Days in Hanoi

I am sorry for the delay in the updates. There was no way for me to get to blogger through the great chinese firewall. I tried emailing through a post with a flickr slideshow but the code for the slideshow did not come out properly. I will have to look at different options or keep relatively quite for the next two weeks in Shanghai and Beijing. I have not edited my Guilin photos yet.

Anyway, things are never as you would expect them to be. In my mind, Hanoi is a quaint communist capital with aging french Inspired architecture. I thought of roads full of bicycles and perhaps a glimpse of a french woman looking like Catherine Deneuve wandering the streets. The good news is that Hanoi has not like some other asian cities, started on a massive redevelopment program, knocking down large swathes of old buildings to be replaced with characterless high rise blocks. At least not in the old quarter. The bad news is that the narrow streets of the old quarter is filled with motorcycles and cars going in every which direction and the sound of the car horn can be heard 24 hours a day. The shops are not austere with a smattering of goods way past their sell by date, but full to the brim of goods. The local goods aspire to the style and colour of western fashion but the Vietnamese products are not yet as polished as the Thai products. But between mountains of local t-shirts, jeans, food and souvenirs, are boutiques for Jean-Paul Gautier and Calvin Klein. You can fix your Canon, Nikon and Olympus cameras. And finding a bank ATM to dispense cash is as easy as and first world city. Communist country is not the first thing that springs to mind when walking these streets. But unlike Ho Chi Minh city, the old quarter, with its mix of small local shops, french cafes and Vietnamese temples, can still charm. I particularly enjoyed the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum as I said in my last post. The Hanoi cathedral is another place that was nice and calm in the midst of all the chaos. I had a couple of real nice meals of Vietnamese food at New Day restaurant which has both local and foreign customers. I also had lots of good coffee at La Place which is next to the Hanoi Church.

There are certain limitations to an overland trip like the one I am undertaking. I am not really staying in one place and getting under the skin of a place. I really wanted to visit Sapa, a hill village in the north of Vietnam, but with only five days in north Vietnam, traveling to Sapa and back would leave me one day to visit the place. I decided to leave Sapa for another trip, one where I can spend a week or more there, slowly wandering through the surrounding villages. And besides, Hanoi is definitely worth a revisit.

Instead, I did a couple of short day trips out of Hanoi. The first was to the perfume Pagoda complex. This is a complex of buddhist temples set in the hills about 60km south of Hanoi. The highlight of the trip is a cave right at the top of the complex, with religious shrines placed in a natural occurring cave. I was on a tour with eleven other people, and they all decided to take the cable car up to the cave. I decided to walk up to the cave, it took me an hour up and half and hour down. The whole tour group met at the bottom of the hill for lunch, and I was only 5 minutes slower than the rest of the group. After lunch we visited the main temple before heading back to Hanoi. I enjoyed the journey and the hike up the hill, but the sights were average. It reminded me of Medjugore, high up in the remote hills, worth visiting if only you are one of the faithful.

The second trip was to Hoa Lu, the old capital of some Vietnamese dynasties. They had reconstructed a couple of temples in honour of some of the old kings. These temples were built over the remains of the old castles. It was similar to the temples found in Hanoi. However, the surprise delight was an hours bicycle ride through the countryside to lunch. We got to see real farmlands amidst beautiful limestone hills. I think that this was the best experience I had outside Hanoi. After lunch we took a boat ride to see the limestone formations in Tam Coc. This was not bad but the boat people trying to sell souvenirs and hassling for tips soured the experience a bit.

Overall, I enjoyed my Hanoi experience very much. I guess we all have to pan for gold in the soil of the land, and there definitely was some.