Day 14 and 15 Hanoi to Halong Bay

Hanoi is very much like Ho Chi Minh City.  It's a bit harder to navigate on foot as the roads are a bit messier in their design and there seems to be more traffic. Definitely more harassing hawkers. I like it, but I liked HCMC more.

We've spent 2 days looking around the Old Quarter in Hanoi.  It's hot!  Stinking, oppressively hot.  I spoke to one local who says that Hanoi rarely gets a breath of wind as it heats up during the summer months.  The Vietnamese however, don't seem to suffer the same sweating disorder that the foreigners seem to be battling.  The women with their 100% tight synthetic tops don't have a drop of sweat on their back or under their arms.  I feel like a large masculine troll next to them.  I don't even bother wiping it off my face, but it's mildly embarrassing to have it dripping down my neck, covering my back and as I discovered yesterday, covering the back of my legs and my bum.  Not a good look.  Bland colours are essential because pink (as I found out yesterday) showed that I am every inch the man I think I am.  (I've never been officially diagnosed but I'm pretty sure I have XXY chromosomal makeup)  Time to change the outfit I've been wearing for the last week.

Crossing the road more of an art here than HCMC.   Tiny, thin streets with lots of cross road intersections make it complicated.  The sidewalk is unable to be navigated most of the time because it is filled with parked motorbikes and tiny little food businesses.  Larger businesses like metalwork factories do all their cutting and grinding out on the footpath.  The streets in the Old Quarter seem to be largely separated into what they sell.  Herb street, clothes street, doorknob street, nappy and baby formula street etc etc.

My sense of direction is appalling and I've managed to get lost every time we've left the hotel.  I spend my time arguing with the kids about where we are and how we got there.  Street names like Pho Ta Hien and Pho Nguyen Huu Huan make it difficult for me to follow the map and I can stand on a corner for 5 mins twirling the map around and around, find the names of the streets and still not know which direction I am heading in.  The boys have lost interest in discovering anything new.  They spent yesterday inside the air-conditioned hotel watching TV.  They'd only come out to get food.  Drew, Gus (occasionally) and I were left to our own devices for most of the day.  This horrified the hotel owner who kept enquiring how old James was.  I think she was trying to let me know that she thought James was too young to be left in charge of the younger boys.  I decided to ignore her and just smiled and said goodbye.  She seemed to have no problem booking us 2 rooms 1 floor apart, so I didn't really think she had any right to argue.  There was no way I was going to take 3 whining boys back out into that heat with me.

I know the tricks of the hawkers now.  They grab one of my kids and pop their straw hat on them, hand them their long stick with the baskets hanging off each end, then they yell out to me "mumma, mumma, photo".  When you turn around and think Awww, that's cute, and take a photo...then they pounce!  How on earth can you walk away without giving them money?  I can't.  I'm pathetic!  I have to deal with these guys with avoidance tactics.  They're quick though, so you have to be on your toes.  My tactics include:

• Shaking my head and mouthing "Noooooo" as I come into the hawker's circle of entrapment.  This is a 7m radius surrounding the hawker. 
• Staying out of arm grasp distance with the hawker. 
• Removing the straw hat from my children and gently placing it back on the hawker's head before they can get that stick and basket on their shoulder.
• I hand over the amount I am willing to pay rather than bothering to ask how much.  Works effectively as I consider myself quite generous.  I always pay twice what I think it would be worth, which is usually more than half of what I'd pay in Australia.  If you ask how much, they will always give you a figure close to what you'd pay in Australia.  
• I usually try to divert attention if the hawker is particularly insistent.  I point into the distance and say "what's that", then as they turn their head, we run.

Off to Halong Bay this morning to spend a night on a boat.  The same man who booked us that hideous train sleeper also booked this tour for us, so I'm eager to see what condition this boat is in!  Apparently it's better to book your Halong Bay tour outside Hanoi.  There is a lot of overcharging of tourists in Halong Bay, but I guess one could get around that by investigating prices on the internet first.  I couldn't be bothered.  Let's see where that has gotten me shall we?

One of yesterday's funny photos:

Addit:

G****e (name de-identified in case G****e ever reads this)  has just come into my room and commenced his endless rant about what he doesn't have.  I listen to this every day, nearly all day.  It's always interesting to see what he'll start each day off with and where that leads and how it can change.  Yesterday he had a deep need for soft drink, followed by a need to buy a watch, followed by a need to buy his friend a present, and he finished the day off with his need to eat Kentucky Fried Chicken.   His first words today:  It's just that I don't have an iPod shuffle...