Day 1: Old Quarter, Hanoi

We reached the Noi Bai airport close to 9 am in the morning and from there shared a big taxi (which is a van, but they call it a bus. Of course they have real busses too) with a few more strangers to the guesthouses/hotels we had in mind. However, as expected, after the driver dropped everyone off, he picked up a man who then ‘briefed’ us about a better hotel. I did not like the idea because I had already read about taxis insisting that you go to their recommended hotel so they could get commission. My friend’s friend (now my friend as well :P) who was with us agreed. No!!! Wrong decision! Oh well. What can I say to a person who gives me an impression of a big boss?

The driver took us to Fortuan Hotel where we were greeted by a man named David who was already waiting at the entrance. How surprising.

“Welcome to my hotel!” he said. Up till today I still don’t know if he’s the owner or just a worker. He showed us the rooms and we thought we might as well take it for the night before we search for other lodgings. After bargaining he gave us a 3 person room for USD 18/room. I don’t remember the price for a double bed room.

Before he briefed us about the available tours, he asked about the languages in Malaysia.

“What languages do you speak in Malaysia?”

“Depends,” I said.

“Japan? You can’t cheat me. I have Malaysian guests. I’m in the tour business, you know.”

-_-“ I said depends. Not Japan!

He told us he could speak Mandarin and I asked if he could speak Malay (Boring? Believe me, I’m not randomly blogging. This has a purpose). He said no and subsequently asked how we say “you’re very beautiful” in Malay.

“Kamu sangat cantik,” I said.

“Kamu cantip?” (or something like that)

“No, cantik,” I corrected him.

“Oh. Kamu cantik,” he said to me.

Wth, did he just hit on me?!

He was very friendly and smiling all the way but we later realized, after we come back from all the tours, that he wasn’t the same anymore. He was only being friendly to get us buy his tours.

We had our lunch at a place David recommended (which is expensive!) and walked around town for the rest of the afternoon. I bought a map for USD1 (about RM 3.20) which was incredibly cheap. A map would cost about RM 25 in Malaysia. Here are some photos of Hanoi.

View of Hoan Kiem lake from where we had our lunch.

The restaurant where we had our lunch (ground floor).

A woman selling 'pho', a Vietnamese noodle, by the road side.

Hang Hanh street. I like this street. It's cool and relaxing.

Looks peaceful? Wait till you see the traffic.

There are better videos in YouTube of Hanoi traffic. Mine doesn't show much. I wanted to take better ones but I ran out of space and the computer in the hotel doesn't even have a USB port.

Honking is like their national language and many of the traffic lights serve no purpose; even when they do, they last for a very short time, you have to run for your lives before it turns green again. Many small roads don’t have traffic lights anyway. The same goes for the road dividing lines. They drive on the right side of the road, but unlike the time when I was in Philippines, I couldn’t get that in my head because practically, they neither drive on the right nor on the left side. If they wanna make a turn, they just make a turn. Same thing goes for pedestrians. If you wanna cross the road, just cross. They’ll dodge you somehow. That’s how highly skilled they are.

We had our dinner at Hang Hanh street (I’ve practically memorized all the road names) where we had this cute (literally) waiter serving us.

This is him figuring out which drink is which one by one with his cuteness :P

And this is him again.

He stepped on my left toe, by the way. Thanks to him and my carelessness, kicking against concrete, my left toe was swollen for 4 days and I now have a new clot. Yay.

We later went to watch the water puppets.

Here’s where I satisfy everyone’s curiosity. What are the water puppets?? Joyfulchicken randomly said they were puppets made of water, which was not logical, but would most definitely make him a millionaire if he could come out with one (then again, a puppet made of ice, which is also water, would not, imho). Water puppets are just puppets on water. A stage is prepared where the puppets are being handled from behind the stage on water. How do I say this? Just look at the photos.

This is the stage. Bet you didn't think this is how we sit. I was surprised when I went in and saw seats like in the cinema.

Sorry for the blur picture. Will try to get better ones from friends if there's any.

And here you have the people behind the scenes.

Different stories are told throughout the show which was…how long? 30-60 minutes? Can’t quite recall. I’m not going to spoil it for those intending to see it in the future, but just a little tip, go for the cheaper ticket. It doesn’t make much difference unless you get the seats on the first row. So I say, go for the 20000 VD tickets. You have to pay an extra 5000 VD if you wanna take pictures and 10000 VD (if I’m not mistaken) if you wanna take a video but it’s really up to you coz they don’t check.

Just to end day 1, I’m showing you what some Malaysians would cringe at.

Seriously, it’s in the internet, if you can read Vietnamese. Perhaps custom made condoms, anyone?