Upon arrival in Hanoi, we were met with the cold stares of the sinister looking officials at passport control. Dressed in their horrible, olive green uniform, our first thought was, ' what are we doing here?'. This was our first communist country but as, we were to learn later, it was pretty relaxed about many things that you would not expect in this sort of political regime.
Hanoi
The capital, Hanoi, is an amazing place. We mostly enjoyed sitting drinking some 'Bia Hoi', the local home brew for 14p a pint!, on the corner of any street and people watching:
- Most people travel by bike or motor bike, so we fitted in very well
- No one takes any notice of traffic lights, so cross roads are always fun to watch! or cycle through. Wing mirros are not used at all, so instead everyone used thier horns, constantly, to let people know they are coming!
- The little ladies in pointed conical hats, went about thier business carrying their baskets of goods, ranging from fruit, meat, plastic boxes and even boiling pans of lobster. It was just like watching someone carry a very large set of weighing scales.
- There are shops everywhere selling lacre wear, silk, electrical goods, picture galleries, linen.., I could go on and on. It's just a pity I could not carry anything more!!
Hanoi is not somewhere you'd go for peace and quiet. The city, in fact the whole country, seems to wake at 5am and assumes everyone one does to. The noise of car horns is sometimes unbearable and it gets a bit much when housekeeping arrives at 6:15am to clean your room!! We went to see Ho Chi Minh himself, in his mausoleum where he has been preserved for over 30 years but he just looks like he is sleeping. Even his beard has been well kept!
As the cycling between Hanoi and south to Hue was apparently not very good, we took a flight and set off from there.
Cycling
Cycling along Highway 1, going south, was not one of our favourite routes! The highlights were the local people we met, especially the children all keen to practise their English, the constant activity going on by the roadside and the scenery was very picturesque in parts, lush green mountains and spectacular golden beaches, like China beech, just north of Danang. All this was over shadowed a little by the very poor road conditions, long distances (over 70 miles a couple of occassions), 40 degrees heat, traffic (the driving was the most dangerous we had experienced anywhere), noise and dust. It seemed that nearly all of Highway 1 was under construction and after 6 days we had to stop, due to some very damaged bottoms! Our road bikes are not built for cycling on compacted rubble and sand! One day it took 11 hours to do 75 miles (as we had to go so slow due to the 40 degrees heat and poor road quality) - this was not fun!!! Stoping cycling was the best decision we made as we then enjoyed what Vietnam had to offer without being in too much pain! However there were quite a few other cyclists trying their luck: - Eric and Monica, Christian and Monique and one German guy who was cyling with a wonky wheel and enjoyed wearing denim, in the process!! It made you hot just looking at him!
General
When we weren't on the bikes, things were somewhat better. One particular highlight was visiting the old border area between Northn and South Vietnam. We saw hilltribes, the Vin Moc tunnles (see photo's) (an underground network of tunnels which one village of 300 people, lived in for three years whilst their village was bombed), the Khe San US military airbase (scene of a famous battle) and many more points of interest about the American war, as it is called by the Vietnamese. What we learned from all this and our time in Vietnam, is that the people have really tried to put the past behind them and have moved on, it's truly remarkable considering the horrors they went through. During the war much of the vegetation was destroyed by chemicals, so in many areas it is really immature in comprision to the jungles that are present in Malaysia or Thailand.