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The Capital
Aug. 26th, 2002 03:10 pmHere I am in Hanoi, after a night much more comfortable than what I expected.
But first, about yesterday. As we had planned, we rented a couple of bicycles and went off to see the Citadel, site of the 9 cannons (there are five on one side, four on the other, but at first I thought there were only the five and started going on about how they couldn't count) and the former Forbidden Purple City, which is now little more than a pile of bricks and some leftover stairs.
We were there at midday, on the hottest day we've had yet. The sun wouldn't let up, and M-P turned a very interesting shade of red because of the heat. We met a Swiss couple we'd talked to on the boat trip the day before and sat talking with them in the shade for a while, hoping the weather would cool off a bit. It didn't.
After that, M-P wanted to see more pagodas, so we cycled around for a while, looking for pagodas. We were following the map in our Lonely Planet guide, but somehow managed to cross a bridge that wasn't on the map and ended up where we hadn't planned to be... But that's okay, it was really too hot to continue, so we took our bicycles back, had a meal and got ready for the bus ride from Hell. Or so we thought.
Imagine our surprise and delight when we saw that the bus taking us to Hanoi was actually designed for night rides - the seats reclined, and there was room for us to stretch out our legs. It was at least as roomy as the buses that do the Ottawa-Montreal route, and though the seats were yucky vinyl, it was much better than we expected.
We arrived in Hanoi a little after seven this morning, and checked into a hotel in the Old Quarter. The room is spacious, there are orange towels (the coolest we've had yet) and the tv gets StarTV, or whatever that movie network is called, on which we watched the most godawful must-have-been-made-for-tv movie ever because we were too tired to do anything else once we'd "unpacked".
I dropped my dirty laundry off at the reception desk, and now I'm going to have to buy myself a new t-shirt or something, because I'd like to not have to wash anything more before we leave. If it comes to that, I might have to start wearing all the nice things I had made in Hoi An... Maybe for the flight home.
But first, about yesterday. As we had planned, we rented a couple of bicycles and went off to see the Citadel, site of the 9 cannons (there are five on one side, four on the other, but at first I thought there were only the five and started going on about how they couldn't count) and the former Forbidden Purple City, which is now little more than a pile of bricks and some leftover stairs.
We were there at midday, on the hottest day we've had yet. The sun wouldn't let up, and M-P turned a very interesting shade of red because of the heat. We met a Swiss couple we'd talked to on the boat trip the day before and sat talking with them in the shade for a while, hoping the weather would cool off a bit. It didn't.
After that, M-P wanted to see more pagodas, so we cycled around for a while, looking for pagodas. We were following the map in our Lonely Planet guide, but somehow managed to cross a bridge that wasn't on the map and ended up where we hadn't planned to be... But that's okay, it was really too hot to continue, so we took our bicycles back, had a meal and got ready for the bus ride from Hell. Or so we thought.
Imagine our surprise and delight when we saw that the bus taking us to Hanoi was actually designed for night rides - the seats reclined, and there was room for us to stretch out our legs. It was at least as roomy as the buses that do the Ottawa-Montreal route, and though the seats were yucky vinyl, it was much better than we expected.
We arrived in Hanoi a little after seven this morning, and checked into a hotel in the Old Quarter. The room is spacious, there are orange towels (the coolest we've had yet) and the tv gets StarTV, or whatever that movie network is called, on which we watched the most godawful must-have-been-made-for-tv movie ever because we were too tired to do anything else once we'd "unpacked".
I dropped my dirty laundry off at the reception desk, and now I'm going to have to buy myself a new t-shirt or something, because I'd like to not have to wash anything more before we leave. If it comes to that, I might have to start wearing all the nice things I had made in Hoi An... Maybe for the flight home.
