HANOI !
We caught a flight from Vientene to Hanoi yesterday. We left the airport and began the race to get to Hanoi, a guy runs up to you at full sprint, and grabs both of your bags, i started to take chase but realised we were heading for his taxi, so i backed off a little. He threw the bags in the boot and sprinted round to the drivers side, i realised we were in a rush so started yelling 'Go Go GO', Sam joined in and we sped off. Holy C**p ! They drive like complete nutters, our driver was about 12, and had a nervous twitch in his neck, and beeped the horn continuously at everything, motorbikes, buses, pedestrians - even things that weren't in the way. We were cracking up in the back, and not too sure the drive was happy with us joining in and making beep noises aswell.
After the first 3 km i started counting how many times he honked his horn. We arrived in Hanoi after a further 20km and i was on beep number 312! No Joke. I gave up soon after.
Hanoi is crazy - the craziest city I have seen yet, there are thousands of motorbikes, they are supposed to drive on the right but we have seen bikes driving the wrong way up a daul carriage way - but thats ok because he was honking his horn.
We both nearly died 40 times today crossing the road, there is a skill involved. If you wait for the road to clear - you will never cross, you just have to take a leap of faith and start walking, as long as you keep a steady pace the bikes avoid you. Buses on the other hand - if one comes towards you , RUN!
At first glance I reckon we are going to love Hanoi, its crazy, the people are crazy, the shops crazy, the food is crazy (we have a cool blog entry coming up soon where we are going to list all the mad stuff you can eat here, then you guys have to vote for what we eat, we will do it and post photos, oh BTW its past half way through the month, so they are allowed to cook dog now.
Each street in Hanoi sells different things, so for example the adjacent street to ours (hotel) Hang Be, sells shoes, the street that runs 90 degrees to ours sells rucksacks, the street that runs alongside the Stadium sells Gym equipment. Our street (where our hotel is) sells......... gravestones !! The street is full of guys sat with a chisel and hammer chipping away at a piece of stone to carve in date of death and name. The spooky thing is that they don't shut up shop until midnight, so when we were lying in bed last night, all you could hear (along with the beeping) was tap...tap, tap, tap.....tap tap tap.....tap tap tap.... a bit unnerving, especially when you know you are going to have to cross a road tomorrow.
Any way 'nuff said.
Roger, out
Chris
After the first 3 km i started counting how many times he honked his horn. We arrived in Hanoi after a further 20km and i was on beep number 312! No Joke. I gave up soon after.
Hanoi is crazy - the craziest city I have seen yet, there are thousands of motorbikes, they are supposed to drive on the right but we have seen bikes driving the wrong way up a daul carriage way - but thats ok because he was honking his horn.
We both nearly died 40 times today crossing the road, there is a skill involved. If you wait for the road to clear - you will never cross, you just have to take a leap of faith and start walking, as long as you keep a steady pace the bikes avoid you. Buses on the other hand - if one comes towards you , RUN!
At first glance I reckon we are going to love Hanoi, its crazy, the people are crazy, the shops crazy, the food is crazy (we have a cool blog entry coming up soon where we are going to list all the mad stuff you can eat here, then you guys have to vote for what we eat, we will do it and post photos, oh BTW its past half way through the month, so they are allowed to cook dog now.
Each street in Hanoi sells different things, so for example the adjacent street to ours (hotel) Hang Be, sells shoes, the street that runs 90 degrees to ours sells rucksacks, the street that runs alongside the Stadium sells Gym equipment. Our street (where our hotel is) sells......... gravestones !! The street is full of guys sat with a chisel and hammer chipping away at a piece of stone to carve in date of death and name. The spooky thing is that they don't shut up shop until midnight, so when we were lying in bed last night, all you could hear (along with the beeping) was tap...tap, tap, tap.....tap tap tap.....tap tap tap.... a bit unnerving, especially when you know you are going to have to cross a road tomorrow.
Any way 'nuff said.
Roger, out
Chris
posted by Chris at 8:56 AM
3 Comments:
Hey guys.
I finally got around to checking out your blog today. It's superb! I can't believe all the amazing things you're doing....needless to say I'm very jealous. I'll be sure to check it more often from now on.
Since I don't think you check your old email address anymore (if you have a new one though, let me know) I thought I'd send you an update of my own.
All is good in this land of constant humidity and jungle. I haven't had the opportunity to see the jungle yet, but the humidity is something that I do battle with everyday. Georgetown is still taking some getting used to - no walking about after dark, regular electricity cuts, no drinking water from the tap and lots of other things I took for granted in the UK. That doesn't mean it's bad, infact I really like it here and I'm adapting well to my new life. I'm getting to grips with my job and have already learned a lot. The economy here, which I'm responsible for reporting on, has seen better days but there is plenty of scope for contributing towards the country's development and that's what I came for.
It's been great having Marissa here with me and we've made many new friends. She's been having lots of meetings for jobs and will hopefully start a job in January. There's quite a strong community of ex-pats that tend to socialise together a lot so there's always something going on. Georgetown isn't a very big place and we're itching to get out of the city on weekends to see what else the country has to offer. Trouble is, getting around isn't very easy so we've bought a car.....from Japan and are trying to get it shipped here at the moment. This has inevitably exposed me to the wonderful Guyanese bureaucracy - not fun! However, we've been fortunate enough to get out of Georgetown a couple of times to stay at a resort on one of the rivers here - although Guyana has a long coastline none of it is fit for swimming (infact it doesn't have a single decent beach).
We're spending Christmas in the States with Marissa's family and then, on the way back to Guyana, we're stopping off in New York where I'll see my brother who has just moved there. Infact, I'm writing to you at New York's airport as I wait for my connection to St.Louis. I'm looking forward to endulging in all the things that I can't get in Guyana - like nice restaurants, good shopping, going to the cinema and cold weather!
So that's about me summed up at the moment. I've noted when you're gonna be in S.America and we'll do our best to meet up with you somewhere in this part of the world. We're dying to see S.America as much as you so hopefully something can be sorted out...even if Harry is woosing out!
Anyway, I hope you're well and that you have a fantastic Christmas.
Andre
xx
Chris & Sam
I did send you an e-mail but not sure if you received it.
Your trip sounds amazing, I am very jealous.
Not much has changed here but Christmas i upon us and i am off down to Cornwall today, i can't wait! Although not seeing Harry for a week which will be weird but i think he is quite pleased about having no one to nag at him!! Just kidding!
I don't want to bore you with what i have been doing as you might just fall asleep but wanted to write to wish you a very very Happy Christmas and New Year. Hope you have a memorable one (which i am sure you will) and be safe.
Missing you lots.
LOL Georgie xxxx
Hi Andre, great to hear from you. Are you still getting called 'White Boy' in town?
Don't want to give my email address out on the blog but get Hazza to give it you.
Thanks for the great update, keep having fun.
Chris
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