. . . A Little Like the Wild West

Whoah! If ever there was a place to start feeling some culture shock, it is in Hanoi! I have to admit, as cool and chic and fabulously different as it is, the difference and lack of ease hit me (Skye) rather hard, at first. For the first day or so, I felt very far from home and far away from friends and family -- I even ended up getting a bit sad/down the fist night and there were a few tears (my female friends/family members can relate, I'm sure) -- a first for this trip. Now that a few days have passed, I am finding my feet and really starting to enjoy Hanoi. Ronato and the kids, for the most part, have embraced this amazing change of place and pace from the very beginning -- Ronato is truly in his element, stopping at every opportunity to soak up the essence of this place and to take amazing picture after amazing picture. Pippin and Kai have been amazingly patient with our extended wanderings and weavings, and seem to have both acquired the same love for antiques that Ronato has, stopping in as many old trinket shops as possible, each of them intently pouring over the old jade and wood carvings and furniture, both wondering what they can afford to buy.

To get around Hanoi, it feels like you have to be constantly on your toes here, especially with children in tow. You have to be checking in all directions all of the time for traffic when attempting to cross the street, and then you just have to steel yourself and wade through all the scooters, motorcycles, cars, bicycles, and cyclos, constantly stopping and starting -- basically, taking baby pigeon steps all the way across the street with all these scooters and other sorts of vehicles just weaving around you -- all the while, holding on tightly to either Kai or Pippin's hand, hoping we get across without any major injuries. Then when you get across safely and you think you have a moment to take a breath, you are then accosted by people trying to hang a pole with baskets full of fruit on either side (like the picture on our most recent blog entry) on your shoulders, telling you to take a picture, and then insisting you buy some fruit "very cheap." Or you are accosted by any number of people pushing (selling) hats, lighters, wallets, hammocks (this was the thing today -- at least 20 different people approached us on a short walk -- no joke, all basically selling the same thing!) Or, a shoe shine fellow will come up and say, "Ooh la la, you shoes are very dirty . . . want a nice shine? Very cheap!" When you say, "No thank you," he keeps walking along with you, really trying to tell you that your shoes look awful and really need a shine (not really what I want to hear, especially when I'm already feeling a little less than fashionable in my travel khakis, windbreaker, runners) -- the reality is that they are indeed dirty, but how do you give running shoes a "shoe shine?" That said, there is a lot of humour in all of this, all it takes are lots of smiles and hand waves indicating "no, thanks" and off we go to continue on our wandering walks.

Today we managed to have a really good stroll around the old quarter and we saw quite a few neat things -- from old temples (one was the first one in Hanoi), to different guild neighborhoods, to markets. On our walk we saw some great sights:

As I think we've mentioned before, Hanoi is this interesting mix of the modern and the chic and the old world -- where one minute you see women dressed to the nines, wearing 4 inch heels and candy-apple red helmets riding along on their scooters, and the next minute you see a scene as you see above here. Women from older generations also dress up, but in a much more traditional sense.

This is one of the markets we walked through today where everything from water spinach (they call it morning glory, but it is different to ours) to noodles, to fresh raw meat, to frogs, to carp, to rice noodles in large pillow-sized bundles are sold. The kids weren't too sure about the frogs being sold . . .

Beautiful old doors and carved wooden panels abound here -- oh, to be able to cart some of this home!

Yesterday and today we have also been trying to arrange our exit out of Hanoi. We were trying to first head up to Sapa -- a mountainous region (sometimes called the Tonkinese Alps and just near the border with China) where the Hmong people live -- it is supposed to be very beautiful, and a chance to see people out doing their thing in a more traditional way. Ronato waded out deeper into the city and into even busier streets to get to the train station. He came back saying, "Whoah, it is like the wild west out there!" AND he came back empty handed because it turns out that all of the sleeper seats are booked for days and days -- it takes 10 hours to travel just over 300km, so it is really the only option that makes any sense for getting there, hard wooden seats all night is NOT an option! So we have had to rejig our plans a little -- now we are heading south first, to a place called Hoi An, which is in the Da Nang province somewhere around 900km away. Hoi An is the tailor/clothes capital of Viet Nam apparently, but it is also a very beautiful old city (it is a World Heritage Site) with lots to see and do in the area.


Before we came here, we were told how easy it is to travel around Viet Nam, we are finding it a little more work than we anticipated, but hey . . . that is part of the travel experience, isn't it?! There are at least 2 travel/tour agents per block here so it should be easy, right? The reality is that prices and modes of transport vary widely from agent to agent -- everyone is trying to get their cut -- and so, we thought we would do a little research ourselves first before checking out an agent about heading to Hoi An. I spent several hours on the internet searching out cheap flight options, chatting to our hotel operator about train costs, how long it would take to get there if we took the train/bus, etc., and then once we had some ballpark figures, we walked into the first agent we saw. In the end they couldn't match the price I finally found on the internet (a site we got thanks to our new friends Martin and Caroline's blog -- thanks guys!), so back to the computer we went so we could go through the rigamorole of trying to get a flight booked online -- after another hour on the computer, we had our flight confirmation number, yay! We are now ready to fly to Da Nang city early Wednesday morning! As it turns out, our return plane tickets are only a few dollars more than the train which takes many, many hours longer. Pippin was a little disappointed about yet another plane journey; she really wants to go on a train (almost the only form of transport we haven't tried yet,) but we have told her it will happen -- I guess we keep setting her up for it, and then it doesn't happen! We will still do the train to Sapa, but later on -- in fact, as I write this, Ronato is again wading through crazy traffic to get to the train station in another attempt at booking the sleeper tickets to Sapa!

I'll leave you with this lovely picture of Kai and one of his favourite Bonsaii's he's seen so far. Bonsaii's abound here, often with a water garden of sorts surrounding the roots, along with some colourful Koi fish -- sooo beautiful!

Until next time . . . .

Skye, Ronato, Kai & Pippin