Hanoi, Vietnam
Ok, it's been a long time since Hanoi, but better late than never!
Hanoi was a good 15 degrees cooler than Siem Reap, so when we arrived the temperature difference really affected me and made me feel a bit ill. Or that was what I thought at the time. It was only when I woke up in the night drenched in sweat that I realised I really was ill. For the next couple of days I felt awful, and although now I know it was probably food poisoning, it was a worry at the time that I'd picked up something really nasty.
On the third day there I was just about well enough to get up and go out, although I still felt like a shivery wreck at this point! Hanoi is not a good city to wander round when you don't feel good. Even crossing the roads is a scary experience - there are endless amounts of motorbikes, and there's never a pause in the traffic. You just have to walk very slowly out into the paths of the motorbikes, and they will drive around you. It's so unlike the traffic system in London that you can't get used to it. It always feels like you're about to walk into instant death!
We went to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, but didn't go inside. The gardens outside were being tended by groups of three, all in vietnamese hats. I found it interesting that the gardens were (quite symbolically I imagine) just lots of neat rectangles of grass.
One thing that you notice in Hanoi (apart from the motorbikes) is the number of food stalls, there are pretty much food stalls on every street, and everyone sits on tiny plastic chairs that are about a foot tall. They seemed to sell all sorts from hot food to nuts. I saw a stall selling cans of coke. Except when I looked closer the cans had chickens' feet poking out the top! I was quite keen to try some Vietnamese food while we were there, but my appetite disappeared completely after having food poisoning. The most I had was a bowl of pho ga at a night market. James definitely went for the better option of pho bo, the beef was very rare and tender (I find chicken on the bone a bit of a pain if I'm honest).
Another really strange thing about Hanoi is the loudspeaker system. On some streets there's a constant barrage of vietnamese coming from loudspeakers, again making travelling through the city a disorientating and stressful experience. Apparently what's being broadcast is a mix of party propaganda and public information alerts, something that dates from the 50's when they were also used as air-raid warnings.
On the final day there we went on a day trip out to Halong Bay where we caught a boat to see the strange mist-covered rock formations. This was a nice relaxing contrast to the rest of the Hanoi trip, although there was a lot of travelling to get there. Vietnamese shops generally have big shopfronts with the text being what they sell. So you see lots of shops called pho bo. I can't say I noticed any in Hanoi itself, but on the way back to Hanoi from Halong bay I saw lots of shops called thit [meat] cho [dog]. I don't think they were selling dog food!
I've put a few photos up on flickr, but I didn't take many. I'm sure it would have been a very different experience if I'd been well, but it was still really interesting to see somewhere so different.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/76886703@N00/7865023966/in/photostream
Hanoi was a good 15 degrees cooler than Siem Reap, so when we arrived the temperature difference really affected me and made me feel a bit ill. Or that was what I thought at the time. It was only when I woke up in the night drenched in sweat that I realised I really was ill. For the next couple of days I felt awful, and although now I know it was probably food poisoning, it was a worry at the time that I'd picked up something really nasty.
On the third day there I was just about well enough to get up and go out, although I still felt like a shivery wreck at this point! Hanoi is not a good city to wander round when you don't feel good. Even crossing the roads is a scary experience - there are endless amounts of motorbikes, and there's never a pause in the traffic. You just have to walk very slowly out into the paths of the motorbikes, and they will drive around you. It's so unlike the traffic system in London that you can't get used to it. It always feels like you're about to walk into instant death!
We went to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, but didn't go inside. The gardens outside were being tended by groups of three, all in vietnamese hats. I found it interesting that the gardens were (quite symbolically I imagine) just lots of neat rectangles of grass.
One thing that you notice in Hanoi (apart from the motorbikes) is the number of food stalls, there are pretty much food stalls on every street, and everyone sits on tiny plastic chairs that are about a foot tall. They seemed to sell all sorts from hot food to nuts. I saw a stall selling cans of coke. Except when I looked closer the cans had chickens' feet poking out the top! I was quite keen to try some Vietnamese food while we were there, but my appetite disappeared completely after having food poisoning. The most I had was a bowl of pho ga at a night market. James definitely went for the better option of pho bo, the beef was very rare and tender (I find chicken on the bone a bit of a pain if I'm honest).
Another really strange thing about Hanoi is the loudspeaker system. On some streets there's a constant barrage of vietnamese coming from loudspeakers, again making travelling through the city a disorientating and stressful experience. Apparently what's being broadcast is a mix of party propaganda and public information alerts, something that dates from the 50's when they were also used as air-raid warnings.
On the final day there we went on a day trip out to Halong Bay where we caught a boat to see the strange mist-covered rock formations. This was a nice relaxing contrast to the rest of the Hanoi trip, although there was a lot of travelling to get there. Vietnamese shops generally have big shopfronts with the text being what they sell. So you see lots of shops called pho bo. I can't say I noticed any in Hanoi itself, but on the way back to Hanoi from Halong bay I saw lots of shops called thit [meat] cho [dog]. I don't think they were selling dog food!
I've put a few photos up on flickr, but I didn't take many. I'm sure it would have been a very different experience if I'd been well, but it was still really interesting to see somewhere so different.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/76886703@N00/7865023966/in/photostream