The plane landed fine in Hanoi, though I could smell that someone had gotten sick two seats behind me just before landing. The driver from the hostel was 20 minutes late picking me up, but at least he showed up. It was a bit cooler in Hanoi at 17C instead of the 25-30C it had been in Saigon.
The traffic was crazy here as well, and I had been thinking about getting a motorbike in Hanoi, but I saw two people fall off their bikes in the space of 15 minutes and they didn't even get hit. The hostel is near a rather busy part of town, so I checked in and then headed out to explore. The buildings here are really strange. It seems like when they put up buildings, they know that another building will be put practically touching the old one, so the fronts are rather ornate and finished well, but the sides are often just plain concrete without even a layer of paint.
There are some interesting little side restaurants and shops on the street where my hostel is, one of the most interesting was the pho place on the corner that had chicken heads on display. They did make a tasty meal, though.
I got a ticket for the 3:30 water puppet show, shopped around a bit to find some things for Logan, and then found a cafe near the theater to get a cup of coffee. The cafe overlooked the lake, which made for interesting people watching. The coffee in Vietnam is similar to that in Cambodia - they use sweetened condensed milk, so there's never a reason to add more sugar. It's almost too sweet for my taste, but the condensed milk makes it thicker and creamier, which is a nice texture.
There were a lot of people in the plaza near the theater. It seemed that part of the reason was there was a flower exhibition of sorts, which was less than impressive, as well as a large sign announcing the 1000th anniversary of Hanoi in 283 days.
The water puppet performance was very interesting. I had assumed that it would be something similar to marionettes, but it was far from it. The puppets were on long wooden poles that were attached to the bottoms. The puppeteers were behind a curtain in the water, and moved the puppets all around the pool of water. There were several stories told with the puppets. I couldn't understand any of the words or songs, but there was a little guide that was provided in English that gave a synopsis of each section.
At the very end they lifted the curtain so you could see how the puppets were moved, and then the puppeteers took a bow. It was a very entertaining show, and well worth the ticket price.
After I left the theater, I decided to do a walking tour of Hanoi. I had read that Hanoi and Saigon were high crime areas, so I was especially on my guard. I made it a point to look at my guide book only when absolutely necessary, and when I did it was away from intersections and off the road so that most people wouldn't notice me. I memorize street names and directions so that I would have to look at it less often, and I didn't walk slowly but with purpose to make it seem like I knew exactly where I was going.
The tour started off fine, and I was seeing some interesting side streets, though the actual destinations were less than impressive. For example, this lovely yellow building was one of the temples on the tour.
I got near the gate at the north end of the city, and I started walking onto smaller and smaller side streets. I thought some guy was following me, but I wasn't sure. About a minute later I turned my head around and he was right behind me with his hand on the outside of my backpack, and the small pocket was open. My heart started pounding as I turned all the way around and asked him repeatedly what he was doing and why my bag was open. He tried to hid his hand, so I grabbed it to see if there was something in his fist that he had taken from my bag, but there was nothing, and I didn't see anything in his pockets. I knew nothing important was in my front pocket except my notebook journal. The only thing he said in English was "Not me", so I finally let him go, after warning him never to come near me again.
I was fine while I was talking to him, kept a level head and didn't freak out. But as soon as he walked off, I could feel the adrenaline so I made a beeline back to my hostel. I was quite annoyed at the people who had been on the street that I had seen in my peripheral vision who had quite obviously witnessed this guy attempt to steal from me, and had done absolutely nothing to stop him or to help me.
Once I got back to the hostel, I felt much better, but I decided I wasn't going to venture out on my own again. I hung around the hostel where people were starting to get ready for that night, which was New Year's Eve. We were told there was going to be a party on the roof of the hostel, and that in order to attend we had to wear a mask. The hostel provided supplies and we had to make our own mask. So I grabbed a drink and set about making a pretty cool mask out of paper and paint and rubber bands, which I still have hanging in my apartment.
The party was crowded but fun. Around 9pm we moved to another bar wearing bright sombreros, but that was crowded too, so when I heard a couple say they were heading back to the hostel, I asked if I could go with them (since I wasn't ABOUT to walk by myself at night). We had dinner at the chicken-head place, and then I headed upstairs to go to sleep. I knew it was New Year's Eve, but I'd celebrated enough, I was tired, and I had to be up early the next day for our tour of Halong Bay.
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