i didn't know exactly where i should go for my winter holidays, i ended up deciding on vietnam...for the third time...my flight to vietnam was christmas day, and this was one of the decorations in the seoul/incheon airport...korea is only 25% christian, but the country definitely gets into the secular aspects of the holiday...there are decorations everywhere...the airport was busy, but efficient, as always...the flight to hanoi was just under 5 hours, a smooth flight...since i was in the second row of the economy cabin, i was able to get off the plane rather quickly, even catching up to the first class businessmen before they got to immigration...immigration went quickly, and then i got to stand at the baggage carousel for ages and ages...baggage claim is the great equalizer in travel...everyone has to wait, it's just luck when you get your stuff...i waited almost 45 minutes!!
from the airport i took a minibus to hanoi (the airport is 35km outside hanoi) which took an hour...it was a reminder of the craziness of vietnamese traffic...traffic in vietnam never stops, and i rarely saw traffic lights...most people ride motorbikes, and there are a few cars...even at four way intersections, there still are rarely lights!...but i didn't see any accidents, so i guess it works for the vietnamese...as soon as i got off the minibus there was a tout who wanted me to get a room at his hotel...he had a brochure, and the photos looked decent enough...the price he quoted was also the amount i was okay with spending, and he said he'd take me there for free...all of it sounded okay to me, so i got on the back of his motorbike, and off we went...it didn't take long to get to the hotel, and the room was fine, so i checked in...
my next task was to book a couple tours...since i'm a guidebook freak i had spent time reading it on the plane, and had come up with a tentative itinerary...there are TONS of travel agencies and most of them offer the same tours, so i could've shopped around a bit more, but the numbers i was given at the first place were okay, so i went for it...for boxing day i booked a tour to the perfume pagoda, which is a day trip from hanoi...starting the day after that, i booked a tour to halong bay...having those booked, i started walking around town...i walked through a temple that seemed mostly deserted...i don't know which temple it was, whether it was mentioned anywhere or not...there seemed to be some construction going on, but there was still an room with stuff in it...(i don't know what that room is called?)
somewhere in the guidebook i'd also read that vietnam is known for water puppets...it sounded interesting, and there is a water puppet theatre in hanoi, so i wandered in that direction, intending to book something for later in the evening, or even the next evening...i got there at 1645, and it turned out there was a show at 1700...convenient...i had a "first class" ticket, though the seat wasnt really all that good...plus, there was a tall guy who's bald head seemed to end up in nearly all the photos i took...ugh...anywho, the show was 45mins, and i enjoyed it...i think everyone in the audience did...we were all trying to take photos, but almost none of mine turned out well...(which didn't surprise me, as it was indoors, and fairly dark)...oh well...
after the show i wandered around the old quarter for a while...it's an area with some french architecture, a LOT of street food, a lot of budget hotels, and shops of all sorts...these gates are on the lake, leading to a small temple...
good times...i ended up having pho for dinner, a typical vietnamese soup...i love sitting down at a street stall and having food appear in front of me...YUM...after wandering a bit more i found a bakery, complete with chocolate mousse...again, YUM...a few goodies came with me back to my hotel...
early the next morning (well, not that early, it was 0745) i was picked up for my tour to the perfume pagoda...a bit over an hour later, the minibus was finally on it's way out of hanoi...i was the first to be picked up, which meant i got a good seat, but it also meant i had to be patient while the minibus went around and around, picking up the other tourtakers...an hour later, we stopped for a potty break, or so it was called...the stop just happened to be at a place full of souvenirs and snacks, and there were three other minivans stopping there as well...as everyone piled out of the minivan (we were scrunched in pretty tight) ladies selling fruit came up and tried to get people to buy...rather aggressively, i might add...another hour later, we got to a river...a 10 minute break to do i don't know what, then we got into rowboats...
not rowboats like we have in the states, but vietnamese rowboats...shallow, thin, and long...six of us in each boat, as well as a lady rower...the ladies rowed us an hour up the river, rowing forwards, not backwards as we would've expected...it was interesting to watch...the boat ride along the river was pretty, and we saw people doing a lot of manual labor along the way...
after the boats pulled up at a dock, we got off, and walked about 100m to a lunch place...clearly, this place is primarily there to serve tourists coming to the pagoda...tofu, fish, cabbage, rice, chicken...it was a lot of food...from there we started walking up to the pagoda...there were a lot of steps...not surprisingly, it wasn't just one pagoda...on the way up i stopped at a couple pagodas/shrines on the way to the top...
fun times with photos, at least i tried to get a few good ones...at the top i saw our guide, who had ridden the cable car up...he made it seem as though i was running really late, though it didn't seem late to me...at the top, the biggest pagoda is inside a big cave...there were several shrines inside, and as far as i could see, that was the only place photos weren't supposed to be taken...
then i started going back down, which only took half the time...partly because i was concerned about time, partly because i was moving a lot faster, and partly because i wasn't stopping for any photos...the steps were regularly spaced, which was nice both on the way up, and on the way down...as i got back down to the bottom, i found the rest of the group, minus a few people who were still coming down...eventually everyone was together, so we returned to the boats...
according to our guide, by this point we were already over an hour later than normal...oops...we figured it was his fault as much as anyone else's...the stops the bus made weren't stops any of us would've chosen, and they added up to more than an hour...plus, the pickup in the morning took foreva and was terribly inefficient...anywho, we got in the boats, and headed back down the river...
the water didn't seem to be moving much, so i don't know whether we got back any faster...after we got off the boats the guide told us we should tip the ladies who rowed us, saying that they had worked hard...knowing that the vietnamese don't normally tip, and tipping is generally only prevalent among foreign tourists, this annoyed me...i hate required tips...i gave her some money, but she demanded more!!! (10x the amount!!)...um, no thank you...i was amazed that she was so up front about how much she wanted from each of us...she tried to hand back the money i gave her, insisting that i give her more...so i took the money, and started to put it back in my wallet, and close my wallet...she didn't like that either, and then accepted what i had originally given her...how rude...
the bus ride back into the city was definitely faster, yay!! i got off the bus before it got to my hotel, but that was just because i was motion sick, and needed "fresh" air...
i stopped at the same bakery as the night before, picking up some treats...yum...another night back in my hotel room, watching movies, etc...i love day trips:)
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