maintenance staff that they could definitely use this as an opportunity to make money. Next we went to see his house. This only cost us 10.000 dong ($0.50) which is nothing.
Let's talk a bit about the money in Vietnam. Their currency is called the 'dong' and 20.000 (twenty thousand) dong is equivalent to $1.00. They use a period symbol to represent a comma. Im still very confused as to why they would have such a high increment, it's not like things cost 20.159 dong. Their higher notes are made of the same material as our new plastic $100 bill. Higher currency meaning 100.000 and up ($5 and up). They also accept US currency as well.
After the Ho Chi Minh complex, we explored the old (French) quarter which is where we were staying. You can definitely see the finch influence. The buildings are tall, skinny and if you've ever been to Paris, you'll notice a strong resemblance. The roads are very narrow and crowded and is very difficult to walk around. There are sidewalks but they're usually filled with scooters, store merchandise exploding into the streets and outdoor restaurant vendors. Many of the vendors are just these tiny plastic tables and stools with one cook. Typically they serve one or two specialty item(s). It's definitely something to see. Vendors are also grouped into sections. When you see pho vendors, you see tons of them, same goes for coffee shops, dessert place, etc.
Next let's talk about the traffic situation in Vietnam. The roads are filled with cars, walkers, bikers and scooters. Traffic lights are as frequent as big locals, barely any. Even if there are traffic lights, they are never followed. The best way to describe their driving is much like running a race. There are no lanes and everyone is free to go in any which way, weave in any each way to get to where they need to go. Roads that look like 1 lanes are easily turned into 3 lane roads and driving on the shoulder isn't off limits either. They use their horns as much as you see Tim Hortons cups in the morning on your way to work. In fact, half way turlough the day, we stopped for a quick rest qt the hotel and my ears were ringing as if I just left club or concert. Their horns mean;
I am:
beside, coming, left, right, passing, passed, coming fast, slow, tired, lost, hungry, horny..... Well maybe not the last few but you get gist of it. Their horns mean everything in the book except the one thing we use our horns for in North America ... 'screw you!!'. That being said, it seems to work for them. There aren't accidents and the roads look chaotic but looking from above, it's like a well trained symphony of driving. This makes walking and crossing the streets very difficult at first. We read the number one rule in crossing the road is 'do not hesitate'. Drivers are trained to anticipate everything but when you hesitate and second guess is when accidents happen. We put this theory to the test and walked across a busy road and it's almost as if there is a bubble surrounding us and all vehicles just weave around us, honking to say 'we see you'. It's definitely something to experience.
You're going to hear a lot about food from Hanoi. As Anthony Bourdain best puts it, it's as if ppl here have just eaten, going to eat or thinking about when to eat next. Everywhere you turn, at all hours of the day, there is something to eat. Now onto lunch. Hanoi is known for several dishes and one of them is called 'bun cha'. It's vermicelli served with pork meat patties in a watered down 'nouc mum' with pickled veggies. Nouc mum is a sweet sauce made of vinegar, sugar and fish sauce. Jess found a place online that had good reviews. Its a very tight restaurant of tiny tables and stools with women cooking half inside and half on the sidewalk, squatting while deep frying spring rolls outside. We were seated with another guy. If you have ever been to Chinatown you know how common it is for you to be seated with strangers to share a table. Like many of vendors on the streets, they only serve one thing so no need for menus and they bring your food before you can order a drink. The whole meal came up to 200.000 dong ($10) including beer and water. There was so much food, we left 25% of it. The plate of spring rolls probably had 6-8 spring rolls. I've never had this before and it was delicious! We'll be on the hunt for it when we get home.
We decided to roam the streets some more to see what the locals do. Hanoi isn't as touristy as Bangkok and Siem Reap. There aren't as many tourists or touristy things. We walked through a local food market where we were stared at like aliens. At first I was slightly offended but I put myself in their shoes and I'm sure I'd be staring if something out of the ordinary like a tiger walked by me in Toronto. On our stroll we saw a lot of regular things you'd see in Chinatown, a lot of meat, seafood, veggies, etc but one thing that I saw that really creeped me out, we saw BBQ dog. I only knew it was dog because I saw the head. These aren't the dogs that us North Americans have as pets and we don't have any pets but still very creepy. I did manage to take a photo and I will eventually post it, sorry dog ppl.
For dinner, Jess found another wonderful hole in the wall. This time serving another local and personal favs of ours, bahn cuon. Rice rolls wrapped around minced pork and mushrooms topped with fried onions and shredded pork. In Toronto, we dont get the shreded pork on top but this is an excellent addition. Again, this had the makings of a delicious 'restaurant' equipped with tiny plastic tables and stools and one lady cooking out in the open. These stools were even smaller than at lunch. They were about 1' in height. I was nervous I would break it. Now I'm not one of those people who will say everything is delicious that I taste around the world just to parade that I am part of this elite club of 'too bad you couldn't try this' but his truly was incredible. This has always been a favorite of mine. Growing up my mom used to make this and I still order it in restaurants. the difference with this is the rice flour is a lot fluffier and the addition of shredded pork. We also had cha lua which is Vietnamese sausage
Banh cuon
Cha Lua
Next we stopped for some dessert. We had some cut up fruit with condensed milk and crushed ice. Very good as well. I've never had this at home but I'll be making these next summer :)
The next morning we were off to to Halong Bay for a boat trip. Halong Bay is approx 120km from Hanoi so you assume it takes 1-1.5 hours to get there. That would be the case if they drove our speed limit. In Vietnam, they drive between 20-30km because of the disgusting traffic so it took us 3.5 hours to get there. On the way they stop for a 'washroom break' but it's huge souvenir shop with food and souvenirs. Anyone who knows me, knows i love Pringles so when I saw seaweed flavor I had to try it. What a huge disappointment. The flavor was not good at all and the chips were more like lays version of pringles.
Seaweed Pringles
We finally make it to Haling Bay. We toured a cave which as really cool. Then, took the scenic route back to shore. The scenery is very nice and similar to Guilin. Overall, the trip was just ok for me. The tour guide didn't have much info for us and wasn't very prepared. I didn't like the bathroom break to sell you souvenirs at 4x the price and the ride to and from was too much for the reward. Would I recommend it? If you haven't been to Guilin and would like to see the caves, yes. After all, it was only $30/person.
Halong Bay
Pho
The next morning and we are off to Ho Chi Minh City, so I'll keep you updated.
Phu'd and Travel
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