Tet in Hanoi

Crossing the remote border from Laos to Vietnam was an adventure. I wont go into it, but I was hopelessly ripped off stranded in a town where no one spoke english and as the only foreigner, I was pointed, laughed at and treated as an oddity. I eventually arrived in rainy Hanoi at four in the morning, thankfully still in good spirits.

Hanoi is a city where life spills onto the streets in a vibrant, chaotic swirl of motorbikes, street stalls and vendors selling steaming bowls of Pho. Every street offers some new sensation, and any walk through the maze of the old quarter and beyond offers endless sights. The first day I became hopelessly lost, twice. Although I knew I was but streets away from the backpackers I was staying at, I just could not seem to make it there. It took two days to learn the streets, and GPS has come in handy here. It is also very cold, 15C and overcast during the day and colder than at night. I had to buy another jumper to wear under my jacket, tropical SE Asia this is not.

Crossing the street is something often feared by travelers to Vietnam as the roads are chocked with motorbikes traveling in all manner of directions, road rules non existent. The trick is to take it slow, not to make any sudden movements and let the motorbikes dodge around you. After the first morning I was crossing with confidence.

Yesterday was the eve of Tet, the Vietnamese lunar new year. In the morning I took a visit to see Ho Chi Minh in his mausoleum. It is a strange, almost macabre attraction, visiting a body, but when in Hanoi it is the thing to do. The experience only lasts about a minute, as you are shuffled past in groups and then back out of the mausoleum. Ho himself looked like a wax work museum piece, perfectly preserved yet a bit too shiny and plastic looking. That night there was a spectacular fireworks display over the lake in the center of the city at midnight to mark the beginning of Tet. The night was freezing. Walking back to the hostel (after escaping from the huge crowd) people were out on the streets burning paper money and all manner of things that their relatives may need after death.

The down side of Tet is, everything is closed for the next  three days. The streets are strangely quiet and barren, the traffic almost non existent. It is a very different face of a city usually swarming with activity.