an epic journey from Geneva to Hue, Part III

The flight to Hanoi was less than 2 hours and I spent it re-reading the bits on Hanoi in my guidebook. A friend of a friend lives in Hanoi, so we'd arranged for me to spend the day with her before my flight to Hue yesterday afternoon. She'd recommended taking a minibus from the airport, which is 30km outside the city which came to 40000 Vietnamese Dong, 2 USD! A taxi would have cost around 5 times as much and would have been less exciting. I was the only white person crammed into a 12 seater minibus with all my luggage. It was a great introduction to Vietnamese traffic! Unlike in the EU, honking your horn is not either a sign of oncoming danger or an expression of annoyance but a constant part of everyday traffic. We passed thousands of motorbikes, often with piles of boxes, chicken cages and sometimes 2 or more passengers on the back. Often the drivers were even texting at the same time! I quickly witnessed the often spoken of travel sickness which apparently is very common here in Vietnam - one of the women 2 rows in front of me threw up, partly in a plastic bag, partly all over the floor, thankfully I was safely tucked into the back. The bus pulled over at the side of the road, kicked her out and left her to her own devices, leaving us with nothing but the smell. Thankfully I had toothpaste in my handluggage and could try distract my senses.

After a 45 minute ride we arrived at the Minibus station outside Vietnam Airlines' main office in Hanoi. While waiting for Bryony I met a scottish guy who had been teaching English in Ho Chi Minh City, he could clearly tell I was a bit overwhelmed and checked that none of the motortaxi - called Xe Oms (Xe means taxi/ride and Om means 'to hug') - had been hassling me. Bryony turned up on her own motorbike, so my hopes of slowly easing myself into Vietnamese transport were destroyed and I hopped on, clinging on for dear life. After resting for a bit at her place we got back on her bike and she showed me around Hanoi.

We visited the Temple of Literature, which functioned as Vietnam's oldest university. It's almost 1000 years old. Confucius taught here, and the complex contains many statues of him as well as a shrine devoted to his parents, I guess as a kind of 'thank you for having such an awesome son' gesture!



It also includes lots of turtle statues. The turtle is considered a bit of a holy animal in Vietnam. Legend has it that one of the Vietnamese kings, when Hanoi was under attack, was given a sacred sword by one of the Gods (Later on I'm sure I'll know which king, which attack, which year and which God, but for now this short version will have to do). After saving the kingdom, a turtle took the sword from the king and returned it to the God/Gods. Apparently the turtle still lives in the lake. It's partner turtle died a long time ago, but it's body was gilded and is on display in the temple on the lake's island. There was a newspiece in the Guardian on this turtle a while back, as every so often it comes out of the lake. It's considered good luck to catch a glimpse of this mystical creature. I was told that the viewings of the turtle most commonly happen after big holidays, so it could be a government PR trick to pop some turtles in the lake around these dates. From a more pragmatic point of view, the turtle species that lives here is under threat from extinction, so the government is trying to take the turtles out of the lake as the pollution is slowly killing it. Who knows, perhaps there are in fact no turtles left in the lake and the turtle viewings are staged. It certainly reminded me of Nessie!





We grabbed some ice cream at one of the ice cream parlours, we were the only Westerners there, which actually was a lovely introduction to authentic Vietnamese life. The only flavour left was 'rice', so we sucked on our green lolly pops and headed off again, to lots of laughter as the sight of two white girls navigating a motorbike out of a narrow courtyard is quite amusing. We then drove past the Ho Chi Minh Memorial and a giant statue of Lenin, staring majestically towards all the governmental buildings.




In the evening Bryony had to go to work, so I had a four hour nap, bliss! When she got back we went out for dinner. Having already experienced Vietnamese street food at lunch, where we had grilled pork with noodles in a soup sitting in someone's living room (there was a bunk bed above our heads and the TV was on, felt weird sitting amongst someone's ornaments and at some point a man came down from the bed, put his shoes on and wandered off), I was expecting similar for dinner. We went to an outdoor street food place this time, though, and sat amongst loads of locals on tiny plastic chairs. It reminded me of kindergarten and I had the strange feeling of being punished for something, sitting at a tiny table eating my dinner. At least I had company! The people at the table next to us ordered pidgeon, it was very hard not to stare!

After dinner we met some of Bryony's friends for Bia Hoi, which is basically bars at the side of the road, again the small stools. Playing it safe I ordered a Tiger beer rather than the 2 USD homebrew, I figured I should get my stomach used to the different foods and drinks before I start it on booze! Anyways, after the Bia Hoi closed (around midnight, the police goes around checking due to licensing laws) we went to two other pubs and on our way home at 1am I saw my first rat! In the morning we went for Pho, which is typical for breakfast. It's a beef and noodle soup and was very good, though it will take some getting used to as it is incredibly savoury.

Afterwards I got the minibus back to the airport, this time vomitfree and I even managed to have a nap! The flight was only an hour long, and again I slept through it. In Hue the volunteer coordinator from Hue Help and one of the volunteers who will be staying at the homestay with me picked me up. I stayed in a guesthouse last night, as my room at the homestay is vacated this morning. After a hot (this bodes well, hope the water at the homestay is hot, too!) shower I ventured out and tried to find somewhere for dinner. I don't feel up to ordering street food by myself yet, as I don't speak a word of Vietnamese, so I went to a restaurant and spent 5 USD, which is cheap for a restaurant but pricey compared to street food.

The stage one volunteers, those that started in January, had their last night here yesterday, so originally we were going to go out, but apparently they were all still fragile from the night before so I got an early night. This morning I woke up at 5.30am and stayed snuggled up in bed watching TV - they get amazing Asian channels which show all the latest US series including How I met your mother and Glee! I ventured out of my room around 9ish expecting to brave the street food stalls and order Pho. Turns out the hostel does food, so had bread and jam. The woman even went on her bike to get me a fresh baguette for breakfast!

Will soon head over to the homestay, which is in the same building as Hue Help's office, so will get to find out about everything there and will get to unpack! I'll try upload the few photos I've taken so far, too.