June 10 - Hanoi

So, we made it to Vietnam and to the Hanoi with only minor troubles. We took a cab from the airport and asked to be dropped off at a specific intersection in the Old Quarter. Unfortunately, the cabby dropped us off in front of a hotel that was not actually in the Old Quarter, but was probably paying him some money to dupe tourists. The place was called Star Hotel, named to sound like the Stars Hotel which is a legit hotel in the guide books. We were shaken, but it turns out we were only a few blocks from the Old Quarter. We found an honest hotel but we have to get used to the Vietnamese hospitality. Its no Aloha spirit, thats for sure. They are friendly, but VERY pushy. We are such friendly, smiley people, but we are learning to say "NO" without smiling or they won't leave you alone. We spent the rest of the afternoon on June 8 exploring the Old Quarter and had an exquisite meal at a little vegetarian restaurant.
Yesterday we began the day with breakfast of a bowl of a sweet, clear, thick soup with little sweet dumplings. No idea what any of it was, but it was really delicious. A word about the restaurants here: There are some conventional style restaurants, where you go into a building, and the food that the restaurant serves is listed on a menu and you can pick what you want to eat and then they will make it for you. These are not the norm, however. Most of the places here consist of a little woman squatting with an array of meats, vegetables, noodles, snails (you name it, they will put it in your soup), a basket of noodles and a cauldron of broth. You pull up a little stool and gesticulate that you dont want any meat, and you have yourself a tasty bowl of pho (soup with noodles). In Bangkok the restaurants were similar, but it was men standing in front of a big frying pan ready to make you pad thai, in the same fashion. It seems as if this is how people eat all of their meals- in these little sidewalk restaurants. Each one only has a few stools, but there is almost one in between every shop, so there is always some place to eat.

Breakfast was followed by a cyclo ride to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Complex. The cyclo is Hanoi's version of a tuk tuk, but these have a bench seat in the front, and a tiny Vietnamese man pedaling in the back, instead of being powered by a motor like the tuk tuk.

One thing about the Vietnamese is they are very small. The "seats" in the sidewalk restaurants are only about 8 inches off the ground, the doorknob for our hotel room is just above our knees, and a lot of the awnings in the markets are barely 6 feet high. The food is divine, but proportionate to the Vietnamese people- we don't know what my dad (Mitch) would do here.

The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum was absolutely surreal. The Mausoleum itself was closed and we couldn't acutaly view "Uncle Ho's" body, but we toured the grounds of his palace, saw the stilted house that he actually lived in, and in true MTV Cribs fashion, we checked out Ho's garage. We went into the museum that was dedicated to him and it was very clear that it was Ho's way or the highway. The communist art that filled the museum was cool, but never really seemed to make sense.

We then made our way over to the Temple of Literature, a thousand year old Confucianist university, used right up through the 20th century. For a period of 330 years, between 15th and 18th centuries, the students would have a series of tests throughout their schooling, and those that made it all the way through the 116 examinations had a stella erected in their honor, with a statue of a turtle at the base of it. In total, there are only 82 of these turtles, and Ari thought that the MCATs were hard. Today, people rub the heads of the turtles and then place their hands on the stellae and it is supposed to bring them intelligence. The gardens and courtyards of the Temple were beautiful.

We had lunch at a real restaurant (with air conditioning!!!!) called KOTO, Know One Teach One, a non-profit dedicated to taking kids off the streets and giving them job training in a restaurant setting. The kids learn and practice their English while waiting on the tourist clintele. The wheels in Jillian's head were turning, perhaps ice cream really will save the world...

Feeling rejunevated, we wandered over to the Fine Arts Museum, where we saw an array of traditional and modern Vietnamese artwork. There were ancient aritfacts, statues of Buddhas, beautiful etched lacquer paintings, and some more contemporary paintings. The art was really nice, but again, the air conditioning was a blessing. Then it was a cyclo ride back to the Old Quarter, where we "shmyed" for the rest of the afternoon. (This is the Marcus family term for shopping aimlessly).

Last night we treated ourselves to a water puppet show. This is the traidional theater form of the northern Vietnamese farmers. When the rice paddies would flood, they would set up their stage in waist deep water. The puppeteers stand bedind a curtain that comes down into the water, and weild their puppets in front of the curtain, on long sticks. The puppets are carved and painted wood and dance with the music of the band. There is some narration too, but it was all Vietnamese to us. After the show, we treated ourselves to 12 cent beers in a pub comprised of 12 small plastic stools and a keg on the street corner. We shyed away from the mystery meat wrapped in banana leaves that the locals were enjoying. It sort of looked like a pork fruit roll-up.

Today we will find bus tickets to take us through the rest of Vietnam and spend some more time around the Old Quarter, exploring the alley-like streets and markets. Sorry there are still no pictures, the computers in Hanoi are a little archaic and don't want to be friends with our camera.

Lots of love,
Jillian and Ari