Hanoi
Trip Start
Nov 16, 2007
1
3
20
Trip End
Jan 14, 2008
Hanoi,
Vietnam
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Other parts of town aren't quite so crazy ... or quite so interesting. The French Quarter, from the old colonial days, has wider streets and sidewalks, plus some parks and trees. Many of the old colonial mansions have been turned into official government buildings. The newer construction (and there's lots of it) is very haphazard and gaudy ... often tall, narrow buildings, very brightly painted in the front with bare cement on the sides, tons of wiring everywhere
Old Quarter Hanoi
. Much of Hanoi seems pretty grungy - kind of like European cities in the 70's before they cleaned up the air and scrubbed the buildings. The air quality was pretty awful. A lot of people wear masks, especially when riding the motorbikes, but I'm not sure whether that would help very much. However, the city is not littered and dirty. They have a number of people who work constantly at cleaning the streets and sidewalks. The city is 4000 years old and maintains its charm in spite of the crazy, haphazard growth.The traffic is absolutely nuts. There are motorbikes everywhere, carrying up to 5 people and an amazing variety of goods. There are very few stoplights, and they're usually ignored. Everybody honks constantly. It's quite daunting for the visitor to just walk along the street, much less try to get across! However, you get used to it at some level and actually are able to maneuver reasonably well. The drivers are very alert and attentive and there are relatively few accidents, amazingly enough. I'm very glad we had a driver, though ... I would NOT want to try to drive. They don't let foreigners drive cars here, anyway, but you can rent a motorbike. No way would I do it in the city.
The hotel was great, nice breakfast buffet came with the room, and very friendly staff, most of whom speak pretty good English. It turns out that all the kids here study English in school, and most of the people speak some English ... MANY more people than speak it (or are willing to try speaking it) in Japan. The people are also very friendly. We've had some excellent food - Vietnamese and French.
We also went 35 km west of Hanoi away from the city and the tourist destinations to a wonderful old pagoda, first built in 8th-9th centuries. We also rode bicycles around the area - through villages and agricultural area
Street Kitchen
. It was very interesting and a lot of fun - the kids all waved, as did the people working in the fields. Everything is still done by hand ... planting, watering, harvesting. There were a few water buffalo, but no tractors or mechanized farm implements. 70% of the population is still rural, agricultural. They work small plots of land, generally planting rice and a few other crops.It's interesting that there doesn't seem to be much detectable resentment against Americans. There are many more reminders of the war in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) than there are in Hanoi. It also seems much less heavy-handed communist than I somehow expected (I was in the USSR, Poland, Hungary, and East Germany in 1971). They seem to have embraced consumerism and free-market economy pretty thoroughly. They're encouraging tourism and are working towards becoming more of a global player in the world market. The young people (70% are younger than 25) are moving on and not looking back.
In general we found Hanoi fascinating. I've never seen a market that can beat the wholesale market or street vendors in the Old Quarter ... and I love wandering through markets.
