Hanoi

People were beginning to move about in the grey dawn of a new day in Hanoi. Already the government policy announcements and earnest music were being broadcast from loudspeakers on the street corners. As we stepped off the bus waste water was swilling from shops and houses into the freely flowing gutters of the Old Quarter.

We travelled from Hué to Hanoi for thirteen hours on a sleeper bus. This was a new coach kitted out with bunks, complete with blankets and pillows. Theoretically it was a good idea but the tight bends and bumpy roads took a bit of getting used to. The regular toilet stops, though welcome, also meant we took short naps rather than slept. Still if you don’t try new things you never find out.

We stayed in the Old Quarter, a hustling, bustling hive of industry and retail acumen. Similar businesses were clustered together. So there was a street of metal bashers, a street of tool shops, a street tailor shops and even a street of Christmas decorations and Santa Clause outfits.  These narrow streets pulsated with life, people and motor bikes all weaving in and out and squeezing past. The people though looked solemn and serious maybe even a bit anxious and worried about something.

Being smaller than Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi has a more immediate appeal.  It is possible to walk around the central area comfortably. On our first day we paid our respects to Ho Chi Minh in his Mausoleum. The Mausoleum is closed for two months each year for restoration works and luckily we arrived on the opening day.  So we saw the great man at his best.  On other days we walked around the picturesque Hoan Keim Lake in the centre of the city and browsed through some museums.  The History Museum and the Museum of the Vietnamese revolution are well worth visiting.  We rather took to a street café where we sat on very low stools and cooked our meat on solid fuel burners on the pavement.

Further afield a walk around Truc Bach Lake offered the opportunity to count the number of dead fish and rats floating belly up in the polluted waters as you perused the lakeside restaurants.   There is also an interesting memorial to anti aircraft gunners who shot down an American plane into the lake in October 1967.

We hoped to attend an opera in the magnificent French built Opera House but the opera house programme didn’t fit in with our timetable. 

From Hanoi we took a trip to the beautiful Halong Bay. Organising this wasn’t as straightforward as we expected. We also took small rowing boats up the Red River to the Perfume Pagoda. 

Pictures of Halong Bay and the Red River.