Hanoi
Tue Jul 31, 01:55 AM
So I went to the “famous” Vietnamese Water Puppet Theatre last night. It was well done and had some pretty cool scenes. They also played traditional instruments. One instrument that was highlighted was the single string zither. Young girls used to be banned from hearing the single string zither because the music was so beautiful that the girl would instantly fall in love with the boy playing it.
I then met up with a “mate” that I met on the plane from Hue. He is an interesting guy from London that provides great conversation over a few “Bia Hoi.” This is the local beer that is very very cheap! It is usually served in recycled one liter pop bottles. These bottles are usually beaten up and old, but the beer is so cheap, the sketchy hygiene is overlooked. It usually goes for 6000-10,000 Dong/litre ($1US=16,000 VSD) It turned into a late night as we solved all the world’s problems and traded travel stories.
This morning I went to the US embassy (instead of the water park) to get more pages in my passport, then walked around one of the “shoe markets” This is a pretty funny place. There are Nik Air Jordans, Chico sandals, Canverse All-Starz and many other top name shoes. When it started raining, I went to the Museum of Ethnology. This focuses on some the tribes of Vietnam, but the best exhibit was one that portrayed life in Hanoi from 1975-1986. This is called the Bao Cap period. The government subsidized almost everything and food, clothing, fans, bikes, radios, medicine all had to be bought with coupons provided by the govt. The museum really showed that the people lived in poverty and had very few personal belongings. Often the highlight of the week was getting a plate of rice that wasn’t moldy. When I walk through the steets of Vietnam today, I am amazed at how capitalistic that communism really is. At a local level, I wouldn’t be able to tell this is a communist country.
I have signed my life away to a tour for the rest of my trip in Vietnam. I was inquiring about a plane ticket to BKK and ended up with two day tour of Sapa (a French hill station in the NW mountains) and a two day tour of Halong Bay. There is not a minute that is wasted between this evening and when I fly to BKK on the night of August 5th. I take the night train to Sapa this evening and am trekking (hiking) to a hill tribe village first thing tomorrow morning.
