We landed in Hanoi in the afternoon. The one hour ride from the airport took us across beautiful stretches of lush green fields, just as I had imagined and hoped I would see. The fields were spotted with farmers, bent over working the fields, topped by their pointy bamboo hats, with work animals scattered around. As the bus brought us into a less rural area, the roadside was lined loosely with little shops and homes. People seem to live their social lives along the side of the road. They congregate, seated together outside, often around little tables. Many sit on stools that look like kindergarten chairs. They are eating, drinking, playing cards, seeming enjoying each others' company. I saw two me chatting, sitting together next to each other in the opened trunk of a car. The weather is very warm, humid, overcast, and on-and-off misty rain. My impression of Vietnam as a serene pastoral setting was trashed as we entered Hanoi. The chaos in the center of the city is nearly constant. The streets are choked with mopeds, noisily zipping around with no regard for traffic lights or one-way signs. Every time we cross the street, we must focus intently. Looking both ways to find a clear spot and play chicken with the drivers is not enough. You still have to watch that somebody doesn't fly at you, through a red light coming the wrong way on a one way street. I will not miss that when we leave.
We checked into the Hotel Metropole. Gorgeous old hotel with lots of history dating back to French colonial days, fell into disrepair and now has been restored exquisitely. Our rooms are in the old part, with grand varnished wood shutters over the windows which overlook the pool courtyard. We had an hour or so to settle in before the scavenging began. I sat by the pool and did my Hong Kong blog. After I finished, I accidentally pushed "back" instead of "send" and erased it. That's my apology for less than I would have written (and did write).
The Vietnam leg runs from April 13 in the evening until noon April 15. There are 38 scavenges plus five bonuses which take many hours but reward more points.
We set off with almost the whole group, to find an English bookstore to buy guidebooks, and then to get dinner together. There are seven scavenger hunt teams. They are: Zoe and Rainey (last year's champions who came in second the previous year and plan to do this every year for the next ten years), Heidi and Lily, Kit and Joanne, April and Travis, Brian and Sammy, and Carol and Rebecca. Having purchased our guidebooks, we set off to do the first of the the three mandatory food scavenges together. We could only find one of the restaurants in all of the different guidebooks we had purchased, and it was too far away. So, we decided to "find and eat a Vietnamese dish known as ca kho". As we stood outside the bookshop figuring out our dinner, Heidi glanced at the menu posted outside of the restaurant next door. Ca kho was on the menu. It is a fish stew served in a clay pot. It was delicious. After dinner, some people went back to the hotel, but Christine and I wanted to stroll a bit, so we went with Kit and Joanne to see if we could knock off a scavenge or two. We tried to find the cinema. We had the address but walked all around the block and into a dark alley that somebody told us to go into. After wasting much time, we dropped that effort and went instead to the Old Quarter to locate five streets. The old quarter is crowded with dozens of little streets that spew off in all directions with little logic. Many of the streets have two word names with the first word "Hang", which means market. We had to find Hang Ca, Bac, Hom, Quat and Trong. Each of the names refers to what was sold by merchants on that street. Even though we had a very detailed map, it was hard to find the streets. The smallest one, Ca, was not on our map but we found someone to show us. At 11 PM, we returned to the hotel. We bumped into Lily and Heidi who said they were thinking about going to the 2 AM wholesale market to try some hot pink dragon fruit. We went in a taxi together to the bustling market near the Long Bien Bridge. It was amazing. Actually, before we got to the market, the taxi driver had misunderstood and took us to a different market just up the street a bit, but all of the vendors were unloading bunches of beautiful flowers from their mopeds and bicycles. We had stumbled into completing a different scavenge - visit the Quang Ba flower market early for some serious eye candy. Well, 1:45 was early, but the market was bustling, with people setting up their stalls with profusions of brilliant color. When we realized the error, we snapped our photos and went on in search of dragon fruit up the road. Seeing the wholesale food market in action was extraordinary. There was the usual market chaos of having to watch your feet and your life to make sure that you don't get run over by a truck backing up or by an aggressive hand-cart pusher. Here, there were people weaving through the aisles balancing long sticks on their shoulders, with baskets hanging in front and in back of them, filled with produce. Bicycles and mopeds laden with goods were weaving in and out of all of this. We didn't spy any dragon fruit at the outset. We walked deeper and deeper into the chaos, we noticed a guy following us at our every turn. Clutching our bags, we felt the urgency to get the fruit and get out of there. Christine spied a stand with dragon fruit and we were able to accomplish the scavenge and leave.
By the time we got back, it was 3 AM. We were debating whether to go for the big point bonus by visiting Halong Bay, which meant an entire day doing a trip which really should be no less than two days. And, we gathered, even when we got there, we would not be able to do much of what you go there do. Plus, we would be forfeiting the time to visit many of the sights in Hanoi. That seemed such a pity. So, we decided to stay in Hanoi, which meant that we really had to figure out the clues and make the most of our time here, with all the little local activities. To do that kind of planning means sitting with the scavenge list, a guidebook and a map, and plotting each of the items to develop a list of what to do in what order. I spent one hour until 4 AM, working on the plan. Then, it was hard to fall asleep before our planned wake up time at 6 AM. Not a relaxing vacation.