Trevor & Jonathans Cruise & Trip to the Far East and Australia 2016

Day 23 - Wednesday June 1st 2016 - Hanoi, Vietnam

Finally, we had a good night’s sleep and yes we really needed it after the really long but rewarding day yesterday. We just about made it down to breakfast at 09:45 before making our way out of the hotel and into the heat and humidity of the day.

The weather had actually changed, gone were most of the clouds so the humidity had fallen but the air temperature had actually raised so by 11:15 or so it was already scorching hot.

On our little walk round the square last night we had actually stumbled across a Starbucks coffee on a little side street (we were both amazed that we had missed the circular mermaid sign before this) so this was our first port of call of the morning, a familiar tasting coffee in familiar surroundings.

There was actually very little of a plan today but we knew knew that we

would be in and around Hanoi with really only three things on the agenda.

1. Visit the crashed B52 plane site

2. Buy a painting as a memento of our time here

3. See if we could find anyone selling a new gopro outer case.

Now this might all sound very boring for the reader but of course we would be continuing to search in and around the streets of Hanoi, up and down the chaos, weave in and out of the traffic and absorb as much as we could.

We walked up to the central lake area of the old French quarter and looked around two art galleries before we made a purchase at our third stop. So let’s put this into context. There are many art galleries in Hanoi and indeed in Asia based on our previous travel experience and this was not the first time that we had bought some art on our travels. In Hanoi there are many street galleries that have army’s of painters painting typical images of the country along with very contemporary pieces and abstract works. We had been looking for something that was essentially Vietnamese but was not obvious so settled on a 1.6 metre square painting of a Vietnamese woman’s face in golds and yellows and browns, its stunning! In the gallery that we bought it from you could actually watch three painters at work both from photographs or from their minds all with very different styles. The piece that we purchased had only just been finished as the paint was actually still wet so it will be a few days before they can roll it up and UPS it back to the UK for us. That’s the risk there, that they never actually send it once you have paid but we bought from a gallery that had five or six outlets so you can do no more than that. Let’s hope that it makes it back.

Leaving the painting behind we headed deep into the rabbit warren of streets and alleyways in the old part of Hanoi.

It’s not a smelly city Hanoi at all, yes you get the occasional whiff where someone has been caught short but surprisingly for all the chaos and traffic and people the city does not smell, not like Bangkok does or Mumbai. Hanoi’s character is defined by the roads, the chaos. There seems to be no rules. Scooter drivers take any available space, they drive the wrong way up roads into oncoming cars and squadron like formations of scooters flow in every direction. The constant noise of horns going off is everywhere and when the roads get too blocked the scooters just mount the pavement and drive along that too, pedestrians really have no place and no space at all.

The pavements are one big parking lot for the millions of scooters in the city so you have to walk in the road in with the traffic to try and make any headway and it can get quite tough sometimes especially in the humidity and the heat. No one has enough eyes and ears to keep on top of all of the movement going on around them, it can wear you down.

It was in these conditions that we walked about six miles in today. Both hot, sticky, drenched form the sweat of our bodies and the constant humidity levels. We must have stopped for drinks every hour or so, downing litres of water to try and stay hydrated and it was under these conditions that Trevor made it clear that he was in no rush to come back to a place like this, far to manic, far to humid.

As we were walking to the other side of the town away from the old French quarter to the B52 museum we did find some solace as we made a detour through Hanoi’s botanical garden. It was not a botanical garden in the traditional sense in that it was about foliage species etc. but it was a haven of peace and tranquillity, a rest from the toots of the scooters, pathways that you could actually walk on but most of all we found some peace in the city.

It was in this peace that we bought up the subject of our future life plan, our what, when, how question that has been going on for years and will probably never end being asked we we did make a decision, a way forward, a commitment to how we thought it would be played out (the next few years of our life). Its satisfying making these kind of decisions as they are so hard to make especially when you need to consider more than just yourself. We can move forward now, we’ve done what we said we would do, now we just need to make it an action.

Finally, with a little help from google maps we found ourselves at the museum of the B52 bomber, so called as its main relic is that of a shot down B52 itself. Bought down by the Vietnamese when fighting the Americans. To be honest that was the only reason that we were here. The only reason that Vietnam was even in our consciousness as because of that war. Having been brushed over in school history lessons it was (for me anyway) actually a record that made me aware of the war and then the subsequent films about it like Apocalypse Now and Platoon or Full Metal Jacket. That record was by an unknown artist called Paul Hardcastle and the song was called 19. I had the 12” single at boarding school and played it to death (wish I still had that now). It told the story of how the average age of an American soldier during this war that no one won was 19 years old and is terribly sad (as all war is). This 52 was the reality of that, how I became of Vietnam as a country and after yesterday’s beauty this was coming back down to earth.

We left the war machines behind and started the long walk back to the hotel. Stopping and starting along the way, more water, more stops and no luck on the gopro case front until we were nearly back at the hotel and we stumbled, unplanned one shop that had them in stock, unfortunately they were for a different model to mine so we left empty handed but at least we could say three chores completed along with a whole load of Hanoi gazing at the same time.

Back at the hotel Trev went for a swim in the hotel pool (apparently it’s my mind kind of pool, as hot as a bath) whilst I sat up in the room catching up on writing these blogs. They take quite a time you see, sometimes over an hour and its really easy to fall behind with it all.

Blog finished and with neither of us feeling that hungry but wanting to get out of the room and out of the hotel we crossed the square and headed to a pseudo German style beer bar just across the road. Communication was a bit of an issue in here, no one really spoke any English but we managed to order beer and some food. Nothing fancy tonight, not even Vietnamese food just something ridiculously cheap and cheerful chicken wings and chips, though we did not ask for the chips, they just arrived).

After our pretty tasteless meal we headed off into the town a little to get some money from the cashpoint, it’s quite discerning when you draw out six million but remember this is dong so that equates to roughly £184.

Back at the hotel we headed for the bar in reception for a swift G&T before returning to the room to do ironing and pack ready for the off tomorrow. It was gone eleven at night before we finished and the alarm had been set for 0600.

We leave Hanoi in the morning and head for Halong Bay and a small boat for two nights.

Hanoi has been mad, our day trip out of the city sensational. We won’t miss the roads or the chaos but the city is certainly not without its own charm, you just have to try to get across the road to get to it!