Bia Hoi in Hanoi

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We have spent the last few days in Hanoi, its a great city with lots of character. The old quarter is especially good with lots of little streets selling all sorts of goods, and all the streets are named after what the shops sell, so you have silk street, blacksmith street, there was even a nuts and bolts street! The food streets were amazing to walk down as the smells of the spices and fruits were great. The one we especially enjoyed was Bia Hoi corner, or draught beer corner in English. Each corner of the street had little tables and chairs outside on the pavement selling beer for as little as 12p. We sat there amongst the locals who seemed to enjoy us tourists sitting amongst them, laughing at us drinking their beer.....great fun!! One of our group kindly bought a round for everyone (11 drinks in total) for a whopping GBP1.30.

Whilst in Hanoi we just had to go and see Halong Bay, so we had a boat trip to the islands which included an overnight stay in the bay. They were similar to the islands we saw in Ao Phang Nga in Thailand where we had been earlier but these were much more impressive. There are about 2000 islands in total and the scenery was spectacular. The weather was great, hot and sunny so we sunbathed and briefly saw the sunsetting over the islands before going for a swim in the sea. In the evening the people on the boat played guitar for us and we tried to learn some Vietnamese songs, not very successfully but a good laugh though.

We went past Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum whilst in Hanoi but we didn't go in as during the month of November his body is taken away to be "freshened up", as the local seem to put it, Uncle Ho is on vacation!!

The traffic in Hanoi is crazy, it was bad in China but here in Vietnam there are soooo many motorbikes and cyclist...not so many cars... but it is a challenge just crossing the road. Basically you just have to step off the pavement to cross the road and keep walking at a not to fast but constant speed, they then judge how fast you are going and cycle/ride past you. We went for a ride on a cyclo one evening, a cyclo is a bike with a seat at the front and there is a guy at the back cycling and directing. We had an hours ride where we were taken around the old quarter, people were walking out in front of us and motorbikes coming at us from all directions. Great way to see the old quarter but it was a scary ride!!

After Hanoi we are going by overnight train to Hue. Unfortunately as well as us going to Hue so is a tropical storm.

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Photos

Sunset at Halong Bay
Just a quick glimpse!

One Pillar Pagoda
In grounds of the presidential palace in Hanoi