Vietnam - Hanoi

One day in May, my good friend Tilde asked me if I wanted to come with her to Vietnam to visit her relatives.

Five months later we were on the plane from London Heathrow to Hong Kong, and then continuing to Hanoi.

I've never been to Asia. Except for one trip to California with my parents, I've only been in Europe. That added an extra thrill to this trip, as I was going to experience something completely different, far from European ways of living, eating, talking, working and social norms.

It appeared that Vietnam is much more than a terrible war. It is a big country with 90.3 million inhabitants (number 13 on, varied geography and great cultural diversity. It borders to China, Laos and Cambodia, and is the Easternmost country on the Indochina peninsula. The country has a long history of colonisation; first under Chinese Empire, and from 1887 to 1940 under France. Under the new communist leader Ho Chi Minh, the French were expelled from the country in the first Indochina war from 1945 to 1954. Thereafter a civil war between the North and the South started, with a communistic republic under Ho Chi Minh in the North, and the state of Vietnam under emperor Bao Dai in the South. The US joined the fights in 1964, and eventually the Vietnam war turned into a nightmare that lasted until 1973.
The result is that the cities are quite Young and unorganised - houses have been rebuilt in a hurry and not been kept very well since the 1970's. There are veterans out in the street, wearing their old uniforms and helmets, and once in a while you see people with horrible war injuries.
And most obviously, the war generation is really small physically- presumably from the hunger during the war.

Apart from that, Vietnam today is a peaceful country, and Things are actually going well; last year Vietnam proceeded from being a poor country to a middle class country, thanks to the Paradox of having free market under a communistic regime.

Oh, and the climate is also somewhat different from the Scandinavian. We had 35 degrees celsius every day, and added to a high air humidity it resulted in constant sweating.

A very dominating aspect of our trip was the mere fact of being white. I have never felt so white my Whole life. Nor as rich. It wouldn't help explaining them that we are in fact very poor students who've been saving for months to go there. We were treated like we were Hollywood stars, and/or walking bags full of money.

The result of a 10 hour flight; bloated ancles.

We landed Hanoi after some 20 hours of travel. In the arrival hall we tried to see if we could spot our hosts. Suddenly a Vietnamese man approached us with a sign with our names on it - it turned out he was their private driver who was sent out to pick us up.

M & J, Tildes relatives, work for the UN and live (for now) in Hanoi with their two children. In Scandinavia they would be as any Family. In Hanoi, the foreign workers live in a sort of rich ghetto Next to Tay Ho (West Lake).

The rest of Hanoi is noisy, packed, dirty, confusing and overwhelming. There are scooters everywhere, beeping the horns constantly, more people than I knew existed, things for sale, kids running around, people cooking and eating out in the streets and garbage just lying around.

 

Quiet street.

Remains of the Chinese Empire.

White tourists getting a ride.

Pagode in the middle of Hoan Kiem lake in the center of Hanoi.


Taking a break from the trafficked streets.

 

 

 



Fruit

No one seemed to mind that there was constant heavy traffic Next to the food.

Classic Hanoi.

Oh, did I mention that the Vietnamese have NO SENSE for security whatsoever?

 

Typical Vietnamese city house. Tax is based on ground area, resulting in peculiar Buildings.

 

 



Vietnamese cock.

 

Man fishing in West Lake...

...ten metres away from this one.

Scooters.

Ho Chi Minh is adored and praised to an extent that's hard to get one's head around - knowing he died in 1969. Here a golden statue at a restaurant. 

Evening view from the "rich ghetto" by West Lake.

Hanoi skyline.

Bicycles are used for everything. Being shops as well.

 

 

 

Hanoi is overwhelming and different. There isn't as much cultural attractions as in European cities - here it's more about walking around, just letting all the impressions in.
As a western tourist, it can be exhausting to be so different. Vietnamese STARE at you. And shout after you, turn around to look, and grab you, trying to sell you EVERYTHING in their shops.
After a few days, we became rather grumpy and impolite, just wanting to protect our very large, Scandinavian personal sphere.

Icelands Golden Circle

Ice(cream)land:

Because of double birthday celebration during our stay, we chose to take advantage of having an ice cream shop in the Building Next door. Not bad, getting 1,5 litres of soft ice in a 1 l cup like that.



One cannot go to Iceland without visiting the Blue Lagoon, seeing a geysir and go to a public swimming pool with "heitur pottur".

Having done the first one, and tried a morning bath in Vesturbæjarlaugs steaming (thermally) hot tubs, it was time for a day of sightseeing.

It happened to be on my birthday - which I spent in a crammed bus without functioning aircondition and a mal-humoured guide.

We went on an 8-hour guided tour with Reykjavik Excursions, and we were really disappointed. Such a big company should offer way better service, and not send people off for a wWhole day in a bus without airconditioning, and on top of it all have a really grumpy guide who got offended if we asked a question...

I would not recommend going with them on a long excursion. We were two hours late back at the apartment.

It's Lucky for the company that Iceland has so much interesting to offer, because then you kind of forgot how bad everything else was.

The Golden Circle is the Classic tour on Iceland including the most famous sights:

Gullfoss, the geysir park with Stokkur erupting every 5 minutes, and the magnificent Thingvellir.

 

Despite being my birthday in the middle of July, the weather was not the best. It was foggy, chilly and wet.

Memorial for victims of traffic accidents. There is a number on the cross showing how many lives have been lost in traffic so far this year, showing 6 when we passed.

 

This is Iceland. Green moss, Black lava and fog.

The first stop was a huge greenhouse, where they showed us how to grow tomatoes so far North.

Endless rows of Icelandic tomatoes.

 

 

The drive between the sights was nothing to retell, because even if our guide and bus had been allright, we couldn't really see much.

After some hours we reached Gullfoss. Beautiful and wild - but growing up in western Norway kind of spoils you when it comes to majestetic waterfalls.

The Golden Waterfall. The folklore tells of a Young man who was so in love with a girl on the other side that he - as the only one ever - managed to cross Gullfoss to get to his beloved.  

My iPhone can't really catch the distance here. It's the canyon that the river has made for thousands of years.

Tourists.

Following the trail Down to the viewpoint.

 

Extreme amounts of Water. And look how green the vegetation is.

Gullfoss in its splendour.


After getting wet and cold seeing this huge waterfall, another two hours of bus driving awaited.

But it was worth it; Next stop was the Geysir park.

This is a Whole area where the crust is so thin that Water and steam comes up to the surface.

The famous Geysir (which gave name to the phenomenon itself) erupted frequently for decades. Now, for some reason, it is "asleep".

Fortunately, there is another large geysir, Stokkur, that also has frequent eruptions. Stokkur is the main attraction of the park today.

 

Steam boiling up through cracks in the ground. It is quite an absurd view. You feel that something is wrong, or fake, or that you are on a movie set.

 Now that's good inspiration for some folklore!

 

Oh yes, the warning sign is about the tiny stream there. Because in Iceland, you happen to find boiling Water just walking around.

 

"Litli-Geysir", the small one. It doesn't erupt, just boils along merrily.

The best part was, of course, watching Stokkur erupt. People gather around to wait for it, watching the pool of blue-green Water bubble and stir. And then, after some minutes, the boiling slows Down, the Water pulls Down into the ground in a way, and it all seems quiet. Then. WHOOIIISH! A pillar of steam and Water shoots up into the air, around 20-25 meters. A completely surreal experience, but fantastic.

I got so excited waiting for the eruptions that I literally jumped when it came, having a shock - every time.

Great fun though! Like a continuous firework.

Stokkur erupting!

 

Magical landscape. Red earth, green moss. Beautiful and hostile.

As every famous tourist attraction, the geysir park tries its best to earn Money on the tourists, having a restaurant, large shop and multimedia exhibition NeXT to the park.

One can sell anything nowadays.. How about a can of fresh air?

 

Back into the bus, and then hitting the road Again - now heading for the birthplace of the Icelandic nation, Thingvellir.

This is where the Icelanders gathered at their very first Thing in year 930, and established a kind of democracy.

In addition to that historic importance of the place, it is also the spot where the North American plate meets the Eurasian plate; the geographical border between two continents.

Pretty flowers in Thingvellir.

 

 

 

That is America right there, on the other side of the river.

The flag marks the spot where Iceland was founded over a thousand years ago. That was where the speaker of the Thing stood. It gave me goosebumps to imagine this place being full of men trying to organise their society for the first time.

 

I am really sorry I didn't have my camera. This doesn't even get near the majestic beauty of the national park. With the plates meeting behind me, I had endless green marshland with rivers (and the presidents summer residence) stretching out ahead, with Mountains rising at the Horizon.
I was completely taken aback. It is like something taken right out of "The Lord of the Rings". I wanted to just walk out across the plain to the end of the World.  

 

Thingvallavatn, the largest lake in Iceland, starting here.

The light that day was magical.

 

After some complications and an hour of waiting in a hot bus, we finally drove back to Reykjavik.

It is funny to see the landscape changing. As we got closer to the capital, it felt like driving into Ireland. Green field, soft hills and small houses spread across countryside.

An occasional herd of Icelandic horses broke the Irish illusion.

For those WHO don't know, the Icelandic horse derives from the horses the vikings brought from Scandinavia. The race is kept pure by forbidding other horses to enter Iceland, where the Icelandic horse is the only race.

They are small and tough, thriving in such harsh climate. They are to be found in the wild as well.

We actually saw a Whole stable of the running Down a hill, but I was too slow. Here you have three of them.

We were exhausted after the trip (and lack of comfort).

Allthough, it was my birthday.

So we went out in the rain and Down to Reykjaviks center to find a nice dinner.

Again, we ended up at Restaurant Caruso. Lovely place.

And finishing my 22nd birthday with creamy lobster pasta and Icelandic beer isn't too bad!

Egils Gull - the gold of Egil Skallagrimson.

Reykjavík in July

The sun was shining and the birds were singing already at 5:30 the morning of July 7th, so what better to do than leave the Danish summer and head for ten degrees celsius, fog and rain? 

My mother has been saying for years that she wanted to spend her sixtieth anniversary in the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. Luckily, she kept her word, and invited the whole family to Iceland for four days - which ment that I would spend my 22nd birthday there as well. 

That's okay with me! 

Iceland is really one of the more interesting countries to me, both geologically and historically. It is a young country in both aspects, created from volcanic activity 16-18 million years ago. It is located on the mid-Atlantic ridge where the tectonic plates of Eurasia and North America meet. In addition it lies above a hotspot, which causes a lot of geological activity such as volcanoes and  geysers.


The volcanoes of Iceland. (Source)

It is also a very young state being a desolated island until it was settled by Norsemen in 879 AD, and having their first parliamentary gathering at Thingvellir in year 930. The viking-heritage from the first settlers still plays a big part in the Icelandic culture - the language being based upon Old Norse, and because of the isolation, is the temporary language closest to what the vikings spoke. Some of the most important cultural artefacts in relation to Scandinavian history are from Iceland; the sagas and eddas telling the story of the Norwegian kings of old, the settlement and the culture in the viking era and the early middle ages.

A very interesting country indeed! 

We stayed in private apartments a fifteen minutes walk from the city center of Reykjavík - a brilliant solution if you travel with kids or want kitchen facilities, or just want peace and quiet and don't want to be stuck to a hotel's schedule for eating and cleaning. 

The first day was spent in the capital, where basically everything is in walking distance. That's the nice thing about a country with only 320 000 inhabitants, and 120 000 of the living in the capital.

The Catholic Church on the way to the city center. 

We started at the City Hall where you can see a huge model of Iceland for free. It really gives you a nice impression of the rough nature.

Icelandic 3D-map

The words have wings

The view from the City Hall, which somehow is located partly in the lake.

Interesting statue. Is this bureaucracy?

 

The center of Reykjavík is small and cosy, with small houses, colourful benches and numerous souvenir stores.

It's mainly really funky shops our expensive design boutiques that dominate the center of the city, so trying to find low budget clothes after losing my luggage somewhere during my plane transfers was a hopeless mission.

The Icelanders have figured out how to cope with the nordic climate; If you find the cloudy, chilly weather getting on your nerves (and frozen toes), you'll find a cosy "Kaffistóva" at every corner, to get a cup of coffee or tea and a piece of cake. Kaffitár is Iceland's own Starbucks, and you find it several places in the country, both in the main street of Reykjavír, Laugavegur, and in the airport in Keflarvík.

The view up Skólavörðustígur to the Hallgrim Church. 

Despite being a rather expensive country, we found out that it was possible to get a decent restaurant meal that didn't cost a fortune.
Just in the beginning of Laugavegur, there is a lovely, yellow house from 1892 where you find Restaurant Caruso, serving good food at an acceptable price in a pleasant atmosphere.

Old fashioned, but very nice style.

The catch of the day, served with baked potato, vegetables and a lovely cream/lemon sauce for a price of about 1600 ISK.

Iceland is very focused on self-sufficiency. Probably inspired by the thermal heat in the underground, which is their source of energy and hot water, sustainability seems to be a natural part of the life.

Green footsteps of a vegetarian.

The probably most characteristic building of Reykjavík is Hallgrimskirkja, whose pointy tower is visible from almost every point near the city.

Lying on the top of a hill in the city center, the monumental church from 1986 is the landmark of the capital, and definitely worth a visit.

Tremendous architecture. I'm terribly sorry for the bad iPhone-pictures, because they don't do the building justice.

Unlike most other churches, Hallgrímskirkja is simplistic and very bright, which makes the atmosphere more pleasant and light compared to traditional churches and cathedrals.

No stained windows to darken the experience of the nave and altar.

 

A rather splendid organ.

 

Leifur Eiríksson, the Norwegian who discovered Vinland (America) as the first European around year 1000.

The view of the ocean from the hill of Hallgrímskirkja.

Unfortunately my bag didn't arrive along with us at Keflarvík, so I only had the clothes I'd travelled in during our stay. Therefore I spent most of the first day tracking down cheap clothes. I didn't quite succeed in the city center - I did find some nice dresses in a cheap secondhand store, but underwear and cosmetics seemed hopeless to find unless I wanted to buy expensive fashion brands.
Thus I decided to check out Iceland's biggest shoppingcenter, Kringlan.
I caught a bus (remember to have the exact amount ready), and found it about 5 km from the center.
Again, I found Iceland expensive, and couldn't find low-budget stores like H&M there, but they had a big mall, Hagkaup, where I finally found the necesseties.

Kringlan is huge, but no place to waste your time in Iceland.
It looks like any other shopping center on the planet.

The bus tickets are valid for 90 minutes, but that was the exact time I spent looking for toothpaste etc., so I decided to walk back to our apartment in Vesturbær.

Sky clearing over Miklabraut, the main road to Reykjavík.




Despite cold and harsh climate, the northern countries have one major advantage climatewise; the almost endless summernights.
Iceland is located below the polar circle and doesn't have midnight sun, but there is daylight for 24 hours.

An evening walk to the harbour let us experience a sunset that lasted for over an hour, ending at around 23.40.

 

One of the coast guard ships. Iceland doesn't have any military apart from the coast guard, but is a member of NATO still – the US have a military base there.

The best things in life are free, right?
Concert hall and conference center Harpa lies next to the harbour as a giant glass-beehive. 

It was finished in 2011, and has an extraordinary architecture with no right angles. Well worth a visit, and you can walk around and let yourself be impressed by the artwork of the building for free, and the doors are open until midnight.

Angles in the setting sun.

 

Impressive architecture.

 On the big day of my mothers anniversary, the whole family was packed into a bus from Reykjavik Excursions, heading for the Blue Lagoon. 

 

Close to Reykjavík and very green.

Heaps of lava rock along the road.

 
The drive from the capital is about 45 minutes, and as the land turns more black and rocky, you'll see steam coming up from behind dark lava rocks.

Finally arrived at the famous wellness center, you feel the smell of sulfur in the moist air, and outside the entrance you get the first look at the famous blue-white mineral water.

 

Silica gives the mineral rich water the characteristic colour.

Being an expensive experience, the Blue Lagoon has very bad logistic. When we arrived, there was an massive queue to get in. We waited for half an hour, my small nieces getting pretty impatient, before we found out that we could get into another, shorter, line because my mother was getting a massage.
A frustrating start, standing there watching four girls trying to help one customer, and not even hurrying even though 100 people were waiting to get in.

That aside, the Blue Lagoon is a very pleasant experience! 

Floating around in that surreal blue water, seeing people come in and out of the thick steam hanging over the hot water.
The water of this place has a unique mineral combination which is supposed to be rejuvenating, and there is silica-mud you can use as a face- or skin mask.

One of the places where you don't mind the cold wind or the heavy clouds.




P.S. Sorry about low quality pictures. My luggage was stuck at Oslo airport throughout our stay, so the only camera I had was my iPhone.