Hanoi & Halong Bay

Hanoi

Visiting the North is very intriguing to me. You see, neither of my parents have been to Hanoi as I feel they both still harbour some resentment for what the North stands for.... loss of freedom and a communist regime. I guess if you were shot down 3 times by the Viet-Cong, you may likely find it hard to forgive and forget. For those of you who don't know, my father was a helicopter pilot in the South Vietnamese Army and flew as a gunship pilot behind enemy lines. So as you can probably understand, I received a very biased view of the North growing up.

However, I have had a handful of friends visit Vietnam recently before my trip here and I have heard some really great things about Hanoi. So my objective was to remain very open to Hanoi.

Hanoi is the second largest city in Vietnam with just over 4 million people; just half of the population of Saigon. The traffic in Hanoi didn't seem to be as crazy as in Saigon and there seemed to be a lot more cars in comparison to the sea of motorcycles in Saigon. Hanoi is also the capital of Vietnam. Before Hanoi was declared Vietnam's capital, Hue was the capital and the Emperors and Kings of Vietnam ruled from the Forbidden City (the Citadel).

Well, when we got there we visited a few museums and went to the Waterpuppet show. Fairly standard tourist things to do. However, there was one thing I found to be very interesting. Just about everyone we spoke to, at the museum, the shops in and around Hanoi and on the streets, they all seemed to be a little bit sad. I'm not sure if it was just me noticing this because I can understand what they are saying and talking about but it was just a feeling I got being in Hanoi. There also seemed to be a sense of "fear" if they were to disobey the government or tick off someone important in the government or military you'd get in some deep trouble. Most of the young folk we talked to told us that if you want to have some fun and get yourself a good paying job, go to Saigon. One fellow in a gift shop told us that his friend went to Saigon and he loves it there, and that one day he will save up enough money to go to Saigon too. Our tour guide also told us that business owners prefer to open shop in Saigon instead of Hanoi. He says that most of the city is shut down after 11 pm. If you are a restaurant owner or bar owner, you will surely make more money in the South.

I guess it was just interesting to see that some of the people in the North wanted to go to the South. When we first arrived in Saigon there was a very positive energy in the city and we even said that it didn't seem like we were in a communist country. Now being up North, you can really get a sense of communism. There was much more communist propaganda around and more military presence in Hanoi.

Overall, our experience in Hanoi wasn't that great. The sidewalks were hard to walk along because everyone and their dog parked their motorcycles on the sidewalks. There were also A LOT of cockroaches. There are cockroaches everywhere in Vietnam but we were fortunate that we didn't see too many. That was until we got to Hanoi. There were 3 very large roaches in our hotel room. It was disgusting! I don't like killing roaches.

And then after the gong show at the airport and no one really wanting to help us out it was a real difference that what we had experienced in Saigon. We had run into airline problems when we were flying from Saigon to Dalat. Vietnam Airlines would not issue Tricia boarding pass because the name on the ticket did not match her name exactly on her passport (Patricia instead of Tricia). Anyhow, people in the airport jumped in to help us out. Even used their own cell phones to call our tour company in Hanoi to let them know we were having problems. We tried to give the man who made phone calls on our behalf a tip and he wouldn't take it. He just wished us luck on the rest of our trip and he hoped that we enjoy Vietnam. What a contrast from the North. I hate to say it but my parents were right! There wasn't much to see in Hanoi.

Halong Bay

Halong Bay was spectacular and I would say that it was a highlight in our trip. Even though the area is far from being secluded, it was simply magical. We stay overnight on a boat, went swimming in the jade green waters of the bay and even enjoyed some kayaking into a cave and an into an enclosed area of the bay. It seemed like something out of the movies or survivor our something of the sort. I just couldn't get enough of the place and I wished I could stay in the bay for at least a few more days. It was breathtaking.