hanoi

Asia
October 11th 2009

Published: October 12th 2009

What an insane place. Hanoi has it all, women carrying the tradition baskets loaded up with fruit on those sticks on their shoulders, brand new mercs and beamers fighting their way through the millions of scooters, beggers, millions of kids running around, millions of tourists running around and very well dressed women in high heels squatting in the streets eating with everybody else. We had a snack at one of these street kitchens, a noodle salad in soup sort of thing. it was delicious! you sit on these tiny little stools and wait for your food to come, while the locals look at you (everybody looks at you). We were the only foreigners at this place so quite an attraction i think, everybody was very nice and helpful and then a guy sat down next to me and his stool broke! everyone was laughing and we sort of got drawn into their circle with with a lot of gesturing and smiles. lovely people. we managed to tell them where we're from and no we arent married (everybody asks). a great meal. Theres a filthy green lake called hoan kiem lake which we walked around. You cant see the other side of it through the smog even though its not very big (you cant even see then sun through the smog), There were hundreds of people doing the same as us and we gathered through talking to some that they were mostly vietnamese tourists from different provinces. All of them taking photos. millions of photos! And yes heaps of them posing by flowers doing the peace sign. There were 2 options of camera - super hardcore SLR (way more hardcore than mine) or cellphone camera. the only people with digital compacts are the white tourists. Cameras are pretty big here, theres hundreds of camera shops all with the lastest gear. Whilst walking around the lake, at any one time you could similtaeously see about 4 - 5 weddings going on. i think we saw a total of 8 weddings! popular place to have photos done ay. So turns out today is another holiday, vietnam 55 years of independance. There was a juggler and a magician doing an act on a big stage at night when we came out of the water puppet theatre. It caused absolut traffic chaos. Words cant describe it. scooter gridlock with people burning up and down the footpaths, through parked cars and people. carnage. we've gotten pretty good at crossing the road too, you just walk out and the traffic goes around you. if you hesitate you put them off thier line and they wobble.

i cant upload any photos because the usb port on the free internet computer at our hotel doesnt work. but hopefully i can from somewhere soon.

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