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Published: December 28th 2005
Hanoi: Hanoi is a charming city that mixes the old with the new. It lacks the cosmopolitan air of Saigon but it's hectic narrow streets provide good opportunities to shop, or enjoy a coffee or vietnamese tea in a cafe bar whilst watching the buzz outside. Women in pointy bamboo vietnamese syle hats joke with you whilst they carry goods on two large baskets on a both ends of long stick. Old men with berets and goatie beards play chess alongside the riverside whilst young couples coourt at sunset.. Thousand of people whizz by on mopeds and bicycles make crossing the road a test of nerve, the traffic parts like water around a stone as you slowly edge your way across.
We joined the long line of pilgrims, chatty schoolchildren, tourists and to see the embalmed body Ho Chi Min. Guards ordered tousists to remove caps and take their hands from their pockets on the way in. Uncle Ho looked calm and serene and all was silent as we filed past.
The Ho Chi Min museum behind the Mosoleum is another highlight of Hanoi. It mixed propaganda, modern art, technology, to illuminate Ho Chi Min and the Communist paties
One Pillar Pagoda
Or the worlds biggest bird table!development. Some sections of the museum looked like a Dr Who set so oulandish and modern was the design!
The markets are hectic and busy with a mixture of fruit, flower, meat products(including dogs head and tongues), and fish, eels, frogs and crabs that swim around basins of water!
The Museum of Ethnology had displays of the huge range of ethnic groups that live in vietnam. Many of these groups live in the Highland areas of vietnam and maintain traditional livestyles. Outside the museums there are fantastic replicas of traditional house styles. One was 60 foot tall and looked like a duck bill on stilts, this was worth the visit by itself.
Hanoi is a great place to visit with plenty to see, however remember and bring warm clothes if you visit in december, it was really chilly and i had to buy a jumper, socks and trainers!
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