14th April 2010 – Hanoi, Vietnam

I can’t believe how different this country is from Hong Kong. The drive in from the airport was crazy. The mode of transportation here is Motorbikes, scooters and bikes. They do have cars but they are few and far between. These people put 5 and 6 people on one motor bike, they build crazy baskets and carry everything behind them from chickens, to pottery pots (50 at a time), dead pigs – everything and anything. There also seems to be NO traffic laws green and red traffic lights means absolutely nothing. Crossing the streets is a night mare as NO one stops they just swerve around you. It is so crazy. At rush hour the amount of people on bikes in the streets is staggering. The amount of people in this country is staggering.

We are staying at The Hotel Metropole which once again is lovely. I was very intimidated to start this challenge because we were first given our challenge book at 7.00pm and told to go out and start now.

All the all female teams were a little reluctant at first but we decided to ALL go to dinner together first and get rid of one of the mandatory eating challenges – we have 3 this time- Not fair Bill. That way when we first left the hotel we would have security in numbers. By the time we had found the restaurant all the fear had left and we scavenged until 10.00 and then back to the hotel. The eating challenge was Cha ca which is steamed fish in a clay pot. We ordered one to try and other food as well. Joanne ordered scrispy chicken. It came with the entire chichen head cut in half and fried.

Poor Lils was so exhausted that she feel asleep immediately in all of her dirty clothes. One of the scavenges was to go to the Night market at 2.00am. I did not want to do this alone so I roped in Mummy and Barbara to go. S at 1.30 am I woke Lily up and took her to the market. On the way there the driver in error took us to the Flower market. This was acres of fresh flowers eing sold wholesale. This was very busy and interesting to see with all the different colours, shapes and smell of the flowers. Not intimadating at all. Did I mention that it was also raining?

The "Long Bien Market" or night market on the other hand was a totally different experience which was both a wonderful experience and a very scary experience. I would NEVER go back and thank Goodness we went with 4 of us. This market is so busy words can’t describe it, most of the merchandise is moved by 2 humans with a pole on their shoulders with the heavy good suspended between them. These human “carts” do not swerve out of your way. They will literally walk over you if you are in their way. And there are hundreds of these teams hustling everywhere. Then you add the trucks, the motor bikes and the stalls to the picture and you have a “mass confusion”. One man targets us. He was up to NO good and he trailed us very closely and we knew that he was a treat. We needed to find “the hot pink dragon fruit” not easy in this environment. We has just decided to throw this challenge when we found some. The people in this market where very “hostile” which I found surprising as everywhere else they are very friendly. I was very glad to get back into the safety of the TAXI and head back to the hotel. Whee!!!

Not sure if that adventure was worth 30 points. I certainly would not attempt that again .It is now 3.00am and we have to meet Zoe at breakfast at 6.15am.

We are off to do another Bonus. You can team up for Bonuses which means we can spend time together. Also bonuses are hard but usually have a great thing for you to see.
We are off to the Perfume Pagoda. A Buddhist temple almost 2 hours away by TAXI. The guide book would put you off of this but it was wonderful. It took long and we got rained on so we were wet all day. These greatest travelers left home our raincoats. Smarty pant!!! After we arrived at My Duc we bought tickets on a “swung” or boat. These boats are about 3 inches from the edge of the water. Not much room for error.

The 1 hour paddle down the river was spectacular and reminded me or all the foggy, smoky photos you see of Vietnam. The other boats had people making pilgrimages and they were singing as they went by. Very peaceful sounding.

The sights and sounds of the village at the base of the Perfume Pagoda will never be forgotten. The most memorable will be the smoked ( all the meat seems to be smoke to help perserve it in the heat) dead dogs hanging in the doorways waiting for people to buy pieces and have it cooked. It left me feeling very upset. GAD!!!! Jen, this photo will be hard for you. It upset me for hours.

The Temple was very amazing as it is inside of a huge cave. They say the cave represents a dragon’s mouth and inside all the stalagmites have been described as different forms ie a turtle, Buddha riding an elephant, 3 Buddha etc. It really is amazing to see how other people worship their god. Burning incense, leaving money, leaving fruits and vegetables. Very educational and almost an over load on my senses. The smells, the colours, the praying, the people. It was a very different experience. One that I am glad we got a chance to see.

We had a female guide and she was terrific. She “Bin” bought us green “apricots”, she held our hands in the slippery parts, she encouraged us in the difficult hike up hill. She was great. This is an example of an offering to Buddha.

The bathroom situation around here is to be seen to believe. Not in the main city but outside. First you have to pay to use it. Then it is a “toilet” embedded in the ground where you have to squat over. Most women are not good aimers. That’s all I have to say. Lily was very “fascinated” with these.

I cannot describe everything we did. I will again list a few. We visited the “Hanoi Hilton, where John Macain imprisoned while in Vietnam. More markets, we rode in cyclones ( like a rick shaw), ate more mandatory food.

The final thing I will describe is our visit to a “restaurant” called O sin. We were to eat tit ran at O Sin. O Sin actually appeared in our guide book. Well when Zoe, Lily, Rainy and I reached this restaurant all we could do was laugh. It was a tiny probably about 12 foot wide 3 storey building. It is someone’s house. Their “Living Room” is on the pavement. When we walked into the door, the grandfathers bedroom was in the same room and he was in his pajamas ready for bed. We were then escorted out into the back yard to choose our own SNAKE out of a sack to be killed and cooked for us. We were then sent back into the “Living room” to wait on our snake to be “grilled”.. We were then escorted upstairs to the “dining room” which contained only 1 table- Ours!!Rainy was offered the specialty of the house the snake blood mixed with some alcohol – the drink is called Snake blood wine. Evidently very good for the men’s stamina. We politely refused. One of the other teams actually drank the drink. YUCK!!! Our grilled snake arrived as something looking like “meat balls or fish cakes”. It actually tasted fine. If you didn’t know that it was snake it would have been easy to eat all of it except they were full of red hot chopped pepper as well. I actually ate 2 balls. Poor Lils. She is really is not a scornful kid but when she sat down at the table she promptly took out her wet wipes and started to disinfect the area. Her wipe turned gross!!. Well we laughed a lot, we experienced more and we will NEVER forget O SIN!!! I promise!