2/27/09

Sin Chau!
I first heard about Hanoi when I was of draft age, and thought of it as the hellhole headquarters of Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Cong. Many images from that time period remain, and I've still considered that it may be unpatriotic to visit this place.
This is day 3 in Hanoi and we'd planned to head to the train station to escape South, but being a weekend, trains were full, so we'll spend another night in our plush digs ($35/night) and leave in the AM. We were prepared for a teeming, bustling, chaotic scene in this city of 3.5 million, but this exceeds anything we've read or heard, and it is quite different from previous countries. Probably the first and most startling difference is the traffic. I could write pages on traffic. Most people get around on scooter, so roads, sidewalks or any passable area seem to be a thoroughfare or parking space for scooters. In spite of the seeming lack of traffic laws, the drivers--men and women, young and old--glide along competently and confidently, each in a much more confined "envelope" than we would allow in the US. Since the horn button is on the handgrip, it is used constantly, more to announce your presence than an angry rebuke. There are very few traffic lights, yet the throngs of bicyclists, scooters, and the occasional car or bus seem to be able to cross in opposing directions, right angles or overtake each other without herky jerky motions, by anticipating and evading. Now add pedestrians to this mix. Since what little sidewalk available is used for parking, cooking, eating, and gathering, we usually walk in the street, with cyclists zipping by in both directions close enough to brush you. Crossing a street seemed impossible when we first saw the traffic here, then we watched the locals calmly head straight across at right angle to swarms of speeding traffic. Somehow the seas seem to part, and Layne and I just looked at each other and laughed after our first few successful crossings. She said it reminds her of swimming into a school of fish. Scooters are also capable of hauling more than one or two people-we've spotted on different occasions a family of five on one cycle. Other combinations we've seen: two guys hauling a 2'x4' slab of granite, two guys with a ladder, a guy hauling EIGHT full 5 gallon water bottles, and today two guys showed up for some repairs at our hotel. They brought along a 10" chop saw, a milk carton case full of tile, some type of power tool in a large plastic case, and an electrical cord. A traveler I met told me of a man with 4 pigs on his scooter-one in front, the three others stacked up behind. Smartly dressed women in high heels, with a similarly dressed friend riding sidesaddle behind are a common sight as well.
Now about the money: Thailand's currency is in bahts, with about 34/dollar. Lao has kips,but we could pay for our airline ticket out ONLY in American dollars. Here in Vietnam it's the dong, with SEVENTEEN THOUSAND to the dollar. Makes computing things a little difficult, but some places list prices in dollars too, and most places take dollars. Layne is tiring of my dong jokes, but they are available upon request, or you can make up your own.
Seems like a beer in any country is between $1-$1.50, Malaysia being the exception, where alcohol is more expensive than the US, probably because they are a Muslim country.
We plan to head S to a less populated ocean area tomorrow, then take the train, over a period of 5-7 days with on/off privileges, to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). We're in the far N of the country now, and HCMC is close to the farthest S area of the Mekong Delta, about 1000 miles.

More from Layne later

Jed