This is late in coming but I
sooooo wanted to blog about it and as I find I have 5 mins to spare I
figured I would.....
We finally made it to
Vietnam this Easter just gone. Life was racing by as usual so I
didn't pay too much attention to our looming holiday – except to
worry about accomodation that went awry and train tickets that
couldn't be paid for online. This is sort of how I travel....I don't
look forward to it too much so that it is a pleasant surprise no
matter what happens.
So early one Saturday
morning we took off to the airport, glad to be away from a yucky
rainy Hong Kong. We flew into Hanoi which was the kids first real
taste of South East Asia. We hired a car to get us to the hotel and
sat back to soak up the sights. The kids were glued to the windows
as we passed water buffalo, hundreds of mopeds, some piled high with
different things. We wove through tiny little streets and abruptly
stopped at an intersection. I thought to myself, "there is no way this
is where we should be dropped" but the universal sign for “this is
the end of the road in my car" was apparent so we dutifully jumped
out. Whoops watch out for that barbed wire kids....and hello
friendly toothless lady selling native dumplings....sure we will take 4
at three times the normal price, gee how did you know we were
tourists? Surely not the 5 suitcases surrounding us!
Well our tour
leader Paul assured us all that this was in fact correct, we were
meant to get dropped off at the intersection as the street for our
hotel was too narrow for a car. So we started walking, narrowly
escaping a roaming roster and numerous motorbikes we came to our wee
hotel. It was opposite a really cute place so we could almost call
it quaint as we did at least look out at very nice shuttered windows,
I just imagined thats what ours looked like (it didn't but imagining
that just made me feel better).
The reception we received
was very friendly, lovely cool drinks and warnings never to eat food
from the dougnut sellers (whoops!!!) - prayed over all of us who had
consumed a doughnut or two from the toothless lady and got on
drinking my watermelon smoothie. Once all our bags had found their
homes in our room we took off to explore this interesting city.
First stop was the Museum of Ethnology. It didn't look great from
the outside, and bit of bummer it had been raining all morning so
there were puddles everywhere (wouldn't have been a problem except
for one princess in new sparkly shoes and a older boy who slipped
over)....but let me say.....if you haven't seen this Museum and you
are going to Hanoi....YOU HAVE TO GO!!! It is so much fun, and so
informative.
Basically the government has moved examples of
authentic houses from all round Vietnam to this one site so you get
to do a tour of living conditions from North to South, beach to
moutains....fascinating!!! And the great thing is that lots of
things are there to be touched. Beds are to be slept on, pots to be
banged, handles to be pushed, holes to be peered into, thatched roofs
to be stroked....just so interesting. Our kids loved it!!! There
were low flat houses, really high ceremonial houses, long houses,
clay houses with ladders, houses with stables inside.
Even houses
with statues of naked men on the outside just so you can have a bit
of a botany lesson at the same time (try to make these things seem
really normal....oh yes that is a mans private parts, yes they are
rather long, yes she is naked, yes she is pregnant, no we can't
discuss how she got pregnant right now in the middle of the
museum!!!) Ha ha ha....thank goodness Noah slipped over at that
moment and took all the attention away from the naked statues that
the kids were going around handling and stroking (I didn't know
whether to feel very modern or embarassed, just tried to look like
they didn't belong to me, I was just some hired aupair along for the
family holiday :)
Anyway suffice to say, we
loved that museum.
That afternoon we set out on
a self guided tour of the Old City. It was interesting but a bit
scary with little kids as the streets are narrow and there are lots
of motorbikes. It was much more relaxing down by Hoan Kiem Lake.
Fascinating watching people out and about. It was packed all around
the lake as people relaxed, socialised, fished and walked all around
the lake. Naturally our kids just blended right in – NOT!!! They
loved attention so they made sure people noticed them.
The street markets were
really very interesting....fish guts....weird fruit.....unknown food
types....lots and lots of sunflower seeds cracked open......
On Sunday we headed over to
buy tickets for the circus. We were a bit early so had to take in
one of the many parks in Hanoi. Interesting......kind of like
finding WWI relics all throughout the park. There were these rides
you could go on and honestly I thought they were so rusted out that
they would just fly right off the ride – with us in the seat!!!
But thankfully it all stayed together.
Finally ten o'clock rolled
around and we headed back to the circus. This is when you are
pleased you are travelling with kids because it would just be weird
for two grown ups to go to the circus, but seriously it was
brilliant! If you just imagine there had never been an animal rights
movement in history and see what sort of circus you can get - A
REALLY GOOD ONE!!
For two hours we were entertained by dressed up
dogs jumping hoops and doing forwards rolls together, elephants
standing on teeny tiny platforms with numerous limbs in the air,
bears riding motorbikes, horses cantering and chimps doing chimpee
type things. Paul and I think there was a lion but were not
sure....there was definitely some moments where we thought....hmmmm
back in our OSH structured world there is no way in the world we
would be allowed to watch this animal this close up.....but it was
brilliant! The bear actually drove the motorbike into the
trainer....pretty funny....it didn't look like it was planned but
maybe the guy was just really good at acting shocked. The trapeze
person really did fall into the net, again was it planned?? Hard to
say but the gasp from all the other trapeze people made it seem as if
he were near death – just like a reality tv show. All I can say is
that for 2 hours we sat and listened to Vietnamese and didn't miss a
thing....we were so captivated by the whole thing that the
suffocating heat didn't even bother us.
So another great experience
under the belt we headed off to dinner. What a find of a place. A
big, and I mean big, outdoor restaurant where the canvas roof could
be opened to show the blue sky while the many fans rotated to keep
you cool. We had finally found our mojo with dining out with our 3
kids – its called 3 screens and 2 beers!! Its the perfect combination....they stare at screens like zombies and we drink a beer
or two and stare at the menu like zombies....a great way to destress
after a day out and about. I loved the food in Vietnam, the beef pho
was awesome, the claypot dishes so tasty and yummy, the satay cooked
in banana leaf just lovely. But sometimes it was hard to chose for
the kids...heres one choice that went badly wrong...we thought
Vietnamese pancake sounded safe enough....nek minute massive big
crepe thing with soggy shrimps in the middle....nah dad I want
sausage was the call so they consumed some sort of fried rice dish –
who knows, beer googles also helped with meal times :)
On our last day in Hanoi we
went to a restaurant that only specialised in one dish – cooked
fish and veggies. They cooked it right there at the table and then
we just put together the mixtures for each member of the family –
again employing the 3 devices and 2 beers mentality. Our kids
thought the noodles hanging out of the mouth was hiliarious....so I
dutifully took photos of all of them all doing it.
India, Tobias and I took off
to the water puppets show while the boys walked to some musuem about
war. Ours was way better....aircon and interesting. I wish I knew
how they made the puppets move like that – they had them flipping
and leaping, even had fireworks and fire happening and all the while
the puppeteers stayed hidden somehow behind the set, while half
submerged in water. They must have the wrinklest feet ever!!
Next stage of the Vietnam
trip – Hoi An.....same bat channel for the next installment of our
adventures......coming soon.
