Hello Ha Noi

Next step of the adventure: Ha Noi. Folks, it was soooo crazy! With a population as large as New York City, I feel like I should have anticipated this more. We stayed right in the Old Quarter, arriving late at night. Even at 11pm, it felt like the block was buzzing with activity, When I woke up at six the next morning, the streets were already full of honking motorbikes, busy market stands, kids to headed to school, etc. It was an absolute collision of vibrant sounds, colors and smells.

Our AirBnB was in this white building pictured center., directly above Mr. Wash. Look closely and you can spy my Mom lounging on our little balony.

Many of the nearby shops seemed to be preparing food for sale to nearby hotels or restaurants, such as these beautiful roasted ducks adorned with flowers.

In terms of beauty, not much surpasses dragon fruit. We heard one fellow say that the dragon fruit wastes all of its energy on looking good instead of tasting good, but this certainly wasn't the case for the fruit we ate!

My favorite part of the day was the early morning run I took jogging laps around Hoan Kiem Lake. In truth, I selected our AirBnBjust for its proximity. Even though there were plenty of people out exercising, it still felt peaceful in the early morning light. 

By my observation, almost all of the runners appeared to be tourists. It felt like the Vietnamese knew far better than to run in that heat and humidity. Instead, I saw so many locals (particularly women) engaging in these great dance exercise classes, often with matching outfits.

You couldn't miss all the nationalistic pride as the women dressed in red and gold, the colors of the Vietnamese flag. I even saw a group where the instructors marched around waving huge Vietnamese flags to motivate their participants. It certainly makes for this odd clash of cultures when set against the backdrop of McDonald's.

 

My personal favorite were the pompoms.

On the way back, I felt kind of proud of myself when I could read this sign in Viet. "Stop! Contains Electricity. Danger. Kills people." My Vietnamese is still really poor, but still leagues ahead of my three words of Cambodian.

Later in the morning, my Mom and I ventured over to the Ngoc Son Temple located in the middle of the lake.

Constructed in the early 19th Century, it seemed so fresh after the ruins of Angkor.

From there we dropped our bags off in storage at the train station, then headed out to explore the famed Temple of Literature, Vietnam's first natural university.

Doctoral graudates were commemorated with an enormous stele perched above a stone turtle, a symbol of longevity and wisdom. In total, the Temple of Literature contains 82 doctoral steles.  This makes me think we should have done much more for Christy and Ben, the PhDs in our lives! 

Even today students come to rub the head of this bronze turtle for good luck with their exams.

A glimpse inside the temple itslf. Confucius and his four favorite scholars were all honored here.

Personally I loved the art on display even more. This tremendous wood carving illustrated the enormous celebration that would occur when a scholar passed his exams. A doctorate was awarded so rarely (one every few years), that the entire village would come to celebrate the scholars arrival back home. In general, these scholars went on to become important heads of state and military leaders.

As girls were not allowed ot take these exams, this painting is entitled "Longing for the Examination Hall." 

I feel so grateful to live in an age and place where education is available to both me and my daughters.

After the Temple of Literature, we tried to grab a Grab to take us over to Train Street. The Uber of Vietnam, Grab generally worked great for us, but this time was a fiasco. We ordered a car and could see from the app that it had pulled up. We walked over to the meeting point and at that point a man junped out of his Grab-labeled car and said "Grab?" Assuming that this was our vehicle, we hopped in. Well, once we got to Train Street, we discovered that his was actually a Grab Taxi and wanted to charge us 4 times the price I'd agreed to on the app ($12USD vs $3USD,) In the end, I gave him the equivalent of $6 and I think we both left the encounter feeling a bit cheated. From then on, we were much more careful with all of our Grab rides. Before getting into the vehicle, I always made sure the driver could tell me both my name and where I was going ahead of time.

If we got overcharged on the taxi, we got way overcharged for our non-alcoholic Train Street drinks. They were definitely the priciest beverages we ordered during our whole trip. However, if you wanted a good seat at a cafe to watch the train come by, you had to order and pay the tab. It was just part of the experience.

So what is Train Street anyway?  In a nutshell, it's a sensory overload on steroids. It's this wild section of Ha Noi where a high speed train passes just inches from the buildings and cafes multiple times a day. .

Before the train came, the cafe owners pushed the tables right up to close to our bellies so that we wouldn't get smashed. They also took down all of the shade umbrellas and parked them right on the tracks!

Traffic getting across the intersection was nuts. (Just like everywhere else.)

Crazy as it all was, I'm really glad I got to experience the adventure.

If like me you are prone to overstimulation, may I suggest a few hours of quiet reading at Tranquil Books and Coffee? This was the perfect rejuvenating retreat from the bustle of Hanoi, plus the drinks and food were so comforting.

Come evening we embarked on one final adventure to the Night Market. Once the roads were closed down, the market was more enjoyable because we weren't dodging crowds and cars and motorbikes.ake In general, we found the sidewalks in Hanoi to be pretty unusable because of all the motorbikes parked on the pavement, meaning that we had to walk in the street which is kind of terrifying. It's super noisy because it's customary to honk everytime you overtake someone to let them know you are there. The honking isn't aggressive or angry, but the commotion is crazy! Corny as it sounds, my Mom and I started holding hands to safely cross the street. You kind of have to just start walking and hope that people stop, but it's pretty terrifying. I figure the worst thing that could happen would be for one of us to start crossing and the other one to pause. If we went down, at least we would go down together!

Horrifically, that evening my Mom did go down. Afer the Grab we ordered was taking forever to arrive because the area was so congested, we decided to walk to the train station. We were trying to walk when my Mom stumbled and went down hard, scraping her hands and knees and losing her glasses. I was so scared that she would be seriously injured, but fortunately the scrapes healed okay and her glasses were okay. I have to say, it was kind of a relief to finally board our night train to Sa Pa, even if we were sharing a berth with another couple. They were from Burma and really kind. I'm glad we got along since we ended up sharing the train compartment with them on the way back as well!

I slept surprisingly well in the top bunk. It felt like the rattle of the train was rocking me to sleep with its chug-a-chug white noise. (I'm sure the sleepy meds helped too.)

Before dozing off, I looked outside and realized that we were traveling down the very same Train Street we had visited earlier in the day! Talk about traveling full circle. 

Ha Noi, you were surely a party! Glad to have spent the day with you, but one was enough to last me a good long while.

Final Day in Cambodia: The Floating Village

While exciting, adventuring far from home can be very humbling. The language is different, the food is different, and there is so much that you don't understand.  Credit cards are uncommon in both Cambodia and Viet Nam, plus the exchange rates are tricky to calculate in your head: you need either 25,000 Vietnamese Dong or 4,000 Cambodian riel to make one US Dollar. It's the strangest thing to have your total come out to over a million!  Watching me fumble with money was pretty entertaining to the locals for sure. For any future travelers, it's a good idea to bring either a debit card or a decent stash of cash with you. In Cambodia, you can use US Dollars and Cambodian riel interchangeably. In Vietnam, you will need to exchange your dollars to VND. Interestingly enough, this is commonly done at the best rates at pawn/gold shops. 

Out of all the cultural differences, I think the very most humbling is not knowing how to use the bathroom. Have you ever traveled to a national park and seen illustrated signs in the stalls instructing one how to use the toilet? And have you ever thought, how could a person not know that? Well traveling abroad, those signs are meant for you. Soiled toilet paper? It goes in the bin, not the toilet. (Also, thanks for the translation. The Khmer script is gorgeous, but leaves me feeling quite illiterate. With 74 characters, it is the longest alphabet in the world.)

Think putting TP in the trash is gross? Well, the toilet paper is primarily for drying as you should have already washed yourself using the sprayer attached to each every toilet.

Some toilets you stand on (possibly near the vegetables.)

And some signs are just for the men but appreciated by women, no matter what your language or culture.

Anyway, enough potty talk. On our final day in Cambodia we enjoyed another incredible breakfast.

Looking through the guest book, we discovered that another couple was so delighted by the cuisine that they drew this fantastic picture of all the food they'd eaten at the Homestay Yellow Natural House.

For our day's adventure, we decided to visit the Floating Village of Kampong Phluk. Our neighbor Peter Breinholt (yes, the Peter Breinholt) recently came back from a similar trip to Vietnam and Cambodia with his daughter and mentioned that the floating village was one of their favorite experiences.

For me, I loved walking through the village market on the way. This woman was frying plantains.

Here's our guide explaining how they use the fermented fish in the buckets for making fish sauce.

While I personally was fascinated, I overheard a couple men from India whispering about the tour being boring because this market was just like their markets back at home. I guess it all depends on perspective. Cambodia is half-way across the world for me, but just a three-hour plane ride and weekend trip for them. 

What's in the basket?

Fried ants.

The fresh vegetables and fresh fish looked amazing.

Just so you know, the French don't have dibs on frog legs.

Not unique to Cambodia, I snagged this picture of a heavily laden motorbike. In both countries, we saw motorbikes everywhere, often loaded to astonishing capacity with goods or people.

To tour Kampong Phluk, we naturally boarded a boat. It turns out that the village is only flooded for part of the year, so it was fortunate we came during the rainy season in terms of seeing the village "float."

In front is an administrative building and behind is the village school.

I felt pretty fascinated by this health center and wondered what nursing here would look like.

Boating past each of the homes, you caught a small glimpse into daily life: laundry hanging out front, lots of children playing and jumping in the water, chickens and turkeys in wire coops created by the stilts beneath the main house.

Our tour guide turned me into a poser.

According to our guide, every family has a boat for personal use, a boat for fishing, and sometimes a boat that they rent out for tour groups like ours.

The village felt particularly lively since school was out of session. It was fun to see all of the kids out working and playing.

According to our guide, the village began as a place for families to escape when they wanted to evade taxation by the French, It has grown to about 1000 families, most of whom still don't pay taxes because their income falls below the taxable threshold. Instead of living off the land, they live off the water and feed their families and make extra income by fishing, although tourism is becoming a more important part of the economy.

In the center of the main village is a lovely temple.

I believe this is a homestay where tourists can come.

Right next door is a school for teaching English. Volunteers can come teach English and stay in the neighboring house.

Walking out to where the water begins. I particularly love the little kid who ran splashing by me.

My Mom and I paid a little extra to have this village girl (I'm guessing fourteen?) paddle us through the village and the mangroves. While she was very shy, it was a fun way to experience more village life.

A new spin on accessibility issues..

I thought that the long propellers moving the small boats were quite fascinating.

Headed deep into the mangroves.

While I didn't take a picture, at one point she paddled us to some snack boats that were selling drinks and treats right in the middle of the mangrove forest. Coolest place ever to purchase Pringles!

The water is all freshwater connected with the Tonle Sap Lake, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia. Interestingly enough, the lake reverses its flow twice a year. During the dry season, water flows out of the lake into the Mekong River.  During the rainy seaon when the Mekong delta floods, water pushes back up through the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers into the lake, causing the lake to expand to up to 5 times its dry-season size. 

I'm just grateful that the only alligators we saw were contained. Apparently there are very few wild alligators left.

For lunch we were taken to a restaurant that obviously catered to tourists, but still had some really great food. Being so close to the water, I'm glad I ordered the fish, While much larger than I expected, it was some of the tastiest fish I've ever eaten.

Plus, who doesn't want their steamed rice served in an adorable banana leaf cone?

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Cambodia treated us so well. When we got back to the Yellow Natural Homestay, Navy immediately brought us some drinks and sticky rice treats. Even though we weren't staying another night, we were still welcome to lounge in our room, store our bags, and use the hammocks.

My Mom says that the papaya seeds kind of look like fish eggs. She's not wrong.

Before leaving, we made sure to grab a photo with Navy and thank her for their family's amazing hospitality. We hoped we would meet again, but also hoped it wouldn't be too soon. 

You see, leaving our homestay, we honestly didn't know if we would be back again that night. As we hopped into the car that was going to take us to the airport, our expedited visas back into Vietnam hadn't arrived yet. (I know, I know, the visa saga that never ends.) While the company we were working with promised them by 6pm at the very latest, our flight was scheduled to depart at 6pm.  In reality, we needed them by five. The company offered to further expedite them for an extra $250pp, but we politely declined and decided to risk it. It would cost much less to repurchase our flights, plus we wouldn't mind staying in Cambodia another day. Fortunately our visas arrived while we were driving to the airport. Our flight ended up being delayed, so we likely would have been fine even if they hadn't shown up until six. Still, it was a relief to have our visas in hand and finally put an end to that drama. I don't think I will ever forget to secure a visa again!