Time for some photos

Just returned from three hours of walking, so thought we'd let the photos speak for themselves. Hope you enjoy them.

Hanoi has lots of statues depicting guys fighting. This one looks like he's attacking with a power cord.

Hanoi's West Lake

Ancient Citadel

Cua Vac Church

The Tran Quoc Pagoda

Amidst the chaos of Hanoi, the Botanic Gardens were a welcome refuge for us.

The Flag Tower, 1812

The Ngoc Son Temple on Hoan Kiem Lake

Inside the temple

Also inside the temple

Lane way which gives us access to our hotel

Very peaceful.

Those motorbikes are so hanoiing (lol).

Who'd  have thought there was a city more chaotic, more dystopian than Saigon; welcome to Hanoi. We are staying in what they call the "old" quarter, right in the center of town. By day it's hectic, but manageable, but on a Saturday and Sunday evening the place is a magnet for Aussie and other Western tourists. It took us fifteen minutes to negotiate 100 metres down one of the most famous streets, Bia Street (not its real name), which was absolutely packed with people and motorbikes all vying for the same space. There were lights flashing everywhere, noisy street vendors and hundreds of locals trying to sell you anything not bolted down. If this is truly the essence of Hanoi then I think I'll pass. Fortunately, I'm confident there's more to it than this.

Today, the four of us visited Hanoi's Hoa Lo Prison. The prison was originally built by the French colonialists at the end of the 19th century and used to house mainly political revolutionaries but it was taken over by the North Vietnamese communist government in 1954 after the French were told to leave (well, it was even more blunt than this). It is probably best known in recent times for housing American pilots shot down over North Vietnam during the bombing raids of Hanoi and Haiphong, where it got the ironic title of the Hanoi Hilton. The propaganda information boards in the prison made it seem like it really was like staying at the Hilton, but the reality was very different. Pilots were routinely tortured and denied basic human needs, mainly because the North refused to acknowledge them as prisoners of war, preferring to refer to them as war criminals.

Quite early in the morning. By lunchtime, this street will be packed.

Some traditional Vietnamese street music.

Sadly, we farewelled Matt and Imogen a couple of hours ago as they needed to catch their flight home. It was a little strange at first being by ourselves again, but we soon adjusted to being independent travelers once more. Alison and I can only hope that we didn't cramp their style too much. We can also only hope that my dad jokes didn't drive Matt absolutely crazy; I sense they did to Imogen.

After they left, we decided to take another walk to one of Hanoi's most iconic attractions, Train Street. Basically, think of hundreds of little cafes and street vendors serving drinks and food, mainly to tourists either side of a railway line probably not even ten metres apart, with a full sized railway track running right through the middle. Then, at regular times of the day and night when the train is due, everyone picks up their tables and chairs and stands perfectly upright against the walls of the buildings while the train of ten or even fifteen carriages passes in front of you, so close that if you put your arm out, even fully bent, it would be completely cut off. It is both hair raising and totally exhilarating at the same time. After the train has passed, all the tables and chairs are put back out and it's business as usual; only in Hanoi.

This is Train Street, with lots of food vendors.

You can just see the train arriving around the bend.

Very, very close and very loud.

And then it had gone.

After the excitement of the train passing only inches in front of our faces, we decided to slow the pace somewhat and took a leisurely stroll around Hanoi's central lake. It is very popular with both locals and tourists alike, but on the weekends it resembles Melbourne's Moomba festival, with loud music playing, street dancing and, of course, lots of food. I'm pretty certain nobody in Hanoi ever just stays in for a meal of baked beans on toast and a comfy chair in front of Home and Away (for that matter, neither do we, at least the Home and Away part). 

This part of Hanoi is quite French looking.

The lake at night.

At one stage, we decided to take a seat and enjoy the ambiance of the lake and its environs only to be approached twice by two children, ranging in age from six to thirteen, wanting to practice their English on us. Of course, being teachers we were only too happy to oblige. They were lovely kids and we could easily maintain quite good conversations. However, we were quite surprised how trusting their parents were to allow their children to approach complete strangers. The kids were very comfortable being with us, and only too happy to squash up next to us on the seat. They were delightful kids and very polite (far more so than most of the kids we teach back home).

Hoi An draws to a close

It's our last night in Hoi An as we leave for Hanoi tomorrow (just in time for the bounce to kick off the Grand Final - it'll all be over by the time we hit the hotel). The weather yesterday and today have been in stark contrast to our first couple of days here, and today was actually sunny all day. We haven't, however, managed to get to the beach but since a lot of them have actually washed away with the stormy weather of late, we don't feel as if we've missed that much.

The view from our balcony across rice paddies

Today was a special day as we all enrolled in a cooking school. It ended up being six hours in duration, and included a boat trip to the market to buy our fresh ingredients (and by fresh, I mean really fresh, not Safeway fresh), a tour of one of the biggest restaurants in Hoi An and a taste of exotic fare such as snails, jellyfish and braised offal. Following this, we moved upstairs where we made the most amazing four course lunch. We began with a spicy clam soup, followed by a chicken and pomello salad, then barbequed catfish stir fried, and finished with flambe banana with rum. Without doubt, one of the best meals I've eaten in a long time, and all made by us. Our chef, Bo, was great and such a nice guy. There were twelve of us doing the course and, coincidentally, all Aussies.

Boats waiting at the morning markets

Our catfish, which we used to barbecue for one of our dishes.

Some of the herbs we purchased.

We've really enjoyed our stay in Hoi An, in fact, we'd be happy to stay another week. Our hotel is amazing and everyone makes you feel so welcome. Lots of Australians, and many are yobbos, but it's good to be reminded of back home with an opportunity to talk footy, etc.

These cooks were toasting sesame and shallots.

Gotta love those stir fried frogs.

Is that Luke Nguyen, nope it's yours truly.

Our clam soup with lemongrass and coriander.

My next post will be from Hanoi, unless I can convince Alison and the hotel management to extend our stay (not likely). Tomorrow is also our last full day with Matt and Imie, as they fly out of Hanoi for home on Sunday. All in all, it's been great spending time with them and we've loved having their company with us over shared meals, games of pool, and lots of new experiences. We wish they could continue on with us, but work beckons them home. 

Hello Hoi An

We arrived in Hoi An yesterday and were welcomed by a tropical deluge, which was to be repeated many times throughout the rest of the day. Not to be defeated, we walked into the beautiful old town a couple of times to visit the markets, the river and the myriad of shops selling all sorts of touristy rubbish you buy thinking it would be great but never actually use once you get home. To make things worse, nothing comes with a price tag, so you are quoted an exorbitant price and are expected to haggle. To be honest, the whole tourist shopping experience leaves us cold, no different to being  back home. Moreover, it is anything but the real deal when it comes to experiencing what makes the Vietnamese people unique.

The river is a real focal point in Hoi An, with lots of tourists taking short boat trips.

Hoi An is spectacular by night, with its famous street lanterns.

Hoi An really comes alive at night, when colorful lanterns light the streets and illuminate the beautiful soft yellow colored walls of most of the buildings. It's also when the river comes alive with little boats which carry tourists to their chosen restaurant. The boats all carry lanterns which you can place on the water, creating the most amazing scene of floating candles.

The weather here is not great and not expected to improve greatly during our stay, so a visit to the beach doesn't  present itself as overly appealing. No problem, really, as it's lovely just walking through the streets. It is, after all, still the wet season, so we can hardly complain.

That's Alison in the foreground sniffing out her next bargain (she already bought 8 pairs of shoes, 9 dresses, three hats, 18 T-shirts........)

Hoi An is also a magnet for foodies, with literally hundreds of restaurants to choose from. It also has lots of street food but be careful, apparently 16,000 dong sounds pretty much like 60,000 dong)

Tomorrow, the four of us have enrolled in an advanced cooking class (Matt and I consider ourselves way too good to cook with the plebs), which includes a boat trip to the market to buy the ingredients and a couple of hours to cook up a four course authentic Vietnamese meal. I think we're all really looking forward to this.

How beautiful.

A very busy day in the delta

We've only just returned to our hotel from a very busy day, a 14-hour busy day to be exact. As I said in my previous post, we booked a tour to the Cu Chi tunnels and the Mekong River today. The weather was lovely, nice and sunny and quite warm. The day started with a 90-minute bus trip to the Cu Chi tunnels, an extensive labyrinth of underground tunnels used by the Viet Cong during the war. In all, there are some 250 km of tunnels, although our group of ten only managed 30 or 40 metres. Given that the tunnels are much too low to stand up in, even this distance was a tough assignment for those like me with a recurrent bad back.

This tunnel leads to the dining area, but there is a separate tunnel where cooking occurred. They also came up with an ingenious way of removing the smoke. 

A huge American transport plane left behind by the US Army.

The tour of the tunnels also showed us the booby traps used by the VC, which included sharpened bamboo spears, metal skewers, in fact, a myriad of devices intended more to scare the living daylight sout of the Americans rather than inflict large numbers of fatalities, although many GIs did meet their death in the jungle surrounding the tunnels. 

A demonstration of sharpened bamboo sticks used to impale unsuspecting GIs.

One thing which has left an indelible impression on me since we arrived, and reinforced perfectly through our trip to the tunnels, is the indisputable resourcefulness of the Vietnamese people. Their ingenious solutions to the problems of living underground without attracting the attention of the enemy, such as going to the toilet and cooking food, makes you realise these people were so determined to free their country they would have been prepared to continue fighting until there were no more soldiers left. Unfortunately from the American perspective, their appetite for fighting was never this great. 

After the tunnels, we headed off for a very nice local lunch in the Mekong Delta area and then arrived at the mighty river itself. The Mekong River begins in southern China and then flows through five other SE Asian countries before entering the South China Sea at Vietnam, a distance of over 4,500 kms. We enjoyed a short trip on a ferry boat to an island in the river where they keep bees, of all things, and then enjoyed some local musicians and singers, and a canoe trip down one of the canals flowing to the river. 

Fishing vessel on the Mekong

The Mekong as the sun sets

Fishing boats moored.

It was really good to leave the city for the day and take in the countryside, with its rice paddies and water buffalo; very Vietnam. Today was actually our last day in Saigon as we leave tomorrow for the historically significant city of Hoi An. We actually did grow to like Saigon, but it's probably time to move on. Great to see once, but we don't have any desire to return. Nevertheless, there is a sense of achievement in being able to say, "we survived Ho Chi Minh City"; indeed we did. 

Singing and music over a snack of tropical fruits.

Paddling along the canals.

Honorary Vietnamese for the day.

Uncle Ho has his own museum

Another really busy day of walking, and we've still got to find dinner somewhere tonight (I feel like I've been walking the Ho Chi Minh trail through Laos and Cambodia in one day). Today we visited the Ho Chi Minh Museum, the War Remnants Museum and the Reunification Palace, all of them on foot. Of the three, Alison and I probably liked the War Remnants Museum the best, but like is probably not the best word. I found it very hard going in places, particularly the old prison where the South Vietnamese regime tortured its Viet Cong political prisoners. For some reason, I found this just as emotional as the various holocaust museums we have visited in Europe, perhaps even more so. The information board detailing the dozen or so preferred torture techniques was just too hard to read. There were also three floors of photos from the war, almost exclusively from the side of the victors, depicting the unimaginable hardships and atrocities committed on both sides.

That's Matthew checking out the banh mi, which he devoured 

Some local school kids, also devouring their morning banh mi.

The museum also houses a large collection of US war machinery, the most advanced in the world at the time, captured by the Viet Cong and NVA armies. Included among the collection are tanks, fighter and bomber aircraft, and a huge Chinook helicopter. The US spent billions of dollars to fight this war, and most of the equipment supplied ended up as scrap metal for Vietnamese furnaces. It's very sobering to think that anybody you see on the streets of HCMC older than fifty years of age, and there are lots of them, lived through the actual liberation of the city in April 1975. I can only imagine the terror they must have felt as the shells rained down and the tanks rolled in.

Just one of the many US tanks on display. This one still had plenty of tread, and would be good for at least another couple of wars.

Chinook helicopter, the work horse of the US Army in Indochina.

We've become very good at navigating this city, particularly since Imogen and Matt joined us yesterday. Crossing roads is no longer an issue (well, maybe just a little) and even the noise and mayhem don't seem to worry us much. We've also been eating lots of local food, although Alison has laid down the law as regards street food; she's definitely not happy about eating it. That's not really a problem, as there are hundreds of 'restaurants' which still have authentic food at just slightly higher prices. So far, our stomachs seem to have stood up pretty well, but I guess there's always some element of risk when eating in countries with very different definitions of what constitutes hygiene.   

These are the tiger cages, which housed up to three prisoners. They are designed so that you cannot lie down, but must crouch for hours or days at a time. As bad as this sounds, it would be many times better than most of the other methods of torture.

Typical HCMC streetscape, taken from our breakfast cafe, the Cong Cafe. Yep, it's done up to resemble everything Viet Cong - how charming (not).

The rain held off for most of today, and yesterday for that matter, which means we've been able to walk everywhere (and it seems like we've done just that). The jury is still out for me on whether I love the place yet, but I am glad I've come. It's a very different experience for us Europhiles, but it's probably a good thing to take one out of one's comfort zone; HCMC has certainly done that in spades.

The Reunification Palace, which used to be called Independence Palace prior to 1975.

Tomorrow, we're all off to the Mekong delta for the day. We'll be visiting the 250 kms of underground tunnels dug by the Viet Cong during the war and a few other places of interest along the way. These tunnels, perhaps above all other things, display the resourcefulness, ingenuity and sheer determination of the NLF fighters to free their country from western aggressors (as they saw them, of course). 

Just before I sign off, I must relay the story of the scammer who managed to catch all of us, bar Imogen. Of course, Vietnamese scammers are notorious and would rival the best anywhere. The trick is NEVER to engage with them, which Alison did, NEVER take a photo when they say you can, which Alison did, and NEVER, EVER accept anything from them as a gift - there are no free gifts in Vietnam - which Alison did. The result, I paid 300,000 dong ($20 Australian) for three coconut juices nobody actually wanted. Oh well, it's all part of the experience; it is, isn't it? 

The trip is costing a lot more than we thought it would, so I've had to sell coconuts to the local scammers. Seriously, this photo cost me 200,000 dong (please, no jokes about big dongs).

What's good for me is good for Matt. I won't tell you where I wish this guy would stick his thumbs.