24 April 2008 - Culture Shock
We were whisked from the airport to the hotel by the hotel car (I made arrangements to be picked up. There are known scams in Hanoi involving black-market taxis and 'fake' hotels). Public transport is pretty much non-existant and I didn't want to risk taking an unknown taxi. We stayed in Elegance 3 (there is an Elegance 1 and 2, but they were fully booked). Elegance 3 was just slightly outside the more touristy (and busier) parts of the old quarter (see here for history of the old quarter).
The first thing we noticed when we checked into the room was the fancy shower. That thing is like something out of the Jetsons. There's a button for sauna, another for jacuzzi, another for UV light (to kill germs), another for a exhaust fan, another for phone, radio, tv-audio and even alarm clock. It was amazing.
Strangely, the futuristic shower was tempered with a sink and toilet that looked like it was blinged out of the faux 18th century. Extremely strange interior design.
The room was much better. There wasn't any of the ostentatious fittings and there was even a PC terminal with free internet access. Given the strange architecture of Vietnamese buildings (due to some weird property tax, buildings were taxed according to the width on the streetfront. So the innovative Vietnamese built their buildings narrow, but deep), our room was actually quite spacious, just that it was long and narrow.
Bikes as far as the eye can see. The weather was lovely this time of year. It was liking walking in an air-conditioning. Wonderfully cool. The only problem is the air. The air was horribly polluted (Vietnam is only just starting to test vehicle emissions) and the constant cacophony of vehicle horns is grating on the ears. Noise and Air pollution.
The lady is carrying baguettes in that gunny sack.
The narrow architecture of buildings in Hanoi... Hung Long indeed.
Hanoi has its own version of the 'monkey tree'.
Taking "Green House" too literally.
This was the main 'center' of the old quarter, where the streets meet with the Hoan Kiem Lake.
Hoan Kiem Lake. I'm not going into the Autheresque fairy tale of golden swords and giant turtles. Wiki here.
Next to the lake is a lovely parked filled with strangely phallic and mildly sexual sculptures (esp if you have a dirty mind).
That's the guy who blew up a tank with his bosomy girlfriend (who may or may not have chopped off french/american genitalia with that sword) and his best-pal-boy-wonder Robin.
I purposely blurred out this photo because this was the 'pedestrian' crossing where a little old lady helped us cross. Vehicles do NOT stop at zebra-crossings (or Red lights for that matter). The only way you can cross a road is to 'just do it'. Walk steadily across the street and the bikes and cars will swerve around you like the red sea. If you stop, you die. Just keep walking smoothly.
This was the traffic that kept coming. We really did need the little old lady to help us across.
Cops. Nuff said.
Chick was walking to and fro across the busy street selling balloons. Too good a shot to miss.
Our first taste of Vietnamese food. Streetstyle. You sit on a little stool that's barely taller than your ankles. A guy comes around to take your order (basically how many portions), and the head-chef prepares the meal. This was a cool cucumber salad with plum sauce, fish sauce, mint and a strange mixture of dried meat (I could not tell if it were pork, beef, dog or rat... and I didn't want to ask). It was superb. The cucumbers were sliced wafer thin and the sauces and mint made a lovely mixture. We wanted to go back and get more, but sadly, we missed our window.
Vietnamese water puppet show. I was told that this was good (It really wasn't) so we went to take the look. It was different from Sesame Street (but there was a big bird in the act).
Post-show dinner was pho. We literally stopped at the first coffeeshop outside the theatre and did the ol' "V" sign for 2 portions. The pho was very good. Much better than anything I've had here.
Streetside Style. Lady was dishing out her own secret pho recipe. Didn't try it though. Just wanted the shot.
Streetside Style Seafood. We saw this amazing 'booth' selling live seafood. Too full from dinner, I really wanted to come back and try it, and we did (see day 4).
Streetside Style Shopping. This is how the ladies of Hanoi shop. From the backs of their motorbikes.
Fashion Dung. Don't ask. I didn't go in. Have no idea what they sell.
Streetside Style Baguettes. A legacy of the French. Fresh baguettes with a twist. They stuff it with coriander, fish sauce, pate and fried shallots.
Streetside Style Chicken Noodles. Another streetside food stall. This time selling chicken noodles.
Streetside Style Fruits. Pick up some freshly skinned waterchestnuts or pineapples. Picked in the morning, skinned in the afternoon, and eaten by evening.
Streetside Style Parking. Nah, I kid. This was an art gallery turned parking lot.
Streetside Style Gourmet. I love the 50f1.8 lens I got for my camera. Its uber fast, uber sharp, and cheap as hell. All shots above taken with available light and no flash.
The first thing we noticed when we checked into the room was the fancy shower. That thing is like something out of the Jetsons. There's a button for sauna, another for jacuzzi, another for UV light (to kill germs), another for a exhaust fan, another for phone, radio, tv-audio and even alarm clock. It was amazing.
Strangely, the futuristic shower was tempered with a sink and toilet that looked like it was blinged out of the faux 18th century. Extremely strange interior design.
The room was much better. There wasn't any of the ostentatious fittings and there was even a PC terminal with free internet access. Given the strange architecture of Vietnamese buildings (due to some weird property tax, buildings were taxed according to the width on the streetfront. So the innovative Vietnamese built their buildings narrow, but deep), our room was actually quite spacious, just that it was long and narrow.
Bikes as far as the eye can see. The weather was lovely this time of year. It was liking walking in an air-conditioning. Wonderfully cool. The only problem is the air. The air was horribly polluted (Vietnam is only just starting to test vehicle emissions) and the constant cacophony of vehicle horns is grating on the ears. Noise and Air pollution.
The lady is carrying baguettes in that gunny sack.
The narrow architecture of buildings in Hanoi... Hung Long indeed.
Hanoi has its own version of the 'monkey tree'.
Taking "Green House" too literally.
This was the main 'center' of the old quarter, where the streets meet with the Hoan Kiem Lake.
Hoan Kiem Lake. I'm not going into the Autheresque fairy tale of golden swords and giant turtles. Wiki here.
Next to the lake is a lovely parked filled with strangely phallic and mildly sexual sculptures (esp if you have a dirty mind).
That's the guy who blew up a tank with his bosomy girlfriend (who may or may not have chopped off french/american genitalia with that sword) and his best-pal-boy-wonder Robin.
I purposely blurred out this photo because this was the 'pedestrian' crossing where a little old lady helped us cross. Vehicles do NOT stop at zebra-crossings (or Red lights for that matter). The only way you can cross a road is to 'just do it'. Walk steadily across the street and the bikes and cars will swerve around you like the red sea. If you stop, you die. Just keep walking smoothly.
This was the traffic that kept coming. We really did need the little old lady to help us across.
Cops. Nuff said.
Chick was walking to and fro across the busy street selling balloons. Too good a shot to miss.
Our first taste of Vietnamese food. Streetstyle. You sit on a little stool that's barely taller than your ankles. A guy comes around to take your order (basically how many portions), and the head-chef prepares the meal. This was a cool cucumber salad with plum sauce, fish sauce, mint and a strange mixture of dried meat (I could not tell if it were pork, beef, dog or rat... and I didn't want to ask). It was superb. The cucumbers were sliced wafer thin and the sauces and mint made a lovely mixture. We wanted to go back and get more, but sadly, we missed our window.
Vietnamese water puppet show. I was told that this was good (It really wasn't) so we went to take the look. It was different from Sesame Street (but there was a big bird in the act).
Post-show dinner was pho. We literally stopped at the first coffeeshop outside the theatre and did the ol' "V" sign for 2 portions. The pho was very good. Much better than anything I've had here.
Streetside Style. Lady was dishing out her own secret pho recipe. Didn't try it though. Just wanted the shot.
Streetside Style Seafood. We saw this amazing 'booth' selling live seafood. Too full from dinner, I really wanted to come back and try it, and we did (see day 4).
Streetside Style Shopping. This is how the ladies of Hanoi shop. From the backs of their motorbikes.
Fashion Dung. Don't ask. I didn't go in. Have no idea what they sell.
Streetside Style Baguettes. A legacy of the French. Fresh baguettes with a twist. They stuff it with coriander, fish sauce, pate and fried shallots.
Streetside Style Chicken Noodles. Another streetside food stall. This time selling chicken noodles.
Streetside Style Fruits. Pick up some freshly skinned waterchestnuts or pineapples. Picked in the morning, skinned in the afternoon, and eaten by evening.
Streetside Style Parking. Nah, I kid. This was an art gallery turned parking lot.
Streetside Style Gourmet. I love the 50f1.8 lens I got for my camera. Its uber fast, uber sharp, and cheap as hell. All shots above taken with available light and no flash.
25 April 2008 - The Tourist Route
Breakfast in the hotel. She went for the pho, but I wanted to be adventurous and picked the 'gravy with bread' (yes, that's what was on the menu). It turned out to be some kind of beef goulash with a fresh baguette. It was very, very good.
The place was swarming with school children when we got there. (I'm sure they learnt how a simple farmer can defeat the great imperialist american army)
Most of the American aircraft shot down over the duration of the war was shot down by Chicks.
Ah memories... I carried that kind of rifle and wore that kind of helmet for most of my NS days.
Another statue of Wonderman, his busty girlfriend/wife and eager-sidekick Robin.
Meals-on-Wheels. The guy who rode this bike through the jungles of Vietnam would put any poseur-MTB-riding wannabe-boy-racer to shame. I'd bet the guy wore slippers inside of clipless shoes too.
Ze French have left ze bilzing.
The one thing that I had always wanted to do when visiting Hanoi was to go see the War Museum. This was a chance for me to see the war from the other side. I've read so many books and watched so many movies from the American side of the war but the story of the other side was never told. It was always gooks and VC and charlie being the bad guy. I wanted to see how it was from the other side. My next goal is to visit Dien Bien Phu, Da Nang and the DMZ. Next trip.
Lenin
The Interpol office in Vietnam. Coincidentally, across the street from the SIN embassy.
KFC. If you can't win the war, send in the fastfood chains.
The Fine Arts Museum. Visiting that place was a mistake. Literally. We had wanted to go to the Temple of Literature, but accidentally ended up in here instead. (BTW, there is no tourist information counters at the airport, nor are there city maps. You have to buy the maps from street vendors, or get them from your hotel, if you're lucky)
There's so much chinese influence in Hanoi. Even the names of the streets sound very similar to cantonese.
Lunch was at a small little deli in Hapro (The vietnamese equivalent of NTUC). I loved the baguette filled with homemade mayo and beef. (I usually don't take bread at home, but I've kinda fallen in love with the Vietnamese baguette.)
I have no idea what the lady is carrying, but the guy was selling feather dusters. That was awesome. (BTW, they really do wear the pith helmet in Hanoi, and the ladies wear the cone-shaped hat called "non la". It's not a tourist thing)
Trying to be artistic.
Dog meat is supposedly popular in Vietnam. Our guide for the Halong Bay trip even said 'I love dogs. Especially to eat.' Forced laughter all around from the white folks.
The freshness of the fruits and produce was simply amazing. The stuff is literally picked on the same morning.
Fried Baby?? 25000dong is less than $2USD.
The best coffee I had in Hanoi. At this little cafe called Chuc Link along Hang Bac. I gulped down the first shot, and signalled for another.
The rice-paper spring roll. I dunno what they use to wrap the veges, but it was really thin but strong. Nothing like the springrolls there. That was the real stuff. Really delicious too. The insides tasted like the cucumber salad we had on the first night.
Bia Ha Noi. Supposedly brewed with the original recipe laid down by the czechs. It definitely tasted like the original czech budwiser. I loved it. Nothing like the american piss that tries to call itself bud.
Salt, Lime and Chilli. It seems to be the condiment of choice everywhere we went. Basically squeeze the lime into the salt and mix. The spiciness of the chilli takes away the saltiness.
Fried Rice, Hanoi Style. I don't know why it's yellow (it's not the camera's white balance), but it was pretty tasty. No, it was not pineapple fried rice (ala thai style).
Fried squid with onions. I'm starting to suspect they add tumeric to get that colour.
My fried beef noodles with assorted veges. Turned out the veges was coriander. BLEAH... but the fried noodles was nice. Crispy.
Do Dung.. Do Dung indeed.
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