Hanoi is a very modern city with a French colonial flavour. Its main lake "Hom Kiem" is surrounded by alleys plenty of shops and markets to walk around .. and also thousands of motorbikes to dodge! You can't imagine the amount of motorbikes that there are in Hanoi! There is a population of 2 million people and there are 1,600,000 motos!!! Unbelievable! Motorbikes everywhere!!
The magic of Hanoi is on its streets. There is lots of people on them at anytime. They get up very early in the morning to do some exercise and then they go for something to eat in those bars with mini tables and chairs located on the sidewalks. You can get all kind of vietnamese food here: rice, noodles, all kind of fish and meat, seafood, frog, tortoise...even dog!! Yes! in Vietnam they eat dog in certain days or special situations. Also it is said that eating dog's meat gives you luck!!
Another thing that surprised us was the coffe culture! Since we left home we haven't found a country with that and we loved it!! we suppose it is due to the French colonialism. Furthermore the coffee is with sweetened milk... yummy!!!!!!!!!!!
No matter how much people can tell you about Hanoi ... you don't realise of it until you are here yourself. Crossing the streets thinking that thousands of motorbikes will run you over or bargaining for everything is an adventure! you have to bargain even for a bottle of water! The shop assistant will try to sell you the item for about 5 times more of the price in some cases!!! Amazing!
The old city centre is called "Old Quarter" and it is where we stayed. WE have visited museums, temples, parks and the huge Ho Chi Min Mausuleum complex. Ho Chi Min fighted for the unification of Vietnam and the independence of the country from the French conolism. Hundreds of people queue to pay their respects. A funny thing here is that his embalmed body remains there even when he requested to be cremated!
One of the last nights in the capital we went to see a water puppet performance on the main theatre. This is a very old Vietnamese tradition created by the rice field workers.
We leave Hanoi now to cross to Laos. We will come back to Vietnam to visit the centre and south of the country.
See you soon!!
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