The Typhoon Arrives

In our original plan for Vietnam Zenia and I were supposed to get up early on Saturday morning and be heading for a two day trip to Halong Bay, but an incoming typhoon nixed that idea. Instead, we were given another day in Hanoi and our Halong Bay adventure was transformed into a one day visit on Sunday. Having had only one evening to explore the Old Quarter so far, Zenia and I decided that we would start our adventures there and wander through the maze of the oldest part of Hanoi.

For such a small place it is amazing how much can be packed in and how much time it can take to wander through the streets. While the city may at first seem to have no real plan or organization, it would be a mistake to assume so. It takes quite a bit of meandering and close observation, but a dedicated walker will discover that Hanoi organizes itself into sections within sections. Firstly, you have the sections of “Quarters” of the city. In Hanoi you can get any cab to take you to the Old Quarter, the French Quarter, etc. Within each Quarter, there is further organization of the myriad shops and stores. You see, Hanoi organizes itself so that the majority of a type of store (shoe stores, t-shirt stores, motorbike repair shops, etc.) will be located on the same street. While some streets present a hodgepodge of goods and wares, occasionally you will make a right turn and find yourself presented with a long line of shoe stores, where tables spill out of the shops onto the sidewalk (the areas not covered with motorbikes) and are covered in every type of shoe imaginable. Another right turn at the end of that street may find you presented with a street of hat sellers, selling traditional Vietnamese conical hats, fedoras, straw floppy hats, etc. It is true that you may be able to find a single shoe store or hat shop on any one street in Hanoi, but to find the good deals and widest selection you must travel to the street of hats, shoes, and other items sold by the shop keepers.

Time flew away from us in the Old Quarter and soon it was time to meet Bobby near St. Joseph’s Cathedral, the one Catholic Church we know of in Hanoi. St. Joseph’s Cathedral is an oddity in the center of Hanoi. It is located near Hoan Kiem (the central lake) and looks as if someone took a moderate sized (moderate for a Catholic church built in a grand style) French cathedral and dropped it into the center of a modern city. Hanoi itself has very little in the buildings or architecture to reveal that it is in SE Asia. In fact, it takes some serious looking to find the Asian influence within the buildings of the city, which can most often be spotted in the rooflines where small spires stretch toward the sky at each meeting of multiple sections of roof. But the people and customs more than make up for the western style architecture as they are decidedly SE Asian (once again I must point to the motorbike-sidewalk issue). Therefore, despite the general architecture of the city, within which the cathedral might have looked normal, it looks like a complete oddity, set down in the middle of Hanoi without thought for its ability to blend in with its surroundings.

There is no denying that the Cathedral is quite beautiful and after two and a half months living in SE Asia it was a relief to see something so Western and familiar. We met Bobby and ate lunch at a small restaurant in the Cathedral square called La Place. As we were sitting on the rooftop waiting for our meal it began to rain, forcing us to seek shelter inside. The leading edge of the typhoon had arrived ant throughout the rest of the afternoon we were plagued with spitting fits of rain. In defense against the insane weather, Bobby and Zenia purchased some ponchos (read, trashbags) while I stuck with my umbrella. We had a wonderful lunch and then began to wander around St. Joseph’s Cathedral.

Our exploring of the area concluded early as we were merely wandering around without a goal or purpose and without stopping in any of the stores along the way and as soon as we were finished with that area, we headed around the lake in search of a bookstore called The Bookworm that Lonely Planet recommended we visit. Now, the thing about bookstores in Vietnam is that you won’t be able to find any books that are not vetted and authorized by the Vietnamese government. All book publishers must get a government ok to publish books, meaning it is impossible to find any book on the history of Vietnam that is not 100% in line with the current government’s thoughts. Scary. After coming from a country that allows any books to be published, whether for or against the current administration, it is disconcerting to enter a country where the government controls all forms of media with such a strict hand. We walked for over 30 minutes looking for this bookstore and never managed to find it! :) We explored some interesting parts of the city though and ended up in the French Quarter, which simply had buildings that looked more French than most.

After we conceded defeat on the book front, we headed back toward Hoan Kiem and visited one of the two small temples that sit on islands in the lake. One temple sits on an island very near the center and has no visible means of transportation to or from (besides the obvious – a boat). The other temple sits very near the shore and is accessible by a bridge. Unfortunately, this temple is not very interesting as it is very commercialized. The island itself is quite small, able to hold maybe 100 people total, and motorbikes are parked behind the main building making it obvious that this is a temple made for tourists rather than a devout spot to visit. In fact, compared to the other SE Asian countries we have visited, there are very few temples in Vietnam, which should not have been such a shock to me as I knew that Vietnam was quite different than the other countries as it does not have a high concentration of Buddhism. In fact, most of people in Vietnam are of a religion that has no true name (according to my source) and that is mix of religions from India, China, and ancient native religions. Therefore, we had expected this temple to be something quite interesting as it was something of an oddity in Hanoi, but, alas, we were doomed to be disappointed. In the end, we simply walked around the island and left, a bit sad that we had wasted 10,000 Dong on that experience. We continued to circle the lake and then headed off to our guesthouse to relax for a little while, away from the heat of the afternoon.

That night we ate dinner at a restaurant near the lake and then headed over to Fanny’s for more(!) sorbet. I took every opportunity I could find to eat that delicious icy treat as I knew I would not be able to experience it again until I am back home. As we were leaving Fanny’s we met up with Laura and Abbey and two of the Vietnamese girls they work with, Hien and Tram. The two girls were amazing and we spent the evening bar hopping around the Old Quarter. We listened to classic American music in the Mao Bar, went dancing at the Cheeky Quarter, and ate grilled cheese sandwiches at our final bar of the night. :) Vietnam is another country that has imported the most delicious drink of all time – cranberry juice – and the whole night I was ordering them! Delicious!

During the course of our visit to Mao (the first bar of the evening) it began raining in a torrential flood outside, forcing people in out of the wet and our new Vietnamese friends home before the streets flooded too badly. While Hanoi is built for the intense weather it suffers each year, no amount of preparation can deal with the amount of water that comes down when Vietnam gets serious about the rain. Laura, Abbey, and Bobby assured us that flooding was completely normal and that they had been forced to wade through knee deep water to reach work on multiple occasions. On rainy days in Vietnam, you won’t see any natives out and about because they know that when it rains, it pours. That night, he typhoon came to Hanoi. The rain was intense, lightening for a few minutes here and there, and then coming down in a mad fury designed to wash away anyone silly enough to be outside. Luckily we were not that silly and stayed indoors, having a good time talking with the Vietnamese girls, getting our nails painted by them, and singing along to our American music. Quite an enjoyable way to spend an evening!