Hanoi traffic is the Devil's symphony. Close your eyes, cross your fingers, and trust the other senses. Crossing the street in Vietnam requires faith and a little luck. Traffic lights contribute more to the scenery than to chaos-control as millions of residents compete for road space. Intersections look like YKK zippers as motorcyclists and pedestrians constantly merge towards each other, their paths tying a knot too convoluted for even a Boy Scout to unravel. I heard about the ways of the road from a guy I met in San Francisco who broke his pinky finger when an oncoming motorcyclist miscalculated his bike's trajectory by a smidgen.
Fortunately I made it out of Hanoi in one piece on my way to the limestone carved islands of Halong Bay in Vietnam's Gulf of Tonkin. 3000 torpedo-shaped land masses jet out of the murky water giving bearing to dozens of wooden sleeper boats. One of these boats would constitute my viewing deck for 2 days and home for a single night. We briefly docked to walk through "Halong Bay's
best cavern," supposedly discovered in 1993 and now laden with disco-colored flood lights. Thirty minutes of sea-kayaking and a few meals later I hopped on a bus back to Hanoi to catch my first overnight sleeper train.
I had no problem filling my wait time in Hanoi with gourmet seafood. Don't tell my girlfriend that I gorged on 3 dinners in a 5 hour period. Dinner 1 consisted of delicately fried soft shell crab finished with a saute of garlic and chili-pepper. The second supper took place on a street corner where I consumed possibly the largest shrimp formerly in existence, about 7 inches from nose to curl of the tail. Eating this beast compared to feasting on a foil-wrapped burrito; peel, bite, peel, bite, etc. Dinner 3 happened at the same location as number 1: grilled tiger prawns served in a spicy bath of lemon grass and chili-pepper. My stomach was now equipped to withstand having to eat in the restaurant car on the train for the next 14 hours...
Fortunately I made it out of Hanoi in one piece on my way to the limestone carved islands of Halong Bay in Vietnam's Gulf of Tonkin. 3000 torpedo-shaped land masses jet out of the murky water giving bearing to dozens of wooden sleeper boats. One of these boats would constitute my viewing deck for 2 days and home for a single night. We briefly docked to walk through "Halong Bay's best cavern," supposedly discovered in 1993 and now laden with disco-colored flood lights. Thirty minutes of sea-kayaking and a few meals later I hopped on a bus back to Hanoi to catch my first overnight sleeper train.
I had no problem filling my wait time in Hanoi with gourmet seafood. Don't tell my girlfriend that I gorged on 3 dinners in a 5 hour period. Dinner 1 consisted of delicately fried soft shell crab finished with a saute of garlic and chili-pepper. The second supper took place on a street corner where I consumed possibly the largest shrimp formerly in existence, about 7 inches from nose to curl of the tail. Eating this beast compared to feasting on a foil-wrapped burrito; peel, bite, peel, bite, etc. Dinner 3 happened at the same location as number 1: grilled tiger prawns served in a spicy bath of lemon grass and chili-pepper. My stomach was now equipped to withstand having to eat in the restaurant car on the train for the next 14 hours...
1 comment:
Hi Joe,
The adventure continues... Your experience in Laos definitely puts that on my list of places to visit soon. Before the streets become smog laden like the rest of SE Asia. I've just moved up to Ashland, Or. Talk about a culture change from Los Angeles. See my blog for more. Best wishes for safe travels.
Uncle Philip
Post a Comment