Kolbs On The Road: 20231027 AAAA Trip - Ha Long Bay and Hanoi Vietnam

Friday, October 27, 2023

20231027 AAAA Trip - Ha Long Bay and Hanoi Vietnam - Gooood Morning, Vietnam!

2023 Alaska, Asia, Australia, Arabian Peninsula Trip
Day 41/105 - Ha Long Bay, Vietnam - a day in Hanoi

Today, we put boots on the ground on country #54, Vietnam. We are docked in Ha Long Bay, a city east of Hanoi. And...what a city! Ha Long Bay is a center for tourism for both international guests as well as the Vietnamese.With theme parks, casinos, and more, it is a vibrant and growing area.

The sail-in this morning was beautiful. Ha Long Bay is protected by hundreds of limestone islands. The channel is quite narrow in spots.

Ha Long Bay is very modern

This looks like a water park

Tour buses lined up and ready to go

After breakfast, we made the 2.5-hour bus ride into Hanoi, home to ten million people.

Our bus driver's blinged-out cockpit

Random things we saw in Ha Long Bay on the drive.

We were cautioned that things may be different than what we are used to in the western world, but our first stop at a rest area sure didn’t fit that description. The rest area was thoroughly modern with clean and large restrooms, a convenience store with interesting chips, and plenty of electric vehicle charging stations.

New York strip chips

Smoked bacon biscuit sticks

Teriyaki chicken chips

A slew of EV charging stations

Our first tour stop was at the tomb for Ho Chi Minh. This was a bit of a mess. Two of the ladies, in one security guard’s opinion, had too short of shorts or skirts. Never mind that Arlona’s shorts hit exactly the same spot on her leg, but I think they found her height intimidating and let her waltz through. Our guide had makeshift skirts on the bus, so the ladies donned them and we went into the viewing area.

This whole thing was pretty stupid as we were just walking to the tomb. We weren’t going in. We were outside. We were in a more-or-less public area. The tomb was a building. There are photos below. If we stopped the bus across the field from the tomb, we could have gotten the same photos with out any hassle. Oh well, we got our photos and got back in the bus.

Parliment - there are 500 members

The communist party government building

Entry gate to the national memorial

Gardens near the tomb

Our next stop was the Temple of Literature, dedicated to Confucius.

Gate of Success

A 400-year-old banyan tree

Turtles have significance and are featured regularly

The crane and the turtle together

The crane

Riding on a turtle

The paintbrush represents learning and wisdom – the only thing that matters per Confucious. Education is what differentiates us.

The bell represents the Yin

And the drum represents the Yang

In case anyone questions urinal technique, the Confucious temple provides guidance

From there, we walked to the restaurant where we had lunch. It was a fixed menu as follows.

Beef dish

Spring rolls

Tofu and eggplant

Chicken

Sticky rice

Veggies

Pork

I missed getting a photo of the fruit dessert. The meal was lovely and everyone enjoyed it.

After lunch, we took a rickshaw ride through Hanoi. On the way to the rickshaws, we did a drive-by on the remnants of the Hanoi Hilton – the prison where Senator John McCain was imprisoned as a POW.

This rickshaw ride was an experience. The rickshaws are bicycles with a wide seat in front that can fit two really small people or one western person. We all had our own rickshaw. Riding through the Hanoi traffic was a little terrifying. Traffic lights? Essentially a suggestion. One-way streets? Definitely a suggestion. Lanes? Another suggestion. Scooters are everywhere. People drive in random directions.

Here's a sped-up look at most of our ride.

We had a chance to wander on our own after the rickshaw ride. The streets were crowded and the stores a little nuts. We wandered around and took some photos of the red bridge.

The shrine at the red bridge had an entry fee - we skipped it

There are some seriously large trees in Hanoi

Our final stop was at the Vietnam National Historical Museum. The building, and the displays, were a little rough, but there were several interesting items on display.

Look at the size of the banyan tree

The building could use some maintenance

Arlona thought these were cool – I thought they were creepy

This hat was really cool

Driving and walking in Hanoi is crazy. Crossing streets involves dodging cars, trucks, buses, and scooters. A friend described it as the video game, Frogger, in real life. They weren’t wrong. Everything can be carried on a scooter – we know that now. Here’s a look a the sights we caught from the bus.