So I'd like to back up a tiny bit and comment on a couple of things from my previous blog. I was so tired when I typed it and Kathryn pointed out that it wasn't very good.
First, there was nothing else funny at the airport...I dunno why I put that ... sorry...
Next, I'd like to explain why we sat and had lemonade (called lemon juice here) at the hotel on arrival. It was because our room was not ready and the power was out. We did arrive fairly early so we weren't too surprised that our room wasn't ready. The power outage seems to be an almost daily occurrance so if I would have known that before arriving, maybe that wouldn't have been a surprise either. The power lines here look like maybe New York might have in the 50's. Lines are going everywhere and some are a little bit low so you have to be careful not to touch them. We were upgraded to a family room that could "sleep five or six people" and also given another regular room. I will start with the family room. It was only a family room in that it had about a 12X12 area that was empty. I mean it could have had a seating area or another couple of beds, but no, empty. The bathroom was a true wet room style bathroom. The shower was just poking out of the wall so when you showered everything got wet. Here, the toilet paper dispenser thingies are different too - they have a little rain roof so when you shower you don't get them too wet. We noticed that there was a decent amount of street noise in our room being just one storey up so we checked to see if the windows were open and noticed that the bathroom window was open, but it was not closeable ... All rooms came with a 1990's style computer with internet so that was nice.
While we're talking about what floors there were ... we were on the first floor as I mentioned, but there is only one staircase and each floor only has 1-2 rooms on it. All of the people going upstairs walked right past our room. Kathryn and the big kids stayed in room 403 which was a hike to get to. You would think that it would just be 4 flights of stairs, but no ... you kept going and going and it was straight up. Every other floor had a mattress on the landing for some reason so it was tricky going up. Their room also had a double bed and a twin bed in it, but no open area. Their bathroom was slightly better than ours as they had a proper shower in it. Granted, it was a three foot step up into the bathtub to take a shower, but it worked out.
General comments on life in Hanoi:
there are a trillion motorbikes everywhere
every one of them that is in motion is honking
honking is not rude or a sign that someone is mad, it simply means, hey, I'm here
you can carry ANYTHING on a motorbike - ex, a family of four, live chickens, live fish, a full harvest from your garden, a ladder
when we say motorbike, we really mean scooter
a motorbike can serve many purposes including a bed at times
motorbikes are welcome anywhere - they are often in stores and homes
proper motorbike attire for females is a helmet (required by law), a cloth mask over your mouth and nose, a jacket thingie with extendo arms to cover your hands too (tanning is ugly to them) and high heels
there are half a trillion tiny taxis in Hanoi
there are people EVERYWHERE at ALL TIMES of the day and night
stores are open almost all day and night - stores here isn't meant in a literal term. a store is an 8 foot wide opening in a building front that people live behind or above. There is not a door except a garage door to pull door and there is not air conditioning
you can eat on the street, off the street or in the street with handy tiny stools (maybe the size of a steppie for a small child) everywhere
you can wash your hair on the sidewalk with a pot
you can wash your dishes in a tub of water on the sidewalk
you can park your motorbike on the sidewalk
you can sell your bread laying on the sidewalk in a basket (which we did eat)
you can sell beer on the sidewalk
you cannot walk on the sidewalk (see above for activities on the sidewalk)so you must walk in the street with the sea of motorbikes
to cross the street - watch for cars then walk - the motorbikes will go around you
to cross the street (chuck's version) - just close your eyes and walk
You are only allowed two children - if you have a third you pay a fine and are demoted if you hold a government job
don't ever think that any flooring/street/sidewalk is level - you will fall
OK - so that's all I can think of for Hanoi life comments. I just feel like we can't describe it. It has been very hard to write aobut as it's a whole sensory experience that is nothing like you could know or expect.
After we left our bags at the hotel, we headed out on the town. First, we headed to the water puppet theater to buy our tickets for that evening's performance. All of the performances except the 3:30 were sold out so we bought tickets for that one. We had some time to kill then so we walked around the Hoan Kiem lake area. We were going to go see a temple in the middle of the little lake, but didn't have enough cash. Almost everywhere requires cash here. We decided to walk through a little park and Chuck ran across the street to atm some money. Caitlin, Chase and Kathryn had to go to the restroom so there was a little restroom here to use. Cori and I were sitting on a bench alittle bit away and Kathryn comes around the croner quickly..."Kristen - we have a problem .. Chase has a problem and needs money" I couldn't imagine what could happen in 2 minutes that he would need money for, but I didn't have a dime. Apparently, Chase had to use the restroom so bad he rushed in a didn't notice that he had to pay to use it. Chuck came back across the street and paid and then Kathryn and Caitlin had the pleasure of using the squatty potty. I guess the lady cleans it after each person leaves, but that just seems to make it wetter and grosser.
We went to the temple. I'm sorry, but it smelled bad from the nasty lake water and was miserably hot. I know I'm supposed to say it was so amazing, but I couldn't breath through the incense and was dying of heat. We were literally soaked through with sweat it was soooo hot and humid.
Now, to the water puppet theater. For those who don't know, it's an ancient art form that isn't to be missed while you're in Hanoi. We didn't love it, but Cori seemed to really enjoy it. We sat down in the front row (that's how we roll) and were waiting for it to begin and enjoyed the attempt at air conditioning. Suddenly I hear Cori who's a couple seats down say " Mom! Mom! Look! (pointing at the stage) A real mousy!!" Sure enought there was a little field mouse scurrying about through the set right there in front of us. Of course a few people who understood her laughed and then there were a bunch of camera flashes. The show itself was a little weird and of course we couldn't understand a thing they said.
We did a little shopping and went back to the hotel. We moved into our room (the family room as the other was not ready still). We went to the mall and bought some supplies at the supermarket (they are in malls here).
The next morning, we got up and met our Hanoi kids in the lobby. This is a program where local college kids give city tours for free. Cori loved having "the teenagers" as she called them with us. They first took us to the Ethnology museum which was not loved by all. A little boring. Next, we had lunch and had to walk through the kitchen and up a super steep spiral staircase to a funny little private room for lunch. Then we went to the Ho Chi Minh Complex and saw the presidential palace and Ho Chi Minh's house. We also went to the Ho Chi Minh museum on that same campus. Everywhere we've gone in Vietnam, as soon as we walk out a door or get out of the taxi, we are assaulted by buy this, ride in my bike thingie, etc. Well, here we were assaulted with - Can I take Cori's picture/touch Cori/laugh because your'e fat. They think fat is soooo funny here. One family wanted to ake Cori's picture with the mom and son so we let them. They ran and bought Cori some chips to say thank you to her which we thought was nice. We did try the chips later, but they were basically squid and msg chips so we really didn't care for them. As we were leaving, we ran into them again and they showed us a 5X7 that they had made of their family with Cori. It was so funny.
After that we shopped and then went to an american restaurant for dinner. Cori declared it was Texas food and actually didn't need a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that day! It also cost us $40 which is a small fortune here.
That's all for now!
Kristen
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