The Indian Contractor visits Vietnam and China on a Shoestring

We reached Hanoi around 0530 in the morning. We got off the train and into the crowd that had accumulated below. There were atleast 5 people offering taxi rides. My friend was being badgered by this guy offering cheap rooms and a free ride to the hotel. He also offered to book tickets for us. I suspected a scam, but neither of us were in any position to negotiate or conduct an independant search for a hotel. So we told him we'd look at his rooms then decide. The hotel was well located in the old quarter of Hanoi and within walking distance of several places of interest including the hoan kiem lake. They offered us train tickets to Lao Cai(for Sapa) at $28 per person.

We told him we'd give it some thought. After breakfast we took a motorbike to the station to enquire the prices for tickets to Lao Cai. The going rate was $12 per person. So heres the lesson guys: Dont follow these guys who offer rooms for cheap. They make up for it by forcing you to take up their tours and offering to purchase tickets at double the stipuated price. We had to endure their pestering all morning while formulating our course through the city. But we did not hang around the hotel for more than a minute after that morning so we did not see much of the staff after that. When we returned it was dark and we were too pooped to engage in any conversation with the staff.

After buying our tickets for Lao Cai that morning we walked from the staiton towards the lake. About halfway the rains came and we had to seek shelter at a coffee joint called highland coffee(the vietnamese equivalent of Starbucks) and watched the rain fade away over an expensive cup of vietnamese coffee(it tasted great actually). We then headed to the lake turned out to be a bit smaller than expected.

However it was reasonably clean and had a nice park surrounding it. Take a look at the pics. After clicking a few pictures and purchasing a few postcards we left the lake and walked north of the lake and into the streets that sold a wide array of goods ranging from clothes to watches. there was a healthy crowd of foreigners and locals who walked around aimlessly like us. We stopped by to buy a few t shirts and then decided to go for lunch at one of the restaurants nearby. after a bowl of pho that was not so nice as the ones in Saigon and Danang,we decided to split ways and meet later at a movie cafe. I did not have a phone and neither of us had seen the cafe before so it was upto us to track down the place before 5 pm. I headed south of the lake and walked along the trang tien steet that had a lot of art and photo exhibitions. The works of one photographer had me transfixed at the gallery! I forgot his name, but his black and white prints were just outstanding! Huge prints made in tradtional black and white technique that showed faces of people and activities unique to vietnam. Had I not been a student who was underfunded I wouldhave bought atleast half of his prints. Fantastic stuff. I walked further to the city opera house which was a colonial building that had been restored to its former glory. The wide open street enabled me to get some nice shots of the building and the passers by.

I then walked to the hanoi tower, after reading that there was a huge prison museum behind it(the Hoa Loa Prison complex). I was shocked that I had missed it earlier in the morning when I walked past it! Only part of the original prison compound had been preserved while the rest was torn down to make room for the Hanoi tower. But it was still a substantial portion and enough of it has been conserved to give one an idea of how it might have looked back in its time. The Hoa Loa was built by the French to house Vietnamese prisoners. After the french were removed from Vietnam, it served as a POW camp for USAF pilots who aptly called it the "Hanoi Hilton". The museum has some dioramas of prison life and the most conspicuous item is a huge guillotine with its blade raised up high as if waiting for someone to take up position for beheading.

The photographs make no concessions to the colonial masters and the graphic display of the french atrocities leave nothing to the imagination. Photos of beheaded vietnamese and torture devices fill the walls and display cases.

The American period however shows a completely different picture. It shows pictures of Americans enjoying life indoors with shaving kits and sports facilities. I wonder if thats why it was called the hanoi hilton. I guess only the American war veterans can vouch for the accuracy of those pictures.

The time was about 3pm already so I decided to track down the rendezvous point with my buddy. It was along the same street as the hanoi tower (hai ba trung). Since it was called cinematheque, I expected a huge building complete with booking offices etc. How wrong I was. I walked up and down the street unable to locate the plot number. I went into a shopping centre thinking the cinema was only accesible from the inside of the building. Upon enquiry I was directed to various parts of the shopping centre. Until I found a vietnamese girl who took me outside the shopping center and showed me the place. I thanked her and it dawned on me that all the people inside the shopping center were actually asking me to go out of the shopping center and walk two blocks down. The movie cafe was located at the inside of a nondescript gate with a small room that broadcasted movies. It was nice and cozy place. And my friend had reached ahead of me. It was called cinema theque because it had a small room where international movies were played. There was nothing playing that day so we decided to go for dinner. We took a motorbike to a small eatery near our hotel. The ride itself sprained my butt as the driver was a fat man which meant I had to spread my legs wider than normal so I could keep place them on the footrest. With my buddy behind me I knew what a patty in a burger feels like.

Second warning: Check the dimensions of your motorbike driver before going threesome on a small motorbike.

After fried rice, noodles and a noodle soup I felt satisfied and returned to the hotel. After hitting the shower I knocked off. We woke up late the next day and completed the check out formalities. All of a sudden we were charged a 10% "tax" which I suspect is the taxi fare from the station to the hotel. So once again guys, be careful of touts.