Well. we have been in Hanoi for 3 days now, this is the morning of our 4th day. Things have been good so far, although we haven't done a ton of stuff. Our first day and 1/2 we spent just trying to figure out travel plans. One of the big things we had to organize was our trip to Halong Bay. There are hundreds of tour agencies around Hanoi that offer trips to Halong. Each trip sounds almost exactly the same, it's so hard to know which tour to go on. And the problem is that if you end up with the wrong agency you can get completely scammed. For a 3 day/2 night Halong Bay cruise, you can expect to pay anywhere between about $30 and $200. Yeah, big range. That is for different class levels (budget, midrange and luxury) as well as for different tour operators. After a good solid day of research, we ended up going with a company that seems reliable and paid $100 for a midrange tour. So we'll see how it turns out! We've also been booking other things, like train tickets to Sapa in the very north and plane tickets to Laos. It all takes forever, but at least we have it all done now.
The only real touring we have done so far was yesterday. We took a day trip to the Purfume Pagoda, about 2 hours south of Hanoi. We took a bus down to a little river hopped on a little metal row boat with the 5 other people in our group. A very strong, very little old lady proceeded to row us down the river for about an hour, not stopping once! I was really pretty impressed. I don't think a lot of big strong men could even do that...
Anyway, the view along the river was incredible. We were surrounded by bell shaped lush, green mountains on all sides. (And did I mention how green everything is here? All the farm land and the mountains are the most beautiful vibrant shade of green. It's amazing.) As we rowed down the river, we were followed by dozens of boats (mostly filled with locals) all going to the same place as us. Finally, we got to the docking station, where hundreds of other boats were already waiting. We were told that the pagoda would be crowded at this time of year (after the Lunar New Year thousands of buddhists come to the pagoda), but I don't think anything could have really prepared us for what we were about to see. The little walking streets were PACKED with people. And all of the streets were lined with restaurants and little shops, trying to sell anything and everything. All of that was okay, but what was really annoying about it was that almost every shop was either blarring music or a tv or had someone yelling over a microphone. It wasn't quite the peaceful buddhist retreat I imagined.
So we sat down at a restaurant to eat some lunch. All of the restaurants have various kinds of animals hanging in front of their store, ready to chop off a piece of meat to serve to you. They don't use refridgerators, so all of the meat just sits out. For someone who already doesn't eat red meat and pork, it made me not want to eat any meat at all. So I had a delicious lunch of rice, cooked cabbage and a little bit of tofu.
After that, we opted to take the new cable car up to the top, where we were greeted with a crowd of people even bigger than we had seen at the base. We made our way through to the cave at the top. You could tell it was once a beautiful cave with amazing stalagtites and such, but now most have been broken off and everything is covered in hand grease, so it no longer grows. There were a couple little shrines in the large cave, but it really wasn't too impressive or worth visiting overall.
We hiked back down the mountain (about 40 minutes down, all on stairs and surrounded by the shops with the loudspeakers) and at the bottom found the nice little pagoda. There were very few people around the temples and it was actually possible to find some peace and quite. The only nice part.
After all of that, we went back the way we came, with the same little old lady rowing us all the way back up the river.
So for today, we are going to wander a little more around the Old Quarter of Hanoi. The weather here is really cool, around the 60s, and it's always completely overcast. And it's actually been raining a little bit this morning (did I tell you this is the dry season?). We wanted to eat like the locals do here, but so far we've just been eating in the touristy restaurants that are just filled with other Westerners. There aren't really any local restaurants, just little street corners set up to sell food. We would try to eat there, but there are a few problems: 1) We're afraid of getting sick from unrefriderated meat, 2) They don't serve things that I eat and 3) They are just as expensive as the tourist restaurants (for foreigners at least, I doubt the locals pay that much). So the tourist restaurants it is. Oh and my favorite thing here so far is Bia Hoi: beer corner. Locals set up a keg and a few little plastic chairs and you can hang out and grab a beer for 3,000 dong, which is equal to about 15 cents. Good deal!
The only real touring we have done so far was yesterday. We took a day trip to the Purfume Pagoda, about 2 hours south of Hanoi. We took a bus down to a little river hopped on a little metal row boat with the 5 other people in our group. A very strong, very little old lady proceeded to row us down the river for about an hour, not stopping once! I was really pretty impressed. I don't think a lot of big strong men could even do that...
Anyway, the view along the river was incredible. We were surrounded by bell shaped lush, green mountains on all sides. (And did I mention how green everything is here? All the farm land and the mountains are the most beautiful vibrant shade of green. It's amazing.) As we rowed down the river, we were followed by dozens of boats (mostly filled with locals) all going to the same place as us. Finally, we got to the docking station, where hundreds of other boats were already waiting. We were told that the pagoda would be crowded at this time of year (after the Lunar New Year thousands of buddhists come to the pagoda), but I don't think anything could have really prepared us for what we were about to see. The little walking streets were PACKED with people. And all of the streets were lined with restaurants and little shops, trying to sell anything and everything. All of that was okay, but what was really annoying about it was that almost every shop was either blarring music or a tv or had someone yelling over a microphone. It wasn't quite the peaceful buddhist retreat I imagined.
So we sat down at a restaurant to eat some lunch. All of the restaurants have various kinds of animals hanging in front of their store, ready to chop off a piece of meat to serve to you. They don't use refridgerators, so all of the meat just sits out. For someone who already doesn't eat red meat and pork, it made me not want to eat any meat at all. So I had a delicious lunch of rice, cooked cabbage and a little bit of tofu.
After that, we opted to take the new cable car up to the top, where we were greeted with a crowd of people even bigger than we had seen at the base. We made our way through to the cave at the top. You could tell it was once a beautiful cave with amazing stalagtites and such, but now most have been broken off and everything is covered in hand grease, so it no longer grows. There were a couple little shrines in the large cave, but it really wasn't too impressive or worth visiting overall.
We hiked back down the mountain (about 40 minutes down, all on stairs and surrounded by the shops with the loudspeakers) and at the bottom found the nice little pagoda. There were very few people around the temples and it was actually possible to find some peace and quite. The only nice part.
After all of that, we went back the way we came, with the same little old lady rowing us all the way back up the river.
So for today, we are going to wander a little more around the Old Quarter of Hanoi. The weather here is really cool, around the 60s, and it's always completely overcast. And it's actually been raining a little bit this morning (did I tell you this is the dry season?). We wanted to eat like the locals do here, but so far we've just been eating in the touristy restaurants that are just filled with other Westerners. There aren't really any local restaurants, just little street corners set up to sell food. We would try to eat there, but there are a few problems: 1) We're afraid of getting sick from unrefriderated meat, 2) They don't serve things that I eat and 3) They are just as expensive as the tourist restaurants (for foreigners at least, I doubt the locals pay that much). So the tourist restaurants it is. Oh and my favorite thing here so far is Bia Hoi: beer corner. Locals set up a keg and a few little plastic chairs and you can hang out and grab a beer for 3,000 dong, which is equal to about 15 cents. Good deal!
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