Cold War Burning

Good evening from Hanoi.

I survived an Air Vietnam flight captained by an Aussie. Man, you cannot get away from those guys. Actually, his voice over the speaker made me feel a bit safer, for the one hour flight from Danang up to Hanoi was a little bumpy, cloudy and rainy all the way.

Okay, first impressions. Hanoi has me somewhat impressed. The city seems really spread out, with a divided four lane highway leading into the city from the airport. And, city planners are really into road signage, big ones and lots of ‘em. One problem with this four lane highway are intersections. Again, intersections are not for the timid driver, only the aggressor survives and gets through. There are no signals. My driver was again the aggressor, and we made it to my hotel in record time, all the while he was taking one cell-phone call after another. The Vietnamese are addicted to their cell phones. Driving out of the airport we had to stop for a moment, a farmer was herding her cattle across the highway. So much for four lane autobahn highways.

In the photo below, this was the street in front of my hotel located in the “old quarter” of Hanoi. The hotel is the Hanoi Paradise Hotel. Store fronts are very narrow, and hardly the width of a room. My hotel was also very narrow, but went up four floors. The hotel has only a few rooms, but they were all large.

I had the hotel pick me up from the airport, cost was $16. It was worth every dollar. The airport is a good 30 km from the city center, and my guide told me the Hanoi planners placed the airport faraway for security reasons. My hotel is no Furama Resort, but I have a computer in my room with free Internet access. The hotel staff has been nice, and the hotel sits on a rather narrow sort of street, called “Hang Chieu Street.”

The above photo is of a very narrow street and food market around the corner from my hotel. The sights and smells coming from this market were unbelievable. I could hardly maneuver down through the street on foot, but motor-bikes found their way amongst the food laid out for sale. Oh, you folks shopping in the nice pretty and clean grocery stores back home, if you could only see how the Vietnamese buy their daily food needs. It was the same down in the southern towns. My photo does not do justice.

Switching gears, what the heck is going on back home? Yes, the hotels of Vietnam have cable, so I can keep up with the news. I bet Bob Dole is shaking his head when hearing another favorite son from our home town of Russell, Kansas, Senator Arlen Specter, has skipped out on the Republican Party. I think I need to get home soon, for the folks I’ve talked to on this research trip, from places such as Switzerland, Canada, Sweden, New Zealand and one Vietnamese from Danang are not real happy that our country appears headed towards socialism.

Enough of opinions and feelings. Saying that, where I’m at physically speaks to the deepest of feelings for many Americans. In the next three days I will try to get an impression of these people from the north of Vietnam. Tomorrow, I plan to observe the Vietnamese celebration of its Reunification with the south. Friday is National Labor Day, so, I’ll try and catch a few more sights missed on my city tour Saturday. I’m gonna try and squeeze in a city tour before my plane leaves on Saturday at 5:45 p.m. Most museums and tourist sights are closed the next two days.