“So you want to be a millionaire...”

… Then you should visit Vietnam! We arrived at the Hanoi airport about 11PM on February 17th and immediately went to change some money. We changed 500 RMB – about $75 dollars Canadian. The total in Vietnamese dong was about 950,000! Wow! The exchange rate was 16,000 dong to $1US! That took us a while to get our heads around! We had lunch the next day and the bill sounded enormous – 40,000 dong! Some furious mental calculations and we realized that we had had lunch for two for $2.50 US! Actually despite the huge numbers quoted most things in Hanoi were very cheap – even cheaper than Beijing.

Our trip into town was memorable. As we exited the airport to look for a taxi – always a challenge in a new city – we saw a big sign “Taxi to city 150,000 dong or $10US”. Great, I thought; this is better organized than Beijing where some taxi drivers are always trying to rip you off. So we got into the line, but soon realized that although there were plenty of taxis none were picking up from the line, but trying to make private deals to take people to town for much more. As we settled into the line, we heard a familiar voice – it was Peter, a retired Aussie and his wife, who live in Beijing and had joined us on the Harbin trip. This was our trip for meeting people as we had already met several people we knew – students, teachers and Rebecca, our guide and passport saviour from the Harbin trip. Anyway, after waiting for a few more minutes, one of the taxis relented and agreed to take the 4 of us into town for $4 each - $1 more for him and $7 cheaper for each couple.

The ride into town was not uneventful, there were fireworks going off evertwhere and our taxi driver began acting strangely and slapping himself on the head! It turned out that because of the Chinese New Year celebrations, he had been driving for over 24 hours without a break and was very sleepy. He stopped the car and we gave him some water that he poured over his head. He walked around for a while and then returned to the car refreshed. We did our best to keep him awake, singing songs and telling jokes.

Our first impression of Hanoi was that the architecture was quite different – all the houses and shops had a very narrow frontage – perhaps 10 feet wide. Ground floor was often a shop or a garage with living quarters above connected by steep, narrow staircases. The houses were generally 3 to 5 stories with a covered deck on top. We found out that the narrow frontage was related to taxes as the taxes were based on the frontage. Now, Vietnam is undergoing an economic revival, but much of Hanoi is still very old going back to French colonial days. Of course, it was dusty and dirty as rainy season was due to start in a few weeks. Many things were closed that night due to the Chinese New Year and the roads were very narrow with lots of cracked pavement and ruined sidewalks. To cause further congestion Hanoi has a vibrant street economy, which uses up most of the sidewalk and even spills out into the streets. So we were not quite sure what we were getting into, but we arrived safely at our hotel, which was basic but adequate.

The next day we had breakfast and booked a junk tour on Halong Bay and a city tour. We discovered that many things were closed because of the holiday, so we decided to get a taxi to the Old Quarter to explore on our own. We were overwhelmed by the number of motorbikes – they were everywhere, in every colour, style, make, age and configuration. We saw motorbikes carrying slaughtered pigs, baskets of chickens, and lots of children. We had been told that the Vietnamese were known to carry 5 people on one motorbike and we keep watching for the mythical 5 on a bike. We actually saw it on our last day in Hanoi – mother, father, 2 kids and a babe in arms. We found the Old Quarter very busy, until we sat down in a café to have an iced coffee and began chatting with two Aussie tourists who said they couldn’t believe how quiet things were – everyone was gone because of the New Year’s holiday.

Generally, we found Hanoi a very pleasant city, somewhat down at the heels but in a kind of elegant, bohemian way. Vietnam is very much influenced by Chinese culture, but the people look a bit different – they tend to be slimmer and often almost willowy and elegant and very small. The city itself has several lakes and there are cafes and restaurants along the shore or on boats anchored in the water. The food was delicious and very inexpensive.

The next day we cruised Halong Bay in a junk – nice to do as the rock formations were beautiful; we stopped at a floating village and bought some refreshments. Our junk was often attacked by smaller craft piloted by bands of piratical children trying to sell us fruit. They would sail close to our junk, jump on and scuttle along the gunwales trying to sell bananas, lichees and mangos. We had lunch on board the junk and afterwards toured a vast limestone cave. Then it was back to the bus and the 3-hour trek home; it was only about 100 kilometers but the traffic and poor roads slowed us down.

The next day we were up early for a city tour, which included a lovely pagoda – Tran Quoc – by a lake, where we watched Vietnamese pray and cram good luck money into various crannies in the shrine. Afterwards we went to see Uncle Ho – Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum is a must see stop on the tour. Security there was intimidating. We were screened twice and them scrutinized by a procession of guards as we meekly waited in line. People were pulled out of line to cover up – women had to cover their arms and legs – and to uncover – men had to remove their hats. People were pulled out and searched; we saw one fellow searched twice in the space of 50 feet. Once inside, we solemnly trooped past Ho who looks good for a man of 117! Apparently he flies to Moscow each fall for a tune-up with Lenin’s conservators. Afterwards we saw the Presidential Palace – a relic from the French colonial days and a smaller house where Ho lived in ascetic circumstances and an even smaller house on stilts by a lake where he spent his last days – it was a very simple house further away from the palace. I wonder if the move wasn’t motivated by the threat of American bombing. Anyway the grounds were very beautiful and so was the lake. We noticed people clapping hands at the side of the lake and found out that legend has it that Ho used to summon the fish for feeding by clapping his hands and apparently the fish will still come when summoned in this way.

Afterwards we saw the One Pillar Pagoda and had lunch in the old quarter. We ate with a Argentinean family – they had 3 young children which brought back memories of 20 years ago for us. We decided to skip the after lunch part of the tour – another pagoda - and set off on our own to tour the old quarter. We started with an hour-long pedicab tour, strolled around the lake, stopped for coffee (Vietnamese coffee is wonderful and strong) and then bought some art and souvenirs.

The next day our flight was at 4:55 so I went out in the morning to do some more photography in the old quarter while Brenda enjoyed a leisurely morning. I used the opportunity to travel on the back of a motorbike. It is a very cheap and quick way to get around and there are people waiting on most corners to give you a lift. We enjoyed our stay in Vietnam and Hanoi is a city we would definitely like to visit again; it is crowded and old, but somehow charming and the people seem very accommodating. Surprisingly, there doesn’t seem to be much lingering resentment against the French or the Americans. There were lots of French tourists about and the American dollar is readily accepted. I wonder what all that trouble was about back in the 60’s??