This may be a good time to talk about our room and our first eating experience.
Our hotel is located in the Old Quarter in the heart of Hanoi. It is surrounded by busy streets with crowded businesses. We had booked a suite with a king bed, jacuzzi tub and a balcony and that is exactly what we got. What we didn't get were drawers to place our unpacked clothes...so everything stays in the backpacks!
The hotel picked us up at the airport in a private car, which was included in the price of the room. When we arrived at the hotel we were asked to wait while they completed our paperwork. While they took copies of our passports they served us a delicious watermelon drink and then the same young worker showed us to the room and explained the workings in the room itself. She had a good grasp of the English language, but struggled with certain phrases.
The in-room safe is not bolted down to anything and can be easily picked up and taken out of the room so when we left to research the area around the hotel we decided to leave our US money, Euros and our passports in the hotel safe. Here comes the language barrier part - the young girl told us she couldn't open the safe herself but everything would be "safe for when you return". And it was safe when we returned - it was sitting on a shelf behind the front desk! I guess the non-bolted down in-room safe is the best option. Reminder to ourselves: never assume people can understand what you want when you can't understand them!
We walked for four hours and accomplished very little in the way of finding recognizable sites to guide us home. We were lost in the maze of steets and we enjoyed every minute of it. We think we walked by our hotel at least once, but the buildings are so close together that they all blend in as one.
Walking was very difficult as the sidewalks are blocked by people eating outdoors or by motorcycles parked for the day. You could try to walk on the street but the numerous motorcycles and cars made you very aware of the dangerous decision.
Finding a place to eat was something else entirerly. All we wanted was a couple of beer and something light. Because we were lost, we couldn't find any of the restaurants I had researched at home. We did find many local establishments that left much to be desired and nothing that was remotely inviting.
Finally we stumbled upon a open air restaurant that had lots of locals eating (a good sign) and beer. Once we sat down, we realized that this was actually a beer place that sold food as a sideline.
Sitting down was another story! We had noticed that many places have only kids sized chairs and tables, all of which are plastic. If you think about what it is like to sit at a kindergarten table and chairs as an adult, then you have a good idea of what it was like to sit down for that beer. I can think of two good reasons for these chairs: one is lack of space. If you keep your furnishings small you can seat more people on the street or in your small restaurant. The second reason is that the Vietnamese are small people and they are very comfortable sitting in these chairs. I'm sure we will eventually be comfortable too, but yesterday was quite hilarious.
It wasn't the cleanest of places so we didn't linger too long. Besides it was hot and very humid and we still had to find our way out of this maze.
By this time we were beginning to feel the heat and humidity so we forced ourselves to find our way home. That was a smart move as Fred started to feel overheated and sick as soon as we got back. We picked up four large water bottles and drank as much as we could. Food could wait another day! We can easily survive on the grapes supplied daily by the staff!
I am finding this posting of the blog a little difficult on Fred's I Pad so bear with me and ignore the mistakes. I had published a blog about our flight and after reading it, I somehow pushed the delete button and it was gone forever into cyberspace. Too lazy to redo it.
I am also having difficulty getting the settings on my new camera to match the blog so pictures may be blurry for awhile.
2 comments:
I'm guessing you will get used to eating with your knees close to your chin. So how is crossing the street? Just close your eyes and step off? Sounds like fun...sounds like the biggest danger will be the heat ( and those secure safes!)
We took your advice and walk slowly pretending we know what we are doing. Yes, it is nerve racking but the drivers just seem to go around you very casually.
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