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Hanoi, city of lakes

Vietnam, Summer of '99: Hanoi

Ben van den Anker
2006-05-02 01:20:38

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head, legs....

The Perfume Pagoda is built in a cave; it's one of the most sacred pagodas in Vietnam. It's believed that deities purify souls, cure sufferings and grant offspring to childless families. One monk spends his time guarding the temple for evil, he spends his time waiting and lying in the humid air in the cave. On the road back I sat next to an Austrian woman, one again we talk about holiday days. It seems that I'm really lucky with about 60 paid free days a year. Some people I met do have 5, a Japanese guy, to 10/15 days a year, Canadian people. For me as a native Dutchman this is quite normal, when talking with other nationalities I realize that I'm very lucky indeed.

A Honda dream takes me to the countryside, a cool breeze in my hair, the sounds of Honda's and cars in the air get's fainter and fainter. In the end it seems that there are less and less people living in this area. The temple, with a lot of history behind it (try the link on the photo page) is interesting to me. I love to drive the motorbike; I have to think about getting a driver license next time. Nothing happened but I cannot continue driving without license.

The time to leave comes quicker than expected; I received an unpleasant surprise from the Hang Nga Hotel II, 18 Hang Hom. The friendly lady charged me a 10% government tax. I refused to pay that, never heard of something like that before. It took me half an hour of discussion till they found out I really didn't intend to pay that tax. I heard more complaints about this item, it seems that only government owned hotels do this, they don't tell this the tourists when they book a room, no surprise it'll become subject to critics.

Will I ever come back to this beautiful country? I can't foresee now. It's has the most impressive views and landscapes that I've seen till now. In ten years it will be more developed, people won't attempt to get to the west that much as they do now. Young people, especially woman seem to think that the USA is like paradise on earth, they will do anything to get to their beloved country. I even heard about woman marrying men that they didn't love, just to get out of Vietnam. This might be more common than we think. These things are hard to understand for us westerners. I don't want to judge that, I can't really know how hard life in Vietnam is. I'm just a tourist; I only see the sunny side of life....