Wednesday, 07/11/2012 – 146 A.D.
Neither of us had much of a hangover from
the previous evening, but we still started the day slowly. Again. A lot of my
time that morning was spent reading up on China and all that we need to be
aware of. Already we are about to enter another country! Two, if you count Hong
Kong (which we do).
Come the afternoon we went down to the
market just north east of the hotel. My mission was to by some more moody shades,
and to see whatever else was on offer. It was an odd place, with 90% of the
stalls over the three levels selling material and clothing. Not much room to
walk between stalls either – maybe they like it that way so it’s easy for you
to break something and buy it by default. The oddest thing of all was that not
one person encouraged us to have a look at their wares. Normally we can’t move
for the cries of, “Hello, buy something?” but at this place they just weren’t
interested. Maybe it was a locals-only market and we’d brought ill fortune by setting
our foreign feet inside? Don’t they know I’m the Good Luck Jimmy???
I bought some shades with ‘Porsche’ written
in the corner of one of the lenses. The guy on the stall was a real piece of
work and didn’t want to haggle with me…he didn’t want to look at me either,
lest Bad Luck Jimmy cast the evil eye upon him! I managed to get a measly
10,000 dong off the price. We then went across town to book our tickets for the
water puppet show that evening. Yes, after the disappointment in Saigon, we
were finally getting to go!
There was an amusing moment across the road
by the entrance to some kind of temple that sits out on the lake. A couple of
Japanese tourists approached Tim with camera in hand. He assumed they wanted
him to take a picture of them, but no, they wanted to have their picture taken with him! First the girl posed with him,
giving it the thumbs-up to the camera, then the guy. Unfortunately I was staring
off into space at that point, so I missed it. Our theory is that they thought
he was some famous celebrity, but we can’t for the life of us think who!
Further down the road, behind the statue of someone called Ly Thaito, we found a flat, paved area where we could have a reasonably quiet game
of licky-kicky. We managed about three minutes before a couple of young lads
joined us for the craic. I’d say their skill level was a bit better than us,
but a few metres away were some proper courts marked out and with nets where
the real experts were playing. Honestly, these guys were good! Their rallies
went on for ages and I finally realised that it’s all in the flick of the leg,
none of this ridiculous all over body posturing that I do is needed to get it
right. I contemplated this as I sat down knackered and sweaty afterwards.
On the way back alongside the lake, we
heard sirens ringing out. The road was clear and policemen were everywhere. Along
came motorbikes, security-style vans and long cars that rich folks get driven
around in. Even an ambulance was tagging along, just in case. Whose motorcade
was this? Later that evening at the
water puppet show, I found myself sitting next to a couple of Americans, who
were keen to hear who had won the result of their election. They then told me
that the motorcade was for Russian prime minister and ex-president, Dimitri
Medvedev. Kind of ironic really, because we were at a puppet show, and it is
often remarked that Medvedev was a puppet president for Putin.
So yes, at 20:00 that evening we went to
take in the infamous water puppet show, which has been performed for
generations upon generations and requires a minimum of three years training for
each puppeteer. I was surprised to discover that you don’t actually get to see
the puppeteers themselves, well not until the end when they come out for their
round of applause. It was quite ingenious the way they operated them, though
the themes of traditional courtship and rice cultivation, backed by some
almost-Celtic sounding music was at times a little tough to stick with.
Especially when it’s warm, dark and you’ve just had a large Tiger beer. But all
in all it was a good little show and I’m glad I finally got to see it.
Thursday,
08/11/2012 – 147 A.D.
Fifth day in Hanoi, and I’ve run out of
things to do! Sure, there are museums, but I can’t really be bothered at this
point. Tim and I had agreed well in advance that this would be a What Carcass
Day, but with him hanging out at the hotel if he fancied it and me going on my
wanderings. But where to wander?
I was asked whether we were going to do
some Couchsurfing in Asia and, while it’s still a possibility, it may be a bit
difficult to arrange. That said, I figured I might be able to meet up with someone
on the Couchsurfing website and just hang out with them for a while, buy them
lunch or whatever, and get to see the bits of Hanoi that aren’t listed in the
guidebooks. And so I sent a few emails out a couple of days ago and got some
interest. I picked the first person who replied and thought the day was sorted.
Then the night before she emailed to say she had the caught the flu, didn’t want
to infect me, etc. Ha – you can’t kid a kidder! She probably bottled it, and
who can blame her? Thing is, I’d had to blow out three other people because I’d
decided to hook up with her and there was no time to arrange anything else.
Cheers, luv! (And apologies if you really did have the flu!)
And so I spent the afternoon wandering and
writing, taking the odd snap here and there. I walked around the whole of Truch
Bach lake, said a little prayer at the Temple of Literature and went by the Red
River which runs through the city (not the most picturesque body of water ever
visited!) It was a shame there wasn’t much more to do, but even if there was, I
probably wouldn’t have been up for it anyway. Maybe it’s because we’ve been
here five days, or maybe it’s because we’ve been on the road nearly five months, but I think I’ve crossed a spiritual marker since we’ve been in the
capital of Vietnam. When I first started this trip, the thought of returning
home was alien to me – a million metaphorical miles away. But now…now we’re
into November and, given what we’ve been through, lasting a month and a bit is
nothing for us. Don’t get me wrong, there are things I’m looking forward to
back home…some things that I am REALLY looking forward to…but now that the
clock is properly ticking, I feel like I need to do more. But of what, I don’t know!
Maybe I just had a great time in Vietnam
and I’m sad to leave? Before coming here it wasn’t at the top of my
countries-to-visit list, but I’ve had a ball, despite cockroaches, bug spray,
mini migraine and the odd power cut. The
prices are great, the weather is decent, the communism isn’t a problem, the
women are the prettiest I’ve encountered in all of Indochina and it’s easy to
have fun and a laugh here. Cambodia was good, but Vietnam was even better, and
I’m sure it’s got a fine future ahead of it. And what about my future? Nyeargh,
I’ll be fine, just need to move on and keep myself focused on the present. The future
can wait for a while! It is unwritten, after all.
And coming up we have two sleeper trains in
a row as we cross the border into China and head for Hong Kong. Bring it on, baby!
Let’s go Grayboys!
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