So we've finally left China, after an amazing first 6 months of our Oriental adventure, and have ventured South to Vietnam until our visa documents are ready. As we don't know how long our documents will take, we're unsure how long we have in Vietnam and our plans are a little sketchy for the moment; but for now we're starting in Hanoi.
First impressions of Vietnam reveal that, although it looks pretty similar to parts of China, it feels very different. But although I can say it feels different I can't quite put my finger on how it feels different. Maybe it's the traffic, equally crazy but almost entirely motorbikes. Or maybe it's the people, they don't stare or act particularly interested in us at all. But whatever it is, it is a good different. I love China but after 6 months without leaving the country it's nice to experience a different atmosphere.
Our time in Hanoi has been fairly laid back so far, days spend wandering the old quarter - where every street is dedicated to selling one particular type of item - and browsing the tourist sites.
We visited Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum for the strangest 30 second walk around a very cold room ever. After being shepherded down a very specific route to the mausoleum - don't even think of stepping off the white line - we were allowed to view the embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh (or Uncle Ho as he's often so affectionately called here). The thing that struck me most was how he didn't look like a real dead person, it could have been a waxwork and nobody would have been any the wiser. It's also sort to gruesome to think that he has been lying there for the best part of the last century. To me visiting embalmed famous people comes under the morbid curiosity we all have, it may not have been the most exciting 30 seconds of my life but I'd say it was worth it for strange and macabre experience.
In the meuseum, not the Mausoleum - no disrespect from us.
On our second evening here we decided to splash out on a spa evening, and by splash out I meant spend about £10. As we were going to Halong Bay and the beach the next day we both opted for a bikini wax and I went for a back massage while Jenny decided on a facial. We had a spa in mind that we wanted to go to but after half an hour of being pointed up and down the same street and still not finding it we accepted the offer of a man in a hotel to shepherd us to a different spa. Mistake.
We got to a spa and requested our treatments, it all looked fine and relaxing, but then we were led into a room with two beds. We thought this was just to go to the bathroom and prepare but as it turned out we were just going to do everything for both of us in the same room. Fine for massages and facials, less okay for a bikini wax. I must admit, having a back massage while your friend is getting waxed beside your head isn't the height of relaxation! But we did manage to persuade them to close a dividing curtain so there was some privacy, originally the beauty therapists wanted to leave it open so that they could chat. It was definitely the least professional spa environment I've ever been in and it got weirder when, despite already havng two incompetent women doing the wax, another two women joined them just to watch. I never knew bikini waxing could be a spectator activity, but apparently so! To make matters worse one of the ladies, who I'm not convinced actually worked there, got bored of watching me getting a bikini wax and decided to wax her own arm. It didn't go very well and so the therapist stopped my treatment and started waxing this other lady while I took the role of spectator in the waxing debacle! After a long, long time they finally managed an average job and we were ready, and incredibly keen, to leave. As we exited our treatment room one of the therapists asked weren't we going to tip them, I have to laugh at the audacity of asking for a tip after such a ridiculous experience!
Moral of the story, find your own spa. Don't let hotel staff persuade you away from the one you want (even if you can't find it) or else or might end up the star of your very own waxing show.
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