Days 14-20: Hanoi and Halong Bay (Vietnam)

Feb 12-18

I spent five days in Hanoi staying at Laura's comfortable apartment, and then we took a two-day trip to Halong Bay. Here's a shot of Laura's apartment, with her big windows overlooking the lake:


Laura has lived in Hanoi for over six months working on U.S. government public health programs on AIDS. It was great to be in the care of a person who knows the city, the customs, and the language, and I also had time on my own to explore while she was at work. But my first few days I spent relaxing in her apartment, unwinding from my busy time in Taiwan, and then going out with Laura for dinners. Our first evening, we had an exciting ride on Laura's motorbike to a restaurant where you left your shoes at the entrance and sat on the floor next to tables that were barely off the ground. The food was spicier and more vegetable-oriented than in Taiwan, but that might have been just because of the particular food we ordered. I particularly enjoyed the "banana salad" which had no banana flavor (we think it had some banana leaves in it), but instead had shredded vegetables in a light, spicy sauce.


I think one reason why I didn't venture out too much during my first days in Hanoi is that I was afraid of what was out there: a bustling, fast-paced, polluted city where the traffic was aggressive, street vendors and motorbike taxis were constantly asking you to use their services, and always with a soundtrack of car / motorbike horns honking. I couldn't wear my contact lenses because the smog in the air made my eyes uncomfortable within a few hours, and the sun didn't come out the entire time I was there. On the plus side, people usually spoke enough English to get by, and many restaurants had English menus, not including the myriad hole in the wall restaurants with squat plastic tables and chairs that the Vietnamese frequented.


On my third night, we ate dinner from the restaurant immediately next door to Laura's apartment where she is a frequent customer. It is a family-run operation, where they converted their ground floor into a restaurant and live in the upper floors of the building -- common throughout the city. They knew Laura by name and greeted her when we came and went from the apartment. In Vietnamese, Laura ordered a few things from the menu, and then pointed next door, implying we would like to "take-out". A few minutes later, back at the apartment, a woman from the restaurant appeared with our food, removed her shoes at the door, and placed the food, on real plates, on Laura's dining room table. We brought the food upstairs to the living room, ate watching "Superbad", and then returned the plates next door and paid.


That third evening, Laura gave me a lesson on riding her small-engine motorbike. I had never ridden one, but it was pretty straightforward: left foot shifts gears (with no clutch to engage), right foot has one brake, right hand has other brake (squeeze) and accelerates (twist), and left hand does nothing but sound the horn, an important role. There was little traffic since it was late, so I took the bike for a five-minute ride around Laura's lake. It was challenging, somewhat dangerous, and a thrill, similar to the bicycle ride JC and I had around Bogotá. In the background of this photo, you can see Laura's apartment (white) and the restaurant next door:


My fourth day, I was determined to get out and see some of the city. I had my first bargaining interactions with a motorbike taxi, a skill that I've found takes guts and practice. Here's a failed interaction I had which turned out to be an attempted scam:

I am leaped upon by a motorbike taxi driver (MBTD) outside a very touristy site. Mistake #1: vendors outside tourist sites are much better (harder) bargainers.

MBTD: (making engine-revving motions with his hands) "Moto-bike? Moto-bike? Where you go?"

Me: I show him the address of a travel agency I want to go to, across town. Mistake #2: I didn't think ahead of time how much he ride should cost, and was not the first to establish a possible price.

MBTD: "Ah, 35 thousand." [In retrospect, the ride should have cost five or ten thousand.]

Me: (attempting to bargain) "No, 20."

MBTD: "No no no (smiling and laughing that I would request so low a price). 35."

I shrugged and shook my head, turned, and started to walk away. This was the only good bargaining move I pulled during the interaction.

MBTD: (coming after me) "Wait wait wait, OK, 30."

Me: "OK"

He then led me to his friend (MBTD #2), handed me over, and said a few words to him. I thought this was because it was MBTD #2´s turn for a fare, but MBTD #1 was doing the negotiating, maybe because his English was better. After a particularly fast and fun ride through the city to my destination, I got off the motorbike and gave the guy 30,000 Bat. The guy showed surprise and consternation on his face at the amount of money I had given him. He said that the other guy had told him 35. We had a few back-and-forths arguing the point, and then I gave him the 30 and walked away as he yelled "FUCK YOU" after me.

Now here's an example of a successful negotiation:

I emerge from a tourist site, wanting to get a ride somewhere. I turn down the five offers I get for a ride and proceed to walk a few blocks away. I then approach a motorbike taxi and show him the address I'm going to.

Me: "Five" (holding up five fingers). Five thousand is half the amount that I actually want to pay for the ride.

MBTD: (smiles uncomfortably) "No no no. Ten."

Me: "OK."

I rode motorbike taxis all over the city that morning, filled with honking, dodging, and impossible left turns through solid walls of traffic. When I took a car taxi to the airport on my last day, the driver spent almost the entire thirty minute ride trying to pass people, honking, flashing his lights, and putting on his left turn blinker. I wondered whether he thought he was giving me a better, more professional service by getting me to the airport a little faster. Whatever skills I had before at not getting upset by things I can not control have only been solidified by taking taxis around Hanoi. Here's some video of riding a motorbike taxi:


My last motorbike taxi of my fourth day in Hanoi was to Laura's office, where she showed me around and took me out for nearby street vendor lunch. While slurping noodles, I told her of my plans to go on to the Ethnology Museum. She half-jokingly said I could take her motorbike, but I was hoping she would offer. From then until I picked her up from her Vietnamese lesson at 6:30pm, I had a thrilling time riding her motorbike around the streets of Hanoi, getting lost, visiting sites, and doing errands like booking us on a two-day trip to Halong Bay and buying my flight to Laos.

From the interesting and fairly well-done Ethnology Museum:


My fifth and last full day in Hanoi, a Saturday, I got up early to take a motorbike taxi to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum complex to join the throngs (of mostly Vietnamese) in line to view Uncle Ho's embalmed corpse in a glass sarcophagus. There were tons of armed security, you had to check your bags, no food or cameras, no shorts or tank tops, and you had to remove your hat and be silent in Ho's room. The room was dimly lit and austere, the only ornamentation a huge hammer and sickle and a Vietnam flag painted high on the wall, looking down upon Ho's sarcophagus which was depressed a few feet below the viewing area and protected on its four corners by guards dressed in white uniforms wielding rifles with bayonets. This was my favorite tourist experience of Hanoi.


I then went on to the mediocre Ho Chi Minh museum, the best part of which was the outer communist architecture and statue of Uncle Ho inside. Ho Chi Minh seems to be loved by the Vietnamese (maybe more in the north where I was than in the south which was conquered by the North Vietnamese Army in 1975), as he led Vietnam out of French colonial control and also Japanese occupation during WWII. I confirmed with Laura that there are few signs in Vietnam that it has a single party Communist government, other than all the cool communist-looking Vietnam flags flown everywhere and the government-controlled media.


Later on Saturday, Laura and I rode her motorbike to the weekly Hanoi pickup ultimate game, played at the opulent International School. It was so great to get out and play. There was a fifty-fifty mix of Vietnamese and "expats", short for expatriates, meaning foreigners who live and maybe work there, as opposed to "tourists" who are just visiting. It was fun to hear the Vietnamese mixed with English yelled around the field during play. Overall, the play was just like a decent pickup game in the U.S. The main difference was the heavy smog, which made it harder to exert myself and made my lungs and chest hurt for a few hours after. Also similar to ultimate at home, a bunch of us went out for beer and food afterwards. And not just any beer -- "bia hoi," freshly brewed pilsner-style beer that you can find people drinking happily outside establishments for $.40 per glass.


My last two days, Laura and I had a trip to Halong Bay, an extremely touristy Unesco World Heritage Site, with thousands of craggy islands jutting up from the water and caves for exploring. Our trip consisted mostly of riding a tour boat through the maze of islands, stopping to explore a cave or go kayaking, and then dropping anchor for dinner and sleeping the night below deck in simple rooms. It was fairly cold and rainy at times, so we spent quite a bit of time inside the boat and talking with a friendly pair of Dutch guys and Australian girls. The morning of the second day was much clearer and not raining, which was a great contrast to the mysterious misty views from the previous day.



Dinner of classic Vietnamese beef "Pho" (pronounced "fuh") on my last evening in Hanoi: