by Margaret Lloyd
Danang, Hue , Nha Trang....so many of the place names in Vietnam are familiar from the war reports of the 60s and 70s but most evocative of all is Hanoi . A week's stay there in August confirmed its fascination. The city is beautiful, its people gentle and welcoming, its streets bustling and colourful. Arrival at Noi Bai Airport was spectacular: rugged, green hills, wide and winding rivers and many lakes. On the ground, entry formalities were completed swiftly and easily, belying expectations (small and antiquated terminal building and immigration officers' military hats lined up on the desks beside their owners). The unsmiling bureaucracy I had been warned I might encounter from officials was nowhere in evidence.
Touting for taxi passengers begins before you collect your baggage as the Airport Taxi Co. has a desk close to the baggage reclaim area. At least they carry the luggage and hurry you through Customs! Fares are US$20 from and US$15 to the airport. However there are many unofficial taxis outside charging considerably less and you may be able to bargain for a US$15 trip to the city in the official cars. The airport bus costs US$4 and tickets are also purchased from the Airport Taxi Co. desk.
Having had a 4.30 a.m. departure from KL, I succumbed to a $20 taxi and had a 40 minute ride to town. First impressions were of bicycles and motorcycles in their hundreds, balancing baskets of fruit, vegetables, flowers, machinery, or other assorted goods, many of the riders wearing conical hats (or nearer town, stylish straw hats), and long pale gloves. The motorway cut across bright green rice paddies and gave glimpses of villages that looked vaguely Mediterranean.
My hotel (booked by phone from Brunei ) turned out to be a lucky choice. It was on the edge of the old city and around the corner from many restaurants, the ANZ Bank and the Hoan Kiem Lake , but on a relatively quiet street. The staff were friendly, gracious and efficient and the building was charming, with spacious and comfortable rooms. This was the Nam Phuong at 16 Bao Khanh St, (there are two hotels with the same name) it has about nine rooms which seem to be priced according to floor viz. US$15 on the ground floor, US$20 floor 1, US$25 floor 2 and the owner was heard remarking that a room on the third floor was the best in the hotel. Phone: 84-4-8258030: Fax: 84-4-8258964.
I especially enjoyed being near the lake for its peaceful contrast with the bustle of the old city. In the morning it becomes an exercise ground for young and old. Some meet their friends for badminton or a run around the lake. Others do tai chi in groups or alone, to broadcast music or in silence. Children hold fishing lines at the edge of the lake. Many people find spare trees to stretch their limbs against or simply rotate their arms and bend their waists. Some are graceful: others awkward; no-one seems self-conscious. The only sign of commerce is a few women selling raisin bread. After discovering this outdoor gym on my first morning, I, too, began each day with exercise-a walk around the lake.
By 8a.m. the shops have started to open, street sellers have set up their wares, and the traffic has returned. Each of "the 36 streets" of the old city has its own character and speciality: Hang Gai is the street for silk, Hang Dao for hardware, Cha Ca for a special kind of fish dish. All are full of colour and life, and the traffic is frighteningly lawless even though it consists almost entirely of bicycles, cyclos and motorcycles and the odd taxi, with horn accompaniment.
Many of the city's monuments, museums and pagodas are found outside the old city on wide, tree-lined boulevards, where there are also many elegant buildings dating from the French colonial era. These parts of town may be easily reached by cycle or by motorcycle or you may take a city tour. The full-day tour (8a.m-4p.m) offered by Hanoi Toserco, 15 Hang Khay St, seemed good value at US$13 including lunch. Highlights for me were the graceful pagodas and temples in their tranquil gardens, especially the Temple of Literature , with its courtyards, which will appeal to scholars, and the One Pillar Pagoda, the Art Museum and Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum, house and museum.
There is no shortage of restaurants, cafes and food stalls in Hanoi , offering local and/or western fare, and many of them are excellent. Personally recommended are: Le Café Des Arts 11B Ngo Bao Khanh (especially the fish dish); Coco 's Nha Tho St, (their rolls); Brother's Café, 26 Nguyen Thai Hoc St. (wonderful ice creams) and La Vong family's restaurant in Cha Ca, which serves only one dish: fish pieces in a delicious sauce, cooked at the table with fennel, bean sprouts and peanuts. Restaurant prices are in dong and are very reasonable e.g the wonton soup, a meal in itself, was 15,000 dong (13,000=US$1).
Shopping is excellent. Prices are usually quoted in US$ but most shops appeared to accept either currency, converting the US $ to dong by multiplying by 13.
There are many art galleries showing paintings, prints, woodcuts, lacquer ware and pottery. Some of those I enjoyed were Hang Gai, Le Thai To and Nha Tho St. The Art Museum also has a shop. Craft shops, e.g. two excellent shops in Nha Chung St-Wonder Shop and Craft Window, have some beautiful embroidered goods and articles of inlaid wood made by ethnic minority groups. Lan Vietnamese Handicrafts, 28 Au Trieu St (beside the cathedral) provides employment for disabled young people and specialises in quilt making.
Many shops sell silk fabric and clothes off the rack or made-to-measure. Some of those which seem particularly good are: Khai Silk at 121 Nguyen Thai Hoc and also in Hang Gai; Nga Silk, 4 Le Thai To and Houng Quynh, 104 Hang Gai (no street front, shop opens off a passage). Many small shops and stalls sell embroidered pictures/wall hangings, table clothes and tee shirts. Roadside stalls and stalls in the market at Dong Juan St sell the attractively-styled straw hats which are very popular in Hanoi . Then, of course, there are the ubiquitous sellers of postcards, and photocopies of "The Quite American" and "Sorrow of War".
Hanoi is not a night-time city. It virtually closes down from 11 p.m. but don't miss the water puppets. They're delightful.
First written in 1999, if something has changed please email copy@jungle-drum.com |
