Good morning Vietnam!
Door: Marieke
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Marieke
23 Augustus 2006 | Vietnam, Hanoi
And the morning in Vietnam starts early. Every morning around 5.30am I was woken up by the sound of car horns and bells. My windows were not able to stop much of the sound and unfortunately my windows were also not able to stop the rain. A small Mekong was going from one side of my room to the other. The guesthouse were I was staying in was an old colonial building with high ceilings and giant windows, therefore not quite isolated and a hole here and there also fitted into the picture.
I peaked through the curtains and saw a chaos down there, lots of motorbikes, cars and cyclos. I was wondering what all those people were doing so early in the morning in the poring rain. After staring for a couple of minutes I thought well they can do what ever they want to do, I go back to bed.
After a couple of hours I decided to mingle with all the motorbikes, cars and cyclos and also conquer the rain. The Old Quarter was on my list for the first day, the Old Quarter is the oldest neighbourhood of Hanoi. Every street has it’s own theme, the textile street, the bed street, the shoe street and so on. Very easy shopping this way, but not for me. Every street had its own theme and every shop in that street sold those goods but to me still every street looked the same. It is very crowded, people are eating, cooking, socializing, smoking pipes, playing games and fixing their motorbikes. In between shopping you constantly have to watch out that one of the things on wheels that are speeding through the streets will not run you over. After an hour or 2 I was lost again, like always. I was looking for a famous lake which was only 5 minutes from my guest house, so not 2 hours. I ran into an Aussie-girl who also was a bit lost. So why not be lost together? The next days we had loads of fun and the last day we even managed to understand the map a little bit and not to get lost as much as the days before. We filled our days with wandering around the city, visit nice restaurants, lunchrooms and bars visiting a water-puppet show (which is a Northern Vietnamese tradition of already more than a 1000 years old), shopping and sniffing culture.
Hanoi was a great city, the people were very friendly and the atmosphere was great. Definitely a country to put on my list of places where I have to go back sometime.
Flashback to Ko Chang
Last weekend Jellina and I took some time to relax on the beach. Ko Chang is a small island which is perfectly suited for this purpose. During the day sunbathing (for me this means: smearing sun block continuously and ending up under my towel instead of on my towel) in the evening dining on the beach and visiting the only bar on the island.
This weekend I also managed to burn my eyelid, I never thought of putting sun screen on my eyelids before, but in the future I will never forget this anymore. It hurts terribly and I looked like a monster, my eye was all red and half closed. Long live the guy that invented sun glasses!
The absolute best moment of this weekend was a couple of minutes in the local bar…imagine a very small island…with only a couple of hundred inhabitants…not many tourists…only one bar…suddenly this came out of the speakers: ja dit is, o dit is, die leipe Mocro Flavour, geen probleem Ali B, met leipe Mocro Flavour (sorry only Dutch people will understand my confusion here)…I was confused and surprised and the same time.
I peaked through the curtains and saw a chaos down there, lots of motorbikes, cars and cyclos. I was wondering what all those people were doing so early in the morning in the poring rain. After staring for a couple of minutes I thought well they can do what ever they want to do, I go back to bed.
After a couple of hours I decided to mingle with all the motorbikes, cars and cyclos and also conquer the rain. The Old Quarter was on my list for the first day, the Old Quarter is the oldest neighbourhood of Hanoi. Every street has it’s own theme, the textile street, the bed street, the shoe street and so on. Very easy shopping this way, but not for me. Every street had its own theme and every shop in that street sold those goods but to me still every street looked the same. It is very crowded, people are eating, cooking, socializing, smoking pipes, playing games and fixing their motorbikes. In between shopping you constantly have to watch out that one of the things on wheels that are speeding through the streets will not run you over. After an hour or 2 I was lost again, like always. I was looking for a famous lake which was only 5 minutes from my guest house, so not 2 hours. I ran into an Aussie-girl who also was a bit lost. So why not be lost together? The next days we had loads of fun and the last day we even managed to understand the map a little bit and not to get lost as much as the days before. We filled our days with wandering around the city, visit nice restaurants, lunchrooms and bars visiting a water-puppet show (which is a Northern Vietnamese tradition of already more than a 1000 years old), shopping and sniffing culture.
Hanoi was a great city, the people were very friendly and the atmosphere was great. Definitely a country to put on my list of places where I have to go back sometime.
Flashback to Ko Chang
Last weekend Jellina and I took some time to relax on the beach. Ko Chang is a small island which is perfectly suited for this purpose. During the day sunbathing (for me this means: smearing sun block continuously and ending up under my towel instead of on my towel) in the evening dining on the beach and visiting the only bar on the island.
This weekend I also managed to burn my eyelid, I never thought of putting sun screen on my eyelids before, but in the future I will never forget this anymore. It hurts terribly and I looked like a monster, my eye was all red and half closed. Long live the guy that invented sun glasses!
The absolute best moment of this weekend was a couple of minutes in the local bar…imagine a very small island…with only a couple of hundred inhabitants…not many tourists…only one bar…suddenly this came out of the speakers: ja dit is, o dit is, die leipe Mocro Flavour, geen probleem Ali B, met leipe Mocro Flavour (sorry only Dutch people will understand my confusion here)…I was confused and surprised and the same time.
-
23 Augustus 2006 - 04:32
Mark:
hehe zelfs vietnam heeft een Ali B scene.......interesting! What country is next? -
23 Augustus 2006 - 04:33
Mark:
of ligt Ko Chang in Thailand?! Confusing on this side of the computer!!
-
23 Augustus 2006 - 06:51
Ida Delvie-Krommy:
Hey,
Leuk om weer wat van je te lezen.
Groetjes, Ons! -
23 Augustus 2006 - 07:41
Marieke:
More pics follow, the Inet is too slow at this moment (as usual). Markie B kijk nou us ff bovenaan de pagina...daar staat Ko Chang, Thailand juist ja. Volgende land wordt NL ben ik bang. Time is flying when ur having fun! -
23 Augustus 2006 - 08:22
Leo:
He Timmer, echt cool dat je daar bent! Kan niet wachten tot ik al je foto\'s en jou natuurlijk kan zien! Geniet er van!
kus leo
en tja een beetje ali b en jes r kan nooit kwaad! -
23 Augustus 2006 - 10:10
Yvonne:
Geweldig wie verwacht daar nou Ali B te horen haha. Heb tijdens de vakantie ook al Spanjaarden horen meezingen met een NL nummer. Juist ja ze verstonden er niks van en hadden al helemaal geen idee van de tekst. Maar goed enjoy your time being and see you soon!!Had helemaal niet door dat de tijd zo snel ging dat je alweer bijna terug komt.
Kus yvon -
23 Augustus 2006 - 14:12
Hello~my Friend!:
oh~your blog was very cool, u in the vietnan?
For tour or work?
Now I'm in my hometown-Chin Chiu .
Next week I'll back to Kaohsiung again.
Enjoy your tour~
Jason, Taiwan. -
25 Augustus 2006 - 07:10
T.:
Winkelen in Hanoi....... Er gaat toch niets boven het geweldige mooie nieuwe stads (WINKEL) hart van Almere! Nog even en je mag dat weer zelf ervaren. -
28 Augustus 2006 - 15:45
Barbie:
Hi Marieke,
Hoessie dan, wou nog even kwijt dat ik weer helemaal dubbel lig om je verhalen. Bij alles wat je schrijft zie ik gewoon alles voor me, denk dat de meeste mensen dat wel hebben. En leuk om te weten dat jij ook nog steeds gestalkt wordt door onze Taiwanezen!!!!
geniet er van en we bellen als je er weer bent!!!
Kuz Marenka -
30 Augustus 2006 - 07:36
Loesj:
Hey Rieke!
Ff snel je foto's bekeken, ziet er weer cool uit! Je komt al weer bijna terug! Ik zie je snel (dat wknd heb ik nog steeds vrij gehouden!)
Dikke kus
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