A damp Thursday

This morning greeted us with a drizzle of rain.

Light, but enough to make the roads and footpaths as slick as oil coated teflon. 

I was kind of glad that it was a bit too miserable to go to any of the "must do" places.

It meant we could go and watch a movie or just some laying about or simple indoor pursuits.

Georgia and Emma went to meet a friend of Georgia, also called Emma, originally from South Africa but now in HCMC.

Emma (the SA one) was here to get some passport stuff attended to.

Tiz and I went to one of, if not THE, biggest cinema complexes in Hanoi to watch "Superman vs Batman". Yes, I too would have scoffed at the thought of paying money to see what may at first sound really trashy.  

There was a choice of 2D, 3D and 4DX + 3D  

"4DX allows a motion picture presentation to be augmented with environmental effects such as seat motion, wind, rain, fog, lights, and scents along with the standard video and audio. "

Sounds great, Yeah, but nah.

They have a couple of grief segments before the main feature that give you a sample of what the whole experience is like. 

It took about 20 seconds before I was thinking "When I throw up I'll need to projectile vomit so that I clear the seat in front of me and the smell won't be that bad to put up with." Yes, the jerking of the chair, which did not seem to have any correlation with what was on the screen, was enough to make anyone that is even remotely likely to be effected by motion sickness  puke.

Tiz suffering was enhanced by a recent hernia. Some folk get all the luck!

Thankfully there was not a lot of shaking goin' on during the feature.

On the positive side the 3D was very good and the story was not as bad as the reviewers would have you believe. 

Oh, another fun fact about Vietnamese cinemas - It's OK to talk on your phone and or have a conversation really loudly in a theatre. It's a cultural thing I guess.

Today I thought I would start taking a few pics of "not unusual things to see with two wheeled transport involved".  Below is only a tiny and not remarkable, for this place, sample.  

Yes, this guy is multi skilled, as all Hanoi scooter riders are.

He can ride a bike and talk on his phone or text based on what is needed at the time.

For some excitement we decided to cross a major and very very busy road as if we were fearless locals. Here is what it looks like. In reality it is much busier than it looks in the pics.

Crossing these roads is simple if you follow a few rules.

1. Do not step out in front of a bus or truck as they do not swerve or slow down very well, if at all.

2. Look into the oncoming traffic.

3. Keep a steady pace.

4. Wave your right arm up in the air as you cross so they can see you.   

This has worked for us so far and if I remember to look left instead of right will continue to do so.

It was made all the funnier when we realised we had crossed for nothing as we were actually on the correct side of the road to catch a cab to where we going, in the first place.

For dinner we went to a very local place. Our first real local feed since we arrived.

All this, three big plates of "stuff" and a beer for 17000VND (~AU$11) 

Post dinner happiness

And after dinner went for a short to a place that sell coconut ice cream.

It's not very creamy, which doesn't detract from it, and it has shredded coconut and caramel on it.

Delicious!   

Hump Day in Hanoi

Is "Hump Day" appropriate if you're not working? Probably not, but it sounded good as the post title.

So, here we are in Hanoi and if you exclude Halong Bay, which is as filthy as it is beautiful, and the Perfume Pagoda, which brings out the absolute worst in the locals, we've done most things already.

For those of you that have not been to Vietnam you need to know that this is a country of extremes and the Vietnamese say it like they see it.

I will explain why I preferred not to go to the Perfume Pagoda by quoting a recent traveler's post on her experience -

" ..... bad point was that when we arrived back and left the boat, the lady asked us for tips and our guide said it is expected of us to give 20.000 dongs each person. Some of the people in our group refused to give the lady the tip and she was very mad and turned to us asking for more than the money we had already given her."

I experienced much the same thing when I went to Ninh Bình, an equally beautiful place. 

You go up the (fill in the tour you have chosen here) river on a boat for which you have paid for as part of a tour and from the time you embark to the time you get back you are likely to get a sob story about a multitude of sick relatives that need expensive operations, constantly, or they will try and sell you poorly made crafts or soft drinks with 400% mark up or really shitty quality Polaroids. And to make it worse they are insistent and aggressive about it.

When Georgia called one out on this behaviour, on one of her recent trips, she got told "You have lots of money. You should pay."  

Our friend, a native Hanoian, Hien laughed when I told her of my experience in Ninh Bình and said "Oh, you think it is only Westerners that get that? No. Those people do it to everyone that goes there, including Vietnamese."

When it's all said and done. Thanks, but no thanks.

Back to Wednesday.

Georgia decided she was going to show Emma a bit of Hanoi with just the two of them.

They headed off in the afternoon to the Old Quarter and Tiz and I decided that we might walk down to the Ho Chi Minh Museum and spend the afternoon there.

I remembered it being somewhat Ho Chi Minh centric but quite large and with a lot to see.

This time is was reduced to about 35% of what I saw and all of it was very ..... ethereal.

Weird, would describe it better.

 

What an Ford Edsel has to do with anything in Vietnam and or its struggle against the oppressors is hard to understand.

Nonetheless, you get treat to a clay model in a corner with no explanation.

Nope. Made no sense to me

A tribute to Pink Floyds "Dark Side of the Moon"?

Tiz in front of what is an interesting installation.

Ciao ciao Uncle Ho

Yes, the museum has become 50% art gallery, 45% propaganda gallery and the rest was closed.

Cheerio for today boys and girls.

Lets hope tomorrow brings us fine weather and new and exciting things to do.

Grey Hanoi Tuesday, but Georgia's here

This clip captures Georgia's arrival late last night.

The bit that are of no interest have been deleted.

Georgia got in at around 10:30 and it's obvious that Vietnam certainly agrees with her as she looks great.

She had a feed of pumpkin and mushrooms that we had left over from dinner and then we chatted for a while. The sort of chat you don't have on Skype. We finally got to bed after midnight.

We woke up this morning at differing hours and worked out what we were all going to do for the day.

Emma decided to stay in and Georgia had "Hanoi" things to do which included picking up her rental bike for the week, collecting unpaid wages from employers and catching up with friends.

Tiz and I decided we would go to the Museum of Ethnology, which is only an easy 20 minute walk from the apartment.

Here are some pics we took whilst there.

The pics above show only a minute fraction of the displays.

The museum gives a great insight into the history of the many peoples and tribes that make up what we now call Việt Nam

Not only was it educational for those of us wanting to know about the history and cultural diversity of tViệt Nam it was also a goldmine of ideas for kitchen renos

       

Above is a very lavish idea for us to ponder

Something a bit simpler with a minimalist feel, perhaps 

Outdoor entertaining?  No problem. We've got that covered too.

Appliances? How's this for the latest rice husker?! How could you not buy this for the missus?

We spent a couple of hours there but could have, and should have, spent much more if we were not so tired.

On the way back to the apartment I thought I would take some pictures of what may be seen as odd implements given that they were at food stands.

Given that Lotteria, the Korean owned KFC/MacD type fast crappy food chain, are being sued by over 200 people for food poisoning the punters are better of eating on the sidewalk and having a pipe after the meal.

No, I don't know if the local are "pulling" weed through them but I doubt that it's much more than plain old "tobacky". Even though they seem to be at a lot, ~90%, of stalls I only saw one being used and I though it a bit insensitive (a euphemism for "Stupid") to take too much notice at what the guy was inhaling.  

For dinner we went to Highway 4 which is in the Old Quarter and has a great variety of foods.

Not only does it cater for Emma's vegan tastes but it also has a myriad of, shall we say "off-beat",  foods like scorpions, crickets, fermented pork and quite bit more.

The girls chose a variety of greens like lotus stalk, banana flower salad, morning glory morning glory (which is like a water spinach) and some chicken and tofu fried rice. 

I couldn't go past the chicken hearts and the smoked pork sausage. The place is not cheap, by Hanoi standards, but the food was great  

Here is what we walked past to get in the front door

Georgia tells us they smoke "horse tobacco" in them.

I am none the wiser if it is an opiate, a cannabis derivative or hair plucked from and equine beast.

Waiting for dinner. May as well have a pic taken.

Georgia, Tiz and Emma outside Highway 4