Not sure if your aware but if you didn’t know Karen is deathly afraid of rodents like mice, voles, gerbils and rats. Coming from rat free Alberta we had the pleasure to meet some Vietnamese rats welcoming us to Hanoi. Karen’s first encounter was at our cooking school when looking out from our kitchen into a courtyard Karen glimpsed out the corner of her eye to see rat number one, I also saw that rat and looked at Karen thinking she was going to scream and jump up on the kitchen table but she calmly whispered was that what I think it was. I smiled and nodded my head and she just looked at me and kept on cooking. Then on the way home that evening she saw a rat climb out of the sewer drain then seeing Karen disappeared back onto the rats underground highway not sure who was more frightened the rat or her. Not a scream, jump or any sign of major discomfort. Yes it’s amazing Karen #4 tolerater of Rats. How many more amazing things will I experience?
March 4th we finally met up with our tour group. Knowing that it would be an eclectic group of people from all across Canada. We were the only couple that did not take the air package from Canada to Vietnam and were glad we didn’t as this tour company turned a normal 17 hour flight from Vancouver into a 34 hour trip via Thailand. We already had a 5 day head start in Hanoi so we had already settled into the local vibe and took in a bunch of sites Some things this company does is very first class other things not so much. The group consists of a wide variety of ages from young and youthful such as ourselves and more mature and senior like. We are just starting to get a feel of the group dynamics and we are already starting pair off to with other couples that are similar to friends back home.
It’s now the beginning of doing the really touristy type stuff visiting temples and getting into the history of Vietnam. We are being transported around the city if a full sized motor coach our driver does an amazing job weaving in and out of the traffic. Our tour guide is a Vietnamese local and wants to make sure we get schooled in all the history and events that occurred from the past 2000 years. Vietnam has of history of being conquered and oppressed, fighting off the conquerers have a couple hundred years of peace only to be conquered again. It wasn’t until they got tired of the French in the 1940’s who treated Vietnam as a colony that Ho Chi Minh formed the communist party and with the help of the Russians slowly got rid of the French in north Vietnam then had a war against the French and the Americans that reclaimed South Vietnam all under the Communist flag. That will be the end of todays history lesson.
Day one of the group touring we took in a water puppet show which was pretty well done then we took a rickshaw ride through the the city centre amongst all the traffic on the streets. Im sure the old guy who was peddling us around was wishing for a lighter load. More walking around then out for diner at a local restaurant and then back to our hotel.
Day two took us out to the countryside of Ninh Binh to see the limestone mountains covered in greenery we took small boats and paddled in through the mountains and caves. We also saw some monkeys watching us which according to the locals doesn’t happen all that often. The temperature skyrocket up to 38 with about 80% humidity so walking to see another pagoda temple was shortened to back into the AC comfort of the bus. What took us an hour and fifteen minutes to get to to Ninh Binh took over two hours as we hit rush hour in Hanoi, I still can’t get over how much traffic and air pollution this city has. This tour company definitely makes sure we are well fed as we go to restaurants for 5-6 course meals.
Day three was Ho Chi Minh day as we went to see him resting in his Mausoleum since 1975 he was still resting when we saw him today. Enormous crowds of people lots of school kids, the military operates the grounds and are very very strict of what you can and can’t do while waiting in line. This is the only sign of the military flexing its muscle other than the airport. Karen especially like watching the military invoking stern discipline to those kids that weren’t listening or goofing around in the line waiting to see Mr Minh, She wish she had a couple of them in the classroom. The group was getting tired of these large meals so our guide changed things up and we went to the restaurant for lunch where Anthony Bourdain and Barack Obama had a Hanoi traditional soup with pork and crab spring rolls very good!
Since the tour group hadn’t seen train street so we did it again and they went off to the Hanoi military prison that kept the American pilots shot down in the Vietnamese war. We walked back to our hotel and are heading out for drinks and supper. Tomorrow we travel to Ha Long Bay where we spend a night on a Junk Boat and cruise some nearby islands. Temperature will be dropping to about +24 tomorrow burr.
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