Obviously, we have had the day off to celebrate. As I sit here typing, our new friends from all over the world are sitting on the front steps outside the Volunteer barracks waiting to join us in celebration of our independence.
We arrived on Friday evening and never got even a moment’s rest before we were packing up our book bags to go downtown to see Hanoi for the weekend. The first thing that shocked me was the way the Vietnamese people drive! There are mopeds everywhere and no such thing as traffic laws. You cross the streets by walking, not running, so that the mopeds can drive around you. Traffic NEVER stops!
We stayed at a hostel in Hanoi for only $6 a night. Everything here is extremely cheap compared with prices in America. One American dollar is the equivalent of a little over 20,000 Vietnamese dong (VND). People bargain for just about everything here, which can be fun if you learn a few tricks.
Saturday morning we left the hostel and went to have our first meal in Vietnam. It consisted of a bowl of noodles with diced pork (I presumed it was pork) and mint leaves. It was not very filling but hopefully I will get used to it, seeing that I’ll be here for four weeks. After lunch, we went on a city tour and checked out the shops and observed the way of life in Hanoi. The people’s living arrangements are very simplistic. People live in their shops, and I didn’t see many air conditioning units at all. The average temperature this time of year is 98 degrees. We had dinner - which consisted of noodles and pork again - across the street from the hostel that night.
The next morning we woke up and met up with our friends from the volunteer barracks for a long day of touring that consisted of a tour of an old king’s temple, a seven-mile bike ride, and a river trip. The king’s temple was very old and had been around sense the 1600s. It had shrines set up on the inside that were quite interesting. The doors were made about knee high, so that you had to step up to enter into the temple in a bowing manner to show respect. Had there been anyone worshipping we were instructed to take our shoes off to show respect as well.
After leaving the temple, we crossed the street and began our seven-mile bike ride through the countryside. We saw the homes that people lived in along the roads during the ride. There was rice set out on the road to dry everywhere, so we literally were forced to weave around the rice sections. We then left the main road and began going through the villages on pathways covered in hay. Just when we thought that we’d never see cold water or food again, we suddenly stopped at a small store. A tiny old Vietnamese lady greeted us with large bottles of water that cost about 10,000 VND each. Our guide purchased some fruit called lychee, which is like a large grape but it is covered with a rubbery shell you have to peel off. It was great!
After riding another 3.5 miles though rice patty fields, we arrived at a restaurant where we had lunch. Following our meal we went on a three-hour boat ride. There was rice growing along a large majority of the river and we went under several mountains through caves. Our boat was a small metal boat very similar to a John boat that a Vietnamese woman paddled with her feet.
It was an incredible first three days here in Vietnam. I already feel as if I’ve been here for weeks. I cannot wait to see what comes in the next four weeks. Getting used to the food and the heat here is already well worth the experience of being in this country.
From Hanoi,
Keegan Bailey O ‘12
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