After three days in Hanoi it is fair to say that this is the city that we have liked the least, the city has sat under a pall
of haze/smoke day and night for the whole time we have been there. One interesting architecture style is the stand alone 4 or 5 floor house about 4 meters wide, they prop up quite stand alone and look quite strange, with a mixture of French and neo eastern block style. We stayed at the Sofitel Plaza a 5 star hotel that sits across a small lake between the Old Quarter and the French Quarter is central to Hanoi, with blue skies I am sure it would look completely different. The driving is even more chaotic than Saigon, I think the best way I can sum it up is that the roads are real "community" property catering for a mix a pedestrians, push bikes, motorbikes, cars, trucks and animals....all at once, criss crossing in all directions with maximum use of the horn.
As the capital of what was North Vietnam it stills carries its past and ongoing communist heritage quite reminiscent of the Soviet Union. They have a big soviet style (Lenin} mausoleum for Ho Chi Menh who is embalmed and on view inside. It also doubles a Lenin's does, as a platform for the Party leaders for parades, including May Day I guess. It has the obligatory changing of the guard and the city has its fair share of Military guards standing around various Government buildings. However on the surface you couldn't sense any different with the people as to whether they were living in a Communist state, a democracy or a monarchy as in other parts of Asia.. Interestingly we did stumble across a great Indian Restaurant around the corner and down a lane from our hotel, doesn't sound much but it really was totally unexpected in amongst local eating shops. Not an Indian in sight but great food just the same.
After a day I did try to get us up to Hong Kong for a couple of days but couldn't get the flights out of Hanoi that would work for us. We are now off the Bangkok for a day as we then fly the next day overnight to Turkey. More thumbnails ...
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Hanoi Hotels
