Day 216: Touring Hanoi in 45 Bazillion-Degree Heat + Humidity
Today’s Beepaw Jim’s birthday! He’s celebrating with my mom, some friends and Citizen Cope out in Santa Fe — but we’ll get to toast him very belatedly because he just announced that he’s coming to New Zealand with us!! He loves to fly fish and the South Island has long been on his bucket list. We’ve got him from Dec 1-15. Very excited.
This morning was a real treat/highlight: We kicked off our sightseeing with a rickshaw bike tour around the old town — the perfect way to see it.
When we first pulled out into the madness of cars and mopeds whizzing by, I waved to Teddy and James and said it was nice knowing them. Spent the first 20 minutes clutching Willa for dear life. Eventually, you get in the rhythm and relax.
Old Hanoi is everything you want it to be: Layers of history, layers of grit, tradition, warmth, charm, bustle, energy, good smells, bad ones, heat and life. I didn’t want the ride to end. We were out for about 45 minutes weaving through the streets, taking it all in.
Next we hit the must-sees — Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum and former home, then the thousand-year-old Temple of Literature, which is a gorgeous Confucian temple and site of an ancient university.
My guess is that our guide Khan broke a personal speed record for both sites in order to accommodate a super short-fused James (Khan has 4 kids, ages 1 to 9 and read the room well).
It’s so humid it feels like you can drink the air. It’s so hot that seven minutes after a sudden afternoon downpour, the concrete was bone dry. “Feels like” index: 112F.
I’ve never been one to complain about heat — I’ll take sweaty weather over a brisk fall 55 any day — but James wilts in a matter of seconds, we’ve learned. So we’ve fast-tracked.
For lunch we ate Cau Go, a restaurant overlooking at the lake in the middle of Hanoi. We ate some beef salad, shrimp soup, ginger sauteed veggies and more. Finished with fresh fruit. Love all the cilantro and citrus.
In the afternoon we retreated to our small hotel room’s AC for a snooze, some reading and some school. School didn’t go great for me and Willa — see later note.
By the time the day had cooled off and the sun had started to set, we were ready to head back out and explore some more, this time on our own.
On Friday and Saturdays in Hanoi, the city shuts down many of its main roads — including the one right outside our hotel — to cars and mopeds. The quiet streets bring out lots of families and people and tourists to wander, exercise, eat, shop, buy cheap plastic light-up toys from vendors, dance, and ride electric ride-on toy cars.
So much energy and action.
James and Willa jumped into a game of shuttlecock/hackey sack with the nicest old guys in the world.
Eventually we found….deodorant!!!!!!!!!!! Regular readers will appreciate this. Found it in a Circle K convenience store. Technically it’s just antiperspirant but my god we’ll take it.
We ate at Hanoi Food Culture, a casual spot down an alleyway. Every restaurant and food stall is a “casual spot down an alleyway,” btw.
We spent the dinner making two lists: 1) Every mode of transportation we’ve taken this year (defined as something that got us from Point A to Point B) and 2) the tally of places we’ve laid our heads.
The first list was super long, and included: toboggan, camel, bush plane, gondola, rickshaw, camel, safari truck, world’s longest escalator and world’s fastest elevator.
As for the other list, we realized that Silk Path hotel here in Hanoi is the SIXTY-FIRST place we’ve slept this year. We could tell you a lot about breakfast buffets and hotel key cards.
We walked home through the energetic streets and took it all in. Once back in front of our hotel we paid a few bucks for the kids to “rent” two electric ride-on toy cars for a while. They absolutely loved it.
It was very hot. I feel like it’s a sign of character when you are willing to post a photo of your own absurd butt sweat to your blog:
We showered and got to bed.
MISC:
All the stereotypes of Vietnamese people being ridiculously nice are true.
Learned that Korea is one of the biggest drivers of the Vietnamese economy – giant Samsung factories and other electronics and auto manufacturing throughout the country. The big high rises going up in Hanoi are all part of Korea’s investment in the country.
James mentioned he wanted to go back to NYC. Missing his toys and his scooter. Not something he’s said before, and it’s up for debate how much he actually remembers about home, so….taking this one with a grain of salt.
Speaking of James, Famous James is alive and well in Vietnam. Lots of teasing, high fives, hair-tousling and cheek-pinching by strangers here.
School has been a total disaster for me and Willa lately. We’d been having such a good run, and now alas, we’ve regressed to tantrums and sulking and crying again. It’s hard to pinpoint what triggers it, and I’ve tried just about every approach: Empathy, kindness, listening, guilt-tripping, bribery, yelling, icing her out, punishing, etc. Not proud of it all, obviously, but damn this homeschooling stuff is hard. Hats off to the patient souls who do it full-time (flip side of course is that when you’re on a roll, there’s nothing more rewarding — your kid learns at 5x the school pace).
On a related note, I estimate that Teddy and I spend 20% of our precious grownup conversation time (ie, when we’re brushing our teeth for bed), analyzing why James misbehaves and what we should be doing differently as parents. That conversation itself is becoming brutally boring and never-ending and sending us in circles. Must stop. Whenever we see him in the context of other 5-year-olds (or even older kids), we’re reminded of how chill and polite he is. We need to remember that and find something else to talk about.
We’re currently reading The Witches by Roald Dahl to the kids — a shot of healthy fear never hurt anybody right? It’s a huge hit. Willa’s loving her series, “The 13-Story Treehouse.” I’m racing to finish my China book, Wild Swans, so I can start my Vietnam book, The Lotus Eaters.
There are waaaaaay more western tourists here than in China. Almost all Europeans. We barely saw a single one in China in all our time there — and that was out of an estimated 45 billion people encountered. Our Chinese guides always explained that the lack of westerners was because of the hot season/weather. But that can’t be the case considering it’s hotter and more humid here…?
Also: Lots of backpackers and families with kids.
After what we’ve seen this year in over-tourism, we are so on board with this decision: Rome’s New Rules: No Sitting on the Spanish Steps (and No Wading in the Trevi Fountain).
For many months now we’ve joked that we’re going to write a book for kids called “Solve Your Own Problems.” Each page would feature a different kid with a problem and show how they can solve it. Eg, If you’re feeling cold and your sweater is hanging on the back of your seat…put on your [goddamn] sweater!!! Solve your own problem. If you’re feeling thirsty and your water bottle is in your backpack…..get your water bottle out and drink some water!!! Dedicated to all the parents out there who know exactly what we’re talking about.
