Vietnam
The officials at the border let all 4 of us foreigners wait for a while, dealing with all the locals and Loa people first.
After few hours of driving, as we get to the more central Vietnam, I can see the huge differences between the countries. Laos with its 6 mil people, so much land, jungle and woods and except few town and villages pretty deserted.
Vietnam is right opposite, populations of 90 mil shows everywhere. More towns, people are just everywhere. Vietnamese drivers have way more aggressive way of driving, some attempts of passing sees almost suicidal.
I was rather excited about the lush green rice fields along the road .
We made it to Vihn in the evening, and after sitting on the bus for 12 hours. I decided to stay for the night. After an hour of looking for a hotel that was listed under wrong address, I got an ugly room in a cheap hotel near bus station.
Vihn is a mid-size modern town, that doesn't seem much tourism. Once again was I able to feel like a real traveler, when ordering food from local street restaurant, with nobody speaking English and with kids following me around.
Hanoi
I took the train to Hanoi. I enjoyed the views.... rice fields.... rice fields.... rice fields... more rice fields...
Hanoi is a nice town, perfect for exploring by foot. The Old town is charming, but very busy. There are old french building and houses scattered around the town ( French Quarter) from the colonial times. There are street restaurants open in the evening with people sitting on the side of the streets, drinking local good and cheap beer ( $0.25). It gets little overwhelming to walk around with all the motorcycles zooming past. I found a room in the 4th floor of a old hotel, with the street and roofs view. Standing in my balcony people watching was my favorite thing to do.
I went to see the Ho Chi Min mausoleum, but had no intentions to go inside to actually see the body ( I am sure it looked nice and fresh.. if you know what I mean...).
So far ( 4 days ) Vietnamese people seems to be sometimes almost un- friendly, for sure trying to make money on tourists, overcharging a lot. It takes lot's of bargaining to get the price down and you have to be alert all the time. It just makes you sad when say you want to buy a pineapple on the street and the local lady asks for 150000, which is $7... would someone really pay that much?
Getting train ticket for the overnight train north to Sapa turned out to be yet another pain, since the tickets that are sold for $20 at the train station get bought by local tourist agents, who are selling them for $35-$40. I didn't feel like supporting that, so I bought seat in the morning train and spent the day on the train, reading book and looking out the window at all the green rice fields...
The officials at the border let all 4 of us foreigners wait for a while, dealing with all the locals and Loa people first.
After few hours of driving, as we get to the more central Vietnam, I can see the huge differences between the countries. Laos with its 6 mil people, so much land, jungle and woods and except few town and villages pretty deserted.
Vietnam is right opposite, populations of 90 mil shows everywhere. More towns, people are just everywhere. Vietnamese drivers have way more aggressive way of driving, some attempts of passing sees almost suicidal.
I was rather excited about the lush green rice fields along the road .
We made it to Vihn in the evening, and after sitting on the bus for 12 hours. I decided to stay for the night. After an hour of looking for a hotel that was listed under wrong address, I got an ugly room in a cheap hotel near bus station.
Vihn is a mid-size modern town, that doesn't seem much tourism. Once again was I able to feel like a real traveler, when ordering food from local street restaurant, with nobody speaking English and with kids following me around.
.JPG) |
| Karaoke is big in Vihn |
 |
| Fresh chicken from the market. |
Hanoi
I took the train to Hanoi. I enjoyed the views.... rice fields.... rice fields.... rice fields... more rice fields...
Hanoi is a nice town, perfect for exploring by foot. The Old town is charming, but very busy. There are old french building and houses scattered around the town ( French Quarter) from the colonial times. There are street restaurants open in the evening with people sitting on the side of the streets, drinking local good and cheap beer ( $0.25). It gets little overwhelming to walk around with all the motorcycles zooming past. I found a room in the 4th floor of a old hotel, with the street and roofs view. Standing in my balcony people watching was my favorite thing to do.
I went to see the Ho Chi Min mausoleum, but had no intentions to go inside to actually see the body ( I am sure it looked nice and fresh.. if you know what I mean...).
So far ( 4 days ) Vietnamese people seems to be sometimes almost un- friendly, for sure trying to make money on tourists, overcharging a lot. It takes lot's of bargaining to get the price down and you have to be alert all the time. It just makes you sad when say you want to buy a pineapple on the street and the local lady asks for 150000, which is $7... would someone really pay that much?
Getting train ticket for the overnight train north to Sapa turned out to be yet another pain, since the tickets that are sold for $20 at the train station get bought by local tourist agents, who are selling them for $35-$40. I didn't feel like supporting that, so I bought seat in the morning train and spent the day on the train, reading book and looking out the window at all the green rice fields...
 |
| Badminton time... |
 |
| Piano movers |
 |
| Ready, set, Green! |
 |
| Barber street |
 |
| Men watching their birds socialising... |
1 comment:
Great photos, wish i could take some like that! I'm in Hanoi for a while after Sapa so lemmie know if you wanna hang out. (tedfraser@live.com).
Post a Comment