Hanoi is constantly go, go, go. As much fun as that is, especially after living in the arse-end-of-nowhere that is Kirdford (sorry Mummy), it can get exhausting. So on Friday, Kelly and I got on my motorbike and headed south. About 2.5 hours, several wrong turns, some cow-dodging, and a poncho-purchasing pit stop later, we got to a place called Chua Huong (or the Perfume Pagoda in guide-book, tour-operator language).
At first, we seriously thought something was up. Basically any tourist destination mentioned in the Lonely Planet is guaranteed to be rammed, and when I'd looked up directions on the internet, I'd got the impression of a really busy place. I was hoping that our day wouldn't be ruined by sheer excess of tourists. (Obviously Kelly and I don't count, we live here :) )
But we got to the town, and bar a few Vietnamese collecting hay, fishing, and other such rural pursuits, there was NO ONE there. No sign of any tour operators, Westeners, or road maintainance. Obviously that's what you always want when you come to these places, but it was just weird, and we both felt that there was something awry (what a word).
Well, we were massively wrong. Because this place was beautiful, quiet, and completely devoid of motorbike horns - everything I wanted to leave Hanoi for. I don't know why there was no one else there. Maybe they were all in Ha Long Bay.
We got this bloke called Jung to row us down the river a little way, and then he took us up a mountain (it was probably just a hill but I sweated enough for a mountain), through all the jungle, and on the other side were pagodas (like temples), built into caves in the hillside. They were so tucked-away and tranquil.
Kelly tried to collect some leaves for her Kindy class to do arty crafty stuff with, and the first one she picked was apparently poisonous, and her finger came up in a big red rash with a white bump, and was really painful. Our guide tried to hack her finger apart with a needle but she resisted him and his inch-long fingernails.
We saw the following baby animals: dog, cat, goat, cow, pig. Jung taught us how to say their names in Vietnamese. I got very excited.
On the boat on the way back my view looked like this:
And I was listening to this song:
I had a bit of a moment.
My favourite bit of the whole day was driving home on my lovely growly motorbike. It was that time of early evening where the light is quite orange, and we were zooming past rice paddies and people making hay. I wish that everyone reading this was on the back of the bike with Kelly to see what it was like, or maybe that I was better with words and so could describe it some way other thing "fucking rad"...but it was fucking rad. The thoughts in my head at that time consisted mainly of "Yeahhhhh".
Last night I was going to watch Vietnam vs. North Korea at the Hanoi Stadium, just for the novelty of watching two oppressed Communist nations play one another at football. The score was 0-0, so I'm quite glad I was too lazy to go. Instead we went out for lẩu, which is hotpot. Ours had tofu and mushrooms and it was very tasty.
