Hue is a former imperial city which completely lost it's significance and charm and turned into mostly ugly, busy medium-size town. Main tourist attraction-Citadel is under construction and won't be freed from scaffolding in the near future despite UNESCO support. You may find it surprising as it's not even century since erection but Hue has a misfortune to be in the center of DMZ, the most savagely bombarded part of Vietnam on the border of two worlds. Two things you should definitely visit while in Hue are Imperial Tombs of Khai Dinh and Minh Mang (3rd famous of Tu Duc is currently being renovated).
Hoian - Chinese/baroque Perl of the central Vietnam. It's small enough to be covered in one day and extremely charming with it's narrow, colorful streets in the Old Town. My Son, the most important architectural relic of the Champa Kingdom (apart from Po Nagar in Nha Trang - basically two small towers) lying 40km west was also badly affected during the war and seems to be important rather for historical than architectural reasons. Without Angkor bias and with a bit of imagination it's still worth visiting though as site covers lots of Hindu symbolism and location is interesting.
Main reason for coming to Hanoi is of course Sapa and Ha Long Bay, but city itself is interesting and fully reflects Vietnamese contradictions and absurdities. Bars close at 11pm - once you notice seriously looking men in green uniforms walking in, party is over. It's a secret of Polichinelle though that some places still run their business behind closed doors - wait for a sign or knock to get in and you can continue booze-cruise in a dodgy, mostly claustrophobic atmosphere with a bit of dissident adrenaline.
Ha Long means descending Dragon. Lonely rocks raising sharply and unexpectedly from the ocean are indeed like nests, cradles of majestic creatures, temporarily dormant, disabled by the winter hibernation. It's like an oceanic version of Monument Valley in Utah, unreal Pandora's scenery. Mainly limestone hills seem to be floating on a calm water surface, carved by erosion and geological time from dead marine plankton. If you want to see the best part hire a local boat from Cad Ba harbor and go on a few hours cruise along Monkey Island up to the eastern shore. Avoid organized tours.It's difficult considering aggressive marketing but not impossible-pay for one day and insist on getting dropped on Cad Ba Island. Northern part of Ha Long Bay is polluted, filled with boats as all "companies" take the same oceanic highway and you won't have much time to appreciate landscape anyway. If you like staying overnight on a boat (which is nice too), take significant surplus of food or your empty stomach won't let you enjoy your cruise, practice Vietnamese karaoke beforehand and get ready to pay for mercilessly overprices drinks - even water is not included in your meal-deal. If you're lucky (apart from having good weather) you may even have decent customer service and friendly boat crew.
One think I have also learned in Vietnam: plastic chairs and dodgy looking "restaurants" means best food. Walk away immediately if you see only men working though. It's a bad sign either considering food or customer service.This pattern seems to be a case all over Asia (maybe excluding Thailand): men are lazy, grumpy and usually involved only in social games or scams or exercise their "empty box" asylum staring into mysterious emptiness. It looks like emancipation project has gone out of control here:))
No comments:
Post a Comment