We finally arrived at our hotel a little over 24 hours after we took off from Melbourne Airport, thanks primarily to a series of delays with Vietnam Airlines in Ho Chi Minh City, The international airport there is okay but the domestic terminal, where we had to spend over 6 houirs waiting, is shall we say minimalist? Not fun but that's behind us now, There were so many announcements, continuously, that I worked out the following numbers in Vietnamese: who=0, hi=2, baa=3, boon=4, show=6, bey=7, bahn=8.
One step out the front door of our hotel was enough to realise that the traffic in Hanoi is absolutely insane. This was further confirmed by the ride from the airport yesterday and our day trip today. The road rules are simply non existent. Traffic is mostly to the right but there is plenty of traffic in the middle of the road and even on the wrong side of the road. Even on the freeway we had motor bikes and even push bikes come at us on the wrong side of a fully divided road. And I'm not talking once or twice either. Unbelievable. The state of the roads is deplorable, which doesn't help. And crossing the road takes far more bravery than it did even in Rome. Pedestrian crossings are totally meaningless and you have to step out into traffic. Asw you do so the traffic splits to pass either side of you - by inches - it does not at any point stop. Really scarey stuff. And some of the loads people carry on push bikes and motor bikes - entire shops! Amarianne spotted one guy carrying a fridge on his motor bike, I wish I'd taken a picture of that! There will be more on this in the3 next couple of days I'm sure.
We went on a day trip today to a place called the Perfume Pagoda. It is about 70 bump kilometres from Hanoi. Once you get there the only way to get to the place is by boat up the river. There were 6 of us to a boat and a woman who did all the rowing - an hour there and an hour back again. I felt so sorry for her. Mind you the scenery was stunning and the serenity complete. A truly wonderful experience. The "pagoda" itself isn't one pagoda, it is a whole complex encapsulating some 15 temples / pagodas. We only had time to fit in 2 of them, and the second of these was tucked away at the top of a mountain requiring a 4km trek just to get there. Again some of the scenery along the way was really good and the temple itself was inside a massive cave - quite an experience.
Here are a couple of photos of the first pagoda.
Our first day in Hanoi was a really good one!
And, if you're ever looking for a "car park" for boats you might want to consider this one, by the side of the river we took today!
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