10 yrs ago I remembered Hanoi as a rather dreary town. I first visited this capital city of North Vietnam with my husband . What struck me then was the presence of military soldiers; it was such a contrast to its very more lively counterpart in South Vietnam, Saigon. 10 yrs after, its caught up, esp in terms of tourist appeal. The soldiers have all but disappeared from the streets. Locals now know how to pander to the tourist $; they have even learnt to cheat gullibles. We learnt this the hard way the very first day we went walking about. I paid $21 for 3 slices of pineapples as my girl unsuspectingly posed for fotos wearing the vendor's hat and carrying her sling of goods. The other girl literally got her slippers torn off her feet and harassed into paying $10 for a slap of glue to stick the loose parts together! After those episodes I was the growling tigress, barking at every vendor who so much as dared come near us! But that aside, there were nice Viets as well, esp the ones at the hotel we put up in, who went to the extent of 'lending' us local currency coz our pockets 'dried up' temporarily.
And of coz cruising along Halong Bay on a boat was a memorable experience, albeit an expensive one. Stil if you are a nature buff like me, its just one of those things you must indulge in once in a lifetime. And hey, I found out I could actually do things I didn't tink i could do....like having to handle a kayak on my own, since everyone in the family had paired up, leaving me the odd one out, and gathering up enuf guts to jump off the ship ala Titanic style! Lesson of the day - an old dog can still learn new tricks!
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