The Home of Uncle Ho

Upon arriving into Hanoi, we quickly compared it to Saigon: psycho scooters everywhere, cosmopolitan restaurants, highrises, and lots of whities. However, after we checked-in to our hotel and spent a day exploring the city, the differences between these two capital cities began to emerge.

We spent four days in both Hanoi and Saigon, and we did "do" more in Saigon. This was probably due to the fact that Saigon really caters to tourists and has made the tourist experience very straightforward, but it was also due to the heat and distances between sites in Hanoi. We both dislike it when people complain about heat - because everyone knows that SEA is hot and because heat should never deter one from sightseeing and having fun - but it was 35C while we were in Hanoi, and this felt like 41C-46C with the humidity! One day, we decided to visit the Ho Chi Minh Complex in the northwest of the city. Little did we know, Uncle Ho's Mausoleum is only open between the random times of  7am-10am, Tuesday through Thursday and on weekends. After we had ventured out to the complex, had been rejected from seeing Uncle Ho's embalmed body and checked out the city's famed One Pillar Pagoda, we were so hot, sweaty, and disappointed that we returned to our hotel by 2pm and spent the rest of the afternoon drinking cold beer from our mini fridge and watching 'Wayne's World 2'. Zhang! 

But enough of this complaining...we did some really cool things in this city. From drinking at a local bia hoi north of the Old Quarter to attending a traditional water puppet performance at the National Water Puppet Theatre, we discovered why so many people consider Hanoi to be a sophisticated and complex capital. We will also remember Hanoi as the first Asian city in which we got scammed by a taxi. Hot and tired, we foolishly got into one of the city's unofficial cabs one day. After a few minutes, Kate noticed that the meter was running freakishly fast. "Dude! I think your meter's broken!" exclaimed Kate. The driver faked like this was the case and reset it. This lowered our anxiety, and we began to relax and look out the window, but the next time we looked at the meter it stated that we owed 492,000 VND! This is like $25CAD, and a cab ride rarely costs more than $3CAD in SEA. I told him to pull over right away, and Kate assertively stated that there is no way on Buddha's green earth we were paying the fee, and then the yelling began. Frazzled and exhausted, we threw 100,000 VND at the irate driver and made a run for it. It was intense...but this taught us to never let our guard down  when language barriers and poverty are a part of one's travels. 

 

Do Ya THINK There is Enough Crap Piled on That Scooter?

 

ATTN: Cissy. Hanoi Classic Dish: Cha Ca Fish with Peanuts and Fried Garlic 

 

We like Hanoi more than Saigon, overall, and would recommend that visitors spend at least 3 days there. By the way, we did finally get to see the creepy preserved body of Ho Chi Minh. Yay! 

Saigon                          Hanoi                           

- Business                                                   - Culture                                              

- Accommodating                                       - Standoffish                                      

- Pro-Western                                            - Communist                                         

- Concrete Jungle                                      - Lakes and Parks                                

- Light Pho                                                  - Dark Pho