Life in Hanoi

After safely arriving at our hotel, we bravely decided to step out into the streets of Hanoi's Old Quarters, where we were based. It was dark already and the small narrow badly lit were not what had been envisaged as our first outing experience. But the place was heaving with activity. Street kitchen were set up everywhere, random stalls were selling everything from tacky souvenirs to shoes to imitation clothing and bags. A night market was taking place in the main artery of the Old Quarters and it would seem it was a big event for the Hanoi populace. We were both starving but we hadn't quite gathered the courage to eat at one of the makeshift street kitchens, also called the People's kitchens. Locals gather around a few women with pots and pans as simple meals are produced at great speed. No chairs or tables, just pint size stools on the pavement for the luxury ones, otherwise it's squatting down onto the ground. So we cowardly found a very tourist trap like affair with pictures and English on the menu! Still it was a decent feed, and relatively cheap, especially compared to London. The next couple of days involved going on guided tours of the city, visiting Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, Pagoda's and other museums as well as roaming around the streets of the Old Quarters and the French quarters, with its distinctive colonial influence, in order to get slowly accustomed to Vietnam's Capital. We saw the famous Water Puppets, a truly magical spectacle of traditional Vietnamese folk art, though it was worth noting that there wasn't one Vietnamese person as most of them couldn't afford the inflated tourist ticket prices. Sad really. At every corner there are street hawkers, trying to sell postcards, chewing gum and other useless junk. They are often accompanied by drivers of diverse vehicles, motorised and not, offering to whiz you off for an hour tour of the city. It is a strange way of life there. Everything seems chaotic but there's was certain relaxed atmosphere about it all. Scooters buzz along at a leisurely pace, people sit in groups around shops and other outlets and chat about their daily events over cups of coffee and bowls of noodle soup. We discovered one of Vietnam's unique experiences: road crossing. Anything that has wheels on the road is not obliged to obey our familiar rules regarding zebra crossings. In Vietnam, one just has to walk across the road without hesitating whilst looking the drivers in the eyes. So far so good, we have followed the local custom and it seems to work quite well. Scooters and other vehicles just swerve passed you as you hop along! Remember that vehicles move at a rather leisurely pace here. It's far less dangerous than it sounds! Hanoi on the whole is an interesting place, but I can't say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Kiri expressed the same feelings and we were both happy that we'd stayed only three nights there. JM