In the Old Quarter of Hanoi

So much information spins past us every day that it’s hard to take a break and process it, much less record it for later. So here are a few travel articles I wrote or I’m in that have appeared recently. Lots more to come as the year goes on, but I’ll continue to try to keep the broadcasting to a minimum.

Some of my recent travel writing

The Viator Blog published a piece I wrote on the Buda side of Budapest.

Global Traveler magazine published an article on my time in Hanoi this past summer with my family – Hanoi: Up to Speed

I also had one in there on Mexico City at Night and did a short web piece on the new Microsoft Windows tablets.

Over at Practical Travel Gear, where I’m editor, we all rounded up our picks for the best travel gear of the year in 2012.

Some shout-outs from others on The World’s Cheapest Destinations

Kara from The Vacation Gals was the first to put up a review of the new edition.

EuroCheapo asked me 4 Cheapo Travel Questions

This time last month I did an interview with Gadling on cheap travel destinations.

I had fun participating in this Round-the-world chat with Adam and Sean from BootnAll via Google+ and Twitter.

You can always keep up with me via the RSS feed here or by following me on Twitter – @TimLeffel.

Where do you go in Vietnam to see all the tribes in one place? The somewhat inconveniently located (but worth the trip) Vietnam Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi.

Some cities you visit because of the wealth of cultural attractions and interesting sites. Few people would put Hanoi in that category. It’s a great place to visit for a lot of other good reasons instead: a historic quarter good for strolling and photos near a pretty lake, French Colonial buildings in another area, great food, and bargain prices for nearly everything. It’s also a great hopping-off base for exploring the north.

Before we got to Vietnam, a friend who used to live there said if we had a child with us, this museum should be at the top of the list. My guidebook concurred, though when we visited, there were surprisingly few foreigners there, especially compared to how many were in the crazy long line in the 38C/100F heat to see embalmed Ho Chi Minh looking waxy in his tomb.

Family, couple, or single though, it’s worth paying a few bucks for a taxi ride to this part of town to see the beautifully presented items from the 54 ethnic groups living within the country’s borders. If you head up north toward Sapa you see people from the Tay, Hmong, or Yao groups, but most visitors encounter only a fraction of the ethnic diversity. It it would be hard to catch them wearing some of the outfits on display too since some are just brought out during festivals.

The inside displays are arranged by ethnicity, generally including what’s unique about that culture’s customs, apparel, or utensils. Musical instruments and farming implements make appearances and some displays replicate the living quarters of a family. A favorite of mine was a Mekong Delta fisherman’s bicycle loaded up with more than 200 fish traps and baskets. Other displays include backpacks made from reeds and bamboo, ritual dolls, and a willow-looking tree loaded with messages to the ancestors.

There’s a whole separate outdoor section that’s more hands-on and—good for the kids—involves some climbing. The house at the very top is a traditional longhouse copied from one in the central highlands. The steps can be pulled up at night. Another communal house modeled after that of the Bahnar people was built on site here by 42 villagers from the central highlands. It stands 19 meters high and requires a steep hike up notched logs to walk around inside.

In the interest of keeping my site from getting blocked by libraries, I’ll pass on posting another naughty photo of the Giarai people’s tomb, which is surrounded by sexually explicit carvings meant to be symbols of fertility. Here’s a corner that’s tame, follow this link for one that’s not.

Of course we went to see the water puppets show by the old quarter of Hanoi, but if you time it right, they sometimes run the shows here as well. This is how the water puppets were traditionally presented, with the puppeteers standing in the hut part (in the water) behind curtains, the puppets extending out on rods.

The Vietnam Museum of Ethnology is one of the best screaming bargains I came across in my return to Southeast Asia this past summer. Admission is only $1.25 for adults and 25 cents for kids in the local currency. For more info, go to vme.org.vn. To get there, take a taxi to Nguyen Van Huyen Road, Cau Giay District. It’s about 10-20 minutes from most Hanoi hotels.

Note that another section is under construction that will cover ethnic groups in all of Southeast Asia, not just Vietnam. So by the time you visit, that may be open as well.

Usually when travelers post photos from Vietnam, they’ve got all kinds of shots of motorbikes loaded down with people and goods. You can see a few of those here in this Vietnam scooter story and I’ve got plenty more I might dribble out later. But here are a few other fun ones I wanted to share.

This first one is also of a motorbike, but this one is doubling as a place for a nap. In the middle of the sidewalk. Next to a really busy street. This guy has both amazing balance and an impressive ability to shut out noise. I would surely crack my skull if I did manage to fall asleep amidst that cacophony.

Next up, this is still a communist country, in politics anyway. Hotels and internet cafes typically have to use a proxy server or some other workaround for you to get onto Facebook or Twitter and access some sites with non-official news about the country. So you still see propaganda billboards around the country and odd sayings here and there, like this one on a straw container near Ho Chi Minh’s stilt house in Hanoi. What’s doubly odd about it is the illustration: a fat pizza guy who is definitely not from Asia.

This next photo is from the excellent Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi. Inside are all kinds of exhibits on the hill tribes and other groups prevalent in the country, with costumes, video, and more. Outside are rebuilt houses and buildings typical of certain areas. This one’s got something to do with fertility.

Gibberish t-shirts are not unique to Asia (see some from Bulgaria here), but a lot of them are manufactured here, often designed by people who have no working knowledge of the language they are using. The words are just a design element. We saw a dozen hilarious shirts in the riverside night market of Hue, one having the word “pimple” repeated about 50 times and another with a cat pictured but the words saying, “Time file so fast in busy daily life.” This one shows up the best as a photo though.

I believe she needs to quit her job and go to Hawaii. Or something like that.

Next post we’ll return to useful and practical cheap travel info. Until I feel the need to post that photo of what you can’t do in a Bangkok cab…