Hanoi

Whew! My friends Chesa and Marie-Liesse (yes she's French if you couldn't tell) have made it safely to Hanoi, yay!

Originally we were planning on leaving on Thursday, but because I was behind with my grading we decided to wait until Saturday morning to take off because I was a little behind on my grading. It was an absolute rush for me to turn in my grades before we left on Friday, and it almost killed me (ask my friends, they said I looked like the walking dead. I guess staying up until 4 or 5 AM then getting up again at 10 isn't enough beauty rest!). I rushed to the English Department office at 4:30PM though, then rushed to the Bank of China to exchange money. That's a story in itself!

The first branch I was taken to, which I had been told was the main branch (and the only branch at which I could exchange money into dollars, d'ailleur) was closed. Then I thought to myself, 'hey, isn't there another big branch more downtown?' So, I hopped in a cab and told him I wanted to go to the big Bank of China on either People's Street or Eastern Wind Street, I couldn't remember which. Rudely he responded, "All you need to say is take me to the Bank of China." As if there was only one! He, of course, took me to the People's Bank of China, which I insisted was NOT the bank of China, however he persisted. Long story short, I ran the last two blocks to the actual BoC, for it was already 5:20PM. It was luckily still open, and I went in and the security guard showed me how to take a number. I asked him if that was what I was supposed to do to change money and he assured me that it was. I waited until 5:35PM for my number to be called, only to find out that I had to go across the room to another counter to change money...

Then the adventure truly began. I went across the room and first they insisted that I had to be Chinese in order to change money. I said "Well, I'm more or less..." and showed her my residence permit. "Oh, well, then, yes, you can exchange money here but we're closed, come back on Monday." I mentioned that I had been waiting on the other side of the room for half an hour (slight exaggeration) and that I was leaving the next day and she gave in and let me change money!

It may seem like a somewhat banal story, but I cannot tell you how Chinese I felt then. Not only was I Chinese enough to change money, but I also successfully argued in Chinese with the attendant AND she bought the arguments! Not to mention the fact that I was in an awfully sleep deprived state. Alright, I'll stop gloating, but it made my day.

The trip so far has been quite excellent. Due to several turns of good luck, we made it from Kunming to Hanoi in record time-faster than The Bible (aka The Lonely Planet) said was possible. We made it to the border at HeKou, turned left out of the train station to see what was there and found the border crossing. It was still open, so we decided to go through. It took all three border guards to check our passports (aka flirt with Chesa, the slightly Asian looking American who speaks Chinese). All in all, it took us an hour to walk across a bridge, which was nicely counter balanced by the fact that we lost an hour (time zone differences) in doing so. After arriving in Vietnam without any dong (the Vietnamese currency) we walked to the ga (Vietnamese for train station... I have my suspicions it comes from the French "gare" or train station) in a slight drizzle, got an over-night to Hanoi, et voila!

The train was nothing particularly out of the ordinary with the exception that our compartment-mate/conductor decided to give me a short massage (the karate chop kind) and slap me on the ass as a welcome when he saw me lying face-down on my bed trying to get to sleep. I decided an ass slap in Vietnamese must mean welcome...

Hanoi is quite interesting. I had no idea what to expect, but it's better than anything I had imagined. The French did wonders for this place if I do say so myself. The architecture is much more interesting than the utilitarian buildings of China! Our hotel room has a balcony with iron-rod railing and everything! The two most surprising things here though are: a) it's expensive. Well, at least compared with China. I mean, breakfast cost like $1.25! And b) the motorcycles/mopeds--they're everywhere! They fill up the entire street. It reminds me of Taiwan in a way, but there aren't many cars here.

As for tomorrow, it's off for a three day excursion to Halong Bay for kayaking, hiking, and sightseeing. I'll let you know how it goes!

To sign off, some Hanoi Fun Facts:

3.5 million- The population of Hanoi
550- The number of pounds that a tortoise pulled out of the lake in the center of Hanoi weighed when it died in 1968. Legend is that it is a tortoise that would return the sword of peace that was taken by one thousands of years ago. Although this particular tortoise had no sword, it was nevertheless embalmed and is now the center piece of a temple on the island in the middle of the lake.
19- The number of hours it took for us to get from Kunming to Hanoi. The book says to plan for 30!