Hanoi

We took an 18 hour sleeper bus from Hoi An to Hanoi. The journey was a particularly cramped one, but we were all nice and cosy, particularly Nathan, who had so little room he was forced to spoon with a Swedish passenger.

The city itself, with it's busy streets and numerous motorbikes, is extremely reminiscent of Ho Chi Minh City but on a smaller scale. Other than the size of everything, the principal difference we found was in the quality of the chicken noodle soup available on the street. Back in Ho Chi Minh we were spoiled by huge flavoursome portions with refreshing vegetables and tender spiced chicken. Up here in Hanoi you get a bland dribble of thin soup only made less interesting with a sprinkling of chewy noodles. Once all the inedible parts of chicken (thick rubbery skin, bones and gigantic pieces of gristle) have been removed, you are left with a vegetarian dish.

One thing that has impressed us all over Vietnam is the skill and innovativeness of the motorcycle driver to carry any necessary load.
 

In Hanoi we met our friends Sam and Gary from England, who were about to embark on an ambitious 2,000km motorcycle trip from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh city. They're documenting their journey on www.getjealous.com/samham if you're interested. The two of them had already stayed in Hanoi for a few days, so they took us to their local Beer joint; a cramped, extremely busy cafe with children's plastic furniture overflowing into the crossroads and blocking the path of many disgruntled taxi drivers. In an ineffectual effort to combat the traffic problem, the police would drive past at more or less hourly intervals and glare menacingly at the cafe owners. Everyone was then encouraged to stand up for a few seconds until the police convoy passed, after which all would return to normal.

The crossroad area was always completely full of people drinking beer, and apparently it owes some of it's popularity to an elderly resident living in one of the rooms overhead. During the war, she sat at her window with a machine gun and managed to single handedly bring down an American bomber returning from a mission, killing all 10 crew members. These days she's a local legend, yet the window she once used as a makeshift pillbox is now home to a washing line draped in baby's clothes and undergarments. It certainly looks a lot less threatening that way.

The following day while walking around the lake in the city centre, we accidentally stumbled upon a huge coordinated effort to capture a sacred turtle from the water. Literally thousands of people were gathered around the banks, completely encircling the lake and clambering on benches and trees to get a better view. The struggle went on for hours, and since we had no idea what was going on, we left after a couple hours of straining our necks. We heard afterwards that the mission had been a success, and the team triumphantly pulled in a 200kg 6 foot long turtle an hour later. The turtle is a member of a critically endangered species, and had been caught so that they could give her medical treatment. It is believed she is one of four such turtles left alive in the world.

Upon arrival in Hanoi, we were warned by some Australians that there's a vendor of extremely strong cocktails nearby, and we should take it easy there if we hoped to see any of Hanoi the following day. We didn't heed it as a warning exactly, really more of a recommendation, and sure enough that night we were sinking bucketfuls of fiercely strong liquid. As predicted the next day we found it difficult to make it out of the comfy hostel, much less to visit Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum or the infamous Hanoi Hilton prison.

We've promised ourselves to visit these sights tomorrow to make up for it. One thing's for sure, I'm never drinking vodka that is decanted from a 5 litre plastic container again... Well, I'll see how i feel tomorrow evening.