Culture Shock = Magnitude 10!

It's now Monday evening in Vietnam and we are back in Hanoi again after a night in a small village called Tam Coc. After gratefully receiving our bags on Saturday afternoon we proceeded to explore the busy, bustling city of Hanoi. Taxis, cars, motorbikes, scooters, cyclos and bicycles dominate and make the simple act of crossing the road quite frightening! Even though we had been forewarned about what it was like and how to cope (thanks Jemma and Anna), I was still unprepared for the chaos and constant honking sounds coming from all directions. Adam is pretty relaxed about the whole thing (probably because he never uses the crossings at home!) so I just held his hand and didn't look at the oncoming traffic - how's that for trust?

Once I managed to cross the roads and begin some kind of self-navigation through the masses I then encountered the Vietnamese vendors. Now, I knew I would not be very good at bartering and I'm not. The reason for this is because I don't enjoy it one single bit! I like to go into a shop, look at the price, decide if it's fair, then buy it! So my first few attempts at it were a dismal failure. Along side that, I was told I couldn't buy from three clothes shops because "One size" or "It not fit you" so for the first few hours of my Hanoi experience I was not happy. However, that is not long enough for me to judge and since then I have made two successful purchases - which I enjoyed because I didn't have to barter, hehehe!

Dinner on Saturday night in Hanoi was amazing! We dined at a place called Madame Hein on a recommendation from the wonderfully helpful staff at Hanoi Elegance Hotel. The chef is a French man with a Vietnamese wife and the restaurant is named after his mother-in-law who was his inspiration for the delectable food. We were seated upstairs on a tiled balcony with views of the lanterns and courtyard below. The building was quite French and we were even served by a French woman! The food however was definitely Vietnamese. The highlight for both of us was the crab and pork dimsum and the herb and noodle rice-paper rolls. We enjoyed the food and atmosphere there so much that we had lunch there today!

On Sunday we left for Tam Coc. The first part of this experience was the bus (photos coming on the next post). It had two levels and you had to lie down! As you know, Adam and I are not small people so we attracted some smiles and laughter, this was not the first time I felt very foreign and uneasy. It is very humbling to 'be in the shoes' of people who come to New Zealand - tourists and migrants - who have no idea what anyone is saying! One family had a 'seat' next to ours at the back and the mother had a hard time trying to convince her son to come to her as he eyed us suspiciously. I had a sore face from smiling so much and trying to let him know he didn't need to be scared. Two hours of bouts of sleep and more staring followed.

Tam Coc is a village in amongst huge cliffs (more details when I've done some research!) and right beside a river. We stayed in a simple hotel run by a Vietnamese woman who speaks French and proceeded to explore the area on old bicycles! The two main attractions here are a boat ride along the river through rice paddies and caves and a 500-step climb to a small altar to the Goddess of Mercy. The food was pretty disappointing but the scenery and the experience of being amongst a rural community was unmissable! Cycling through the streets of Tam Coc has been one of my favourite moments so far. I love the houses and the way everyone is out on the streets hanging out with each other. All of the children there waved to us and called out hello. The children here are ALL cute and it warms your heart when they greet you. After coming back to Hanoi on a local bus we had our first blunder with our taxi driver. Our communication obviously isn't great and we ended up going to the opposite end of the city from our hotel. Once he understood where we needed to go he started taking us the long way around! By this time of course we knew where we were and we were on to him. So... an expensive taxi ride and a ten minute walk later we were back in our hotel and now we're up to date!

Our days have been so full and busy that we are pretty exhausted in the evenings so it is strange for us to be going to bed early, but I must say I'm enjoying waking up early in the mornings - yes family it's true! Tomorrow we head for Halong Bay which we are really looking forward to. We'll spend three days and two nights on a junket-style boat that has 11 rooms. Adam informs me that we'll be kayaking, swimming and meeting the locals. Since I'm sure there won't be internet on the boat there won't be another post for at least three days (apart from the photos I'm about to upload!).

Love Julia (and Adam)

Ps. I haven't proof read this, a) because I'm on holiday from that kind of work and b) because it's too long and we are off in search of dinner.