Days 116 & 117: Hanoi Pt I

Traffic madness
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First day of our last full calendar month sees us arrive in Hanoi late at night having flown from Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh and then north to here – for reasons never ascertained the only Cathay flight ineligible for our Round the World ticket is the direct flight from Hong Kong to Hanoi, brilliant! Take the easy option and arranged for the hotel to pick us up at the airport, extravagant waste of an extra $5!

Our hotel, the relatively cheap and cheerful Hanoi Elegance No 2, is located in the heart of the old quarter and we quickly discover after a nights sleep is a great area to be in. You can hardly step foot outside the hotel without being spotted by a shoe shine boy, a cyclo taxi driver or a woman selling bananas from the traditional bamboo scales over her shoulder – if you hesitate for long your likely to have all of them. This may sound an annoyance, and it could be at times, but the people here are friendly and the manner in which they try to sell and barter goods and services is much less oppressive than the last couple of weeks in China, so in fact it actually becomes quite nice to see the same people regularly – indeed one cyclo (front facing rickshaw) driver would spot us, smile and wave all around the city over the next few days.

Chilling out in the Old Quarter

Street market
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As expected crossing the street in a busy Vietnamese city is pretty exciting, really a matter of faith that if you step out and cross the various bikes, cyclos, scooters and cars will just go around you. This wasn’t as daunting to us as it might of been having been to some extent prepared by China, where you cross each lane one at a time a wait with traffic all around. Quickly find best approach is tunnel vision, looking at the traffic heading straight for you only makes you stutter in your stride and confuse the scooter rider about to swerve round you!

Hanoi's East Gate
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In truth we didn’t do an awful lot on our first full day here, opting for a lie in, a leisurely wander round the area and some planning of the now much expanded (having ditched Thailand) time ahead in ‘Nam. To this end we bought a Lonely Planet Guidebooks on Vietnam from a guy in the street, pretty sure its a copy but at least its a good one (interestingly there’s a section in the book on avoiding buying dodgy copies of their book, although they seem happy to recommend places for DVDs and handbags!). Its recommendations for food and drink where pretty good today, especially the French/Vietnamese restaurant Green Tangerine and opposite Le Pub (a French / British bar on the other side of the world).

Hanoi street scene
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Already thinking of extending our time here in Hanoi, and as a bonus this is looking more and more like a very cheap country to tour.