The Vietnamese call the New Year holiday "Tet" and it is much more of a religious holiday than in most of China. Vietnamese practice ancestor worship and are very consistant about it. Every home, business, hotel, shack you enter has a small little house style alter with offerings and incense inside. Tet is one of the most important religious observances of the year, and there are plenty of rules, so each family wants to be sure to get it right. If they don't it may mean bad luck for the year ahead, which is definitely something to be avoided.
We left on February 2 for Hanoi, with quite a bit of stress about the connection we had to make in Guangzhou. The weather in southern China had been terrible for the week before and people were living at train/bus stations trying to get home in the midst of horrible snow storms. Luckily for us, most Chinese can't afford airplane travel, so our flight left on time and connected to Hanoi without delay. Flying on a plane in China, especially with a Chinese airline is definitely an experience that I would prefer to avoid. The first disparity between Eastern and Western travel exists in the ingenuity of dealing with airports that are too small. In Asian countries instead of building bigger airports they just leave planes scattered around the airport and bus you to them. This isn't very enjoyable in bad weather. On both flights you could smell cigarette smoke. One the first flight I think it was someone trying to get away with it in the bathroom, but on the second flight I think someone just lit up right in the open in first class. Not surprisingly, the flight attendants usually hesitate to say anything directly, due to the Asian value of harmony over conflict, and instead made a general announcement on our flight upon Stacey's request. After a ridiculous transfer in Guangzhou, which included putting big color-coded stickers on every passenger that said our flight number, we made it safely to Hanoi.
Upon arriving in Hanoi, I had to get a "Visa Upon Arrival" at the airport. This is a wonderful service and was pretty painlessly executed. We had to wait awhile, but the process was relatively straight forward. It costs $25 per visa which they prefer to collect in USD, however, they are very picky about the bills - a general trend in Vietnam, which was confirmed every time we used them. A girl in front of me tried to pay with a hundred dollar bill which had an oil smudge and was rejected. She ended up paying in 600 in Chinese RMB for two visas, which is the equivalent of about $75. When she tried to argue the lady at immigration was having none of it and she knew she was screwed. I got my passport first then gave her my money and walked away. Fortunately she didn't chase me.
We left the customs area, entered the main waiting room and found the representative from the Hanoi Backpacker's Hostel, where we had planned to stay our first night. After a terrifying ride in which our driver almost killed numerous motorcyclists, we arrived safely at the hostel. A Vietnamese man came to the front desk and after much effort told us that they had lost our reservation. We called the manager (an Australian guy) who confirmed this news. We had a email which confirmed our four person suite, but this was no help. As a result Stacey and I ended up sleeping in the "Penthouse" and the two guys had to sleep in bunk beds in an eight person room. After warming the bed with a space heater we tried to fall asleep. It was tough with the cats in heat outside on the streets and a clock tower ringing all night long, but we finally managed to get some rest.
Warming up my feet in the sink
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