I took a lot of notes along the way that I didn’t feel fit into any single post but I felt were somehow important to say. So, I will sum up some thoughts.
I picked a bad jumping off point for this trip, for me at least. I am a mid size city gal, and I dropped into the largest city in Vietnam. Honestly by the time I got around to booking my first flight, it was the cheapest to go to Hanoi. I knew it would be shocking. But knowledge does not always cross apply to intelligence.
I guess I like my first steps to be doozies.
First I want to give a shout out and add to my Shanangsters group. Patty, who flew from the states with me to Seoul. We connected at the end of the flight and offered to keep tabs on each other through the journeys. Especially on this side of the world where we were so far from home. I appreciate the connection, even if we just met.
To Austin, our tour guide for the Hmong village. Thank you for being so fluent in English, making sure I kept up with the group, and in general, because you could speak so well, helping me bridge the gap of cultures and build my comfort level.
Next to Linda, and I will include the others on the full day tour of Hanoi. You took me under your wing and made a difficult day pleasant. Special thanks for including me in the Water Puppet theater adventure.
And of course, the first and inspiration for the Shenangsters, Teresa. I will keep growing the club as the travels continue, and I hope others will find a community of their own to help them through.
But on with the comments…
Traffic noise is not unusual to me, but constant horns is entirely different than the occasional beep or police car driving by.
And it is constant. Not aggressive, or angry honking like we are accustomed to in the United States where a horn usually means ‘get out of my way asshole’ and is followed by a finger of some presentation.
These horns are polite, proclaiming ‘I am next to you.’ Or ‘I am behind you. Be aware.’ Very polite. And loud.
I think if they took a moment to obey any of the traffic laws, lights, lanes, roads in general, they would not need to tell everyone where they are all the time. But that is simply an observation.
Traffic laws appear to be non existent, yet they have specific traffic police (Pikachu) who are both avoided and resented by the locals. Which implies the Pikachu do something about traffic flow that scares the natives into avoiding them. Never saw evidence of that, but it is there nonetheless.
Apparently, on January 1, new traffic laws were instated, or at least more stringent laws announced. Those laws were to start being enforced at the end of Tet, which was my last day in Vietnam.
During Tet, all of the tour guides pointed out the Pikichu were on vacation, and after Tet, would be back in full force. The implied meaning everyone was ignoring traffic laws, such as not wearing helmets, but come Monday, the fine of riding without a helmet as a first offence, would be equivalent to $200 US dollars.
Consider a bottle of coke costs maybe 10 cents, and if you pay more than $5 US for a full meal, you are eating at the Ritz. So $200 is a huge thing.
I did notice a helmet difference on the way out of Hanoi. Many did wear helmets, or their version of them. I would call them skateboard helmets, not full crash protection, but they did put something hard on their head.
And they decorated it. Kids had plush animals over their helmets. Teens had helmets with holes in the back for pony tails. Many had ears sticking up to represent some animal like a dog or cat. I even noted a few Pikachu designs.
None appeared to be donned for the purpose of protection. Most appeared to be expressing individual style (understandable) or, perhaps a silent protest while complying to being contained by government imposed mandates. Perhaps both.
Bathrooms are different. Not really, but they are significant surprises if one from America is not prepared for them.
Not a lot of public restrooms are available. You don’t walk into Circle K and expect to have a public toilet, or not in my experience anyway. I have yet to need that experience, but I have not seen the signs for toilets other than in tourist rest stops or attractions.
Hotel rooms understand the needs of we Americans, so the bathrooms do not lack toilet paper, but you do need to hunt around a hotel room to find where they hid it from the foreigners.
Then remember to throw it in the bin, not the toilet. I should embrace the culture and try the spray wand, but I’m not ready to give a toilet that kind of personal commitment. We will see if I change my mind along the way.
I do know I will have it all worked out and my habits established right about the time I return to the United States. It will likely take me months to reverse the habit. Or until the dogs take interest in the bins. That should reverse it quickly.
While on the topic of bathrooms. Showers lack doors, and many lack walls to separate them from the rest of the bathroom at all. Easier to clean I suppose, but don’t expect a dry floor.
Speaking of dogs, They are everywhere in the country and regulars in the city. Random, self motivated dogs wandering around. Sometimes in packs, sometimes with people, often alone looking for scraps or just wondering what people are up to.
I am told they are all mutts, which does not surprise me, but for mutts, most look the same. Some kind of Thai Ridgeback,Shiba Inu, Basenji, lab mix. Variety in color; some in tail presentation; occasional droopy ears, but overall, there is a consistency that indicates repeated breeding of similar breeds.
It took a lot of self-control to leave them be and not run up to them and do the dog owner gushing thing. Got a healthy warning from the doc before I left that the random street doggos are usually the ones with fleas and rabies, so that helped curb my enthusiasm.
The dogs, wild or otherwise travel the streets to inspect the garbage. There is no need for them to hunt because everyone puts their garbage on the curb. Not in a weekly ‘take out the bin’ system as we have in America, but in a ‘drop it on the street and hope it goes away.’
Yes, it was explained that Tet gave the sanitation workers a holiday so there was more garbage visible than usual, but the amount was staggering. If they accumulate that much garbage in a week, in a rural area where they are ‘self sufficient’ I cannot imagine what a landfill would look like if someone actually collects the garbage, and puts it with purpose and intention, somewhere other than the street.
They also dump waste from cooking in the streets by the curb. They burn trash on the curb. They just do a lot of things with trash that I, as an American, am left scratching my head about.
I did see a woman pushing a cart picking up garbage when I returned to Hanoi. It was a hand push cart, not unlike the carts they push into the street to set up a booth in a night market, but instead of food, it was a large bin with a broom holder.
She appeared to materialize from a crevice in a building; moved up and down the street collecting trash as she went; then returned as quietly to the realm she appeared from without comment nor circumstance.
Bet they perfected dimensional travel and are storing their garbage in a time shifted reality. That makes sense.
When I first arrived in Hanoi and encountered the entire block of my hotel hidden behind graffiti covered, metal roll down doors, my first thoughts went to how dangerous this place must be. It took me a few days, and a few laps around town and the countryside to realize everything is behind a roll down door, because a majority of these businesses do not have a front door, nor a front wall.
It is not a ‘downtown shop front in Iowa’ mentality where there is a store front. There are no store fronts. Store fronts are essentially garage stalls that when opened, spread into the streets and utilize the entire area to the street to pedal their product. A door or store front would be counterproductive and difficult in this environment.
So, the roll up doors are just doors. They are not there to stop looting or an indicator of a high crime rate, although as I noted, most were covered in graffiti. Not street art, it was marking of territory graffiti.
The occasional places, such as my hotel in Hanoi which had a glass front and a swinging door behind the garage door, was usually reserved for hotels from what I could tell.
Of course, I do not live in a big city in America, so my moment of realization about the roll down doors probably has several laughing at me. But it was there, nonetheless.
I am privileged, I realize, so when I went to the Hmong villages and the children were so obsessed with touching the foreigners and staring at us, it was startling. When I was at the Bai Dinh temple, they wanted pictures with the foreigner, or ran up to say “Ha Lo!” or “Ha Lo Lady!” and then they would grin and wave at me.
I do not recall a time when someone from out of town appeared and I ran up to them to touch them and stare at them. Might have noted differences. Might have noted behaviors which might cause me to take pause and study what was going on, but I don’t think I have ever run up to a foreigner and then followed them around babbling and taking pictures.
It was not aggressive or hateful attention, but it was attention from out of the blue bestowed upon a person just walking down the street. I realize others experience this level of unwanted attention on a regular basis, but now I can say from first hand experience; yes. It is weird and disturbing. I am told I will get used to it.
I believe there are more temples, shrines, religious ‘pause’ sites in Hanoi alone than exist in the whole of the United States.
That is a feeling, not a fact. I do not have numbers so don’t go getting all up in facts on me. If you wish to do the research, please do, but for right now, I will state it is an overwhelming feeling that religion here is public, accessible, and expected. Without apology or noticed as unusual or conflicting.
Every business has a shrine of some kind inside the door or behind the counter. They all take up valuable selling space to honor whatever god they believe in, which is a rather significant statement given how much it costs to rent a stall in some of these places.
At the bigger temples, the vendors on the sidewalk are selling items to be used as offerings at the temples for those going in to pray. Even some of them have makeshift shrines at their tables. True, they are probably made up to sell their goods, but the ties to spirituality here are greater than ties to money, and that is a very American thing to notice.
The items sold outside the temples are a usual fare of incense, flowers, bags of food and such. In the larger temples, like outside of Den Ngoc Son (the temple on the lake I mentioned wandering around on the first day) or Tran Quac Pagoda (on the Hanoi day tour) they sell things like live birds and fish.
The idea I suppose is one takes the bird into the temple and releases it to the gods. I cannot imagine that would be a good idea for the fish, but they might survive if dropped into a random lake.
I have no idea where the vendors get all of these birds which appeared to be a kind of wren. I think it would be more efficient if they were homing pigeons who returned to the vendor after released to be resold, and perhaps they are homing wren pigeons of some variety, but the sight did pose the question to which I have no answer.
Speaking of vendors selling odd things, it was not surprising to find the variety of foods offered. Some of these markets are legend for having ‘bugs’ next to live fish, next to gardens full of vegetables. I know I will experience more of these vendors across SE Asia, and the variety will change, but the most surprising thing I witnessed was in the country areas around Ninh Binh.
I mentioned I did not try goat, and I still have not, but along the road several vendors proudly display full, naked, dead goats. Posed as if laying in the field.
That is at the beginning of the day. By the end, various body parts have been carved away and sold, leaving the same goat mangled but waiting for the afternoon shoppers to acquire their meat for dinner.
I am glad I did not try goat.
I also saw all kinds of fish, veggies, butchered animals, and prepared foods, but the goat being carved away, fresh from the carcass on the side of the road was unappetizing to me. Especially over the course of a day in the heat, and flies, and… just not my idea of sanitary. I suppose in that respect, I will maintain my American ways.
Overall, Vietnam was eye opening. I admit and emphasize my adapting to travel, being outside the United States and fatigue shaped my experience on this trip.
I also admit this is the first of several cultures I will move through, thus I do not have good bases of comparison outside of American thought and internet knowledge. I know since this was my first country, I will now compare all of the countries I encounter to Vietnam, which is neither fair nor relevant in the grand scheme of knowledge. But it is what it is.
Then there was the issue of Tet. I was internet informed that it would be busy because of the holiday, but since we really do not have a ‘universal’ week long holiday in the United States, I did not have a good reference.
Okay, spring break, but even that is staggered over several weeks. Could you imagine every school in the country going on spring break at the same time? There are not enough hotels in Florida to handle that kind of crowd. But that would be a similar crowd.
If I were coming here for some purpose defined by others, I would return. A conference, a book signing (Ha!), invite from the Prime Minister… not for leisure travel is the point.
I might tack on a day or two to explore some of the things I missed. I would like to go back to Ninh Binh and see what I did not see at the Bai Dinh Pagoda. I would like to get to the top of Mua mountain. I would even like to see more of the country such as Ha Long Bay and the area around Denang.
But I do not think, at this point, I would come back on my own to explore more of the country. This experience was not my favorite, and there are too many other places in the world to see.
