Hanoi, Vietnam

Saturday May 9, 2009.

4am, only about an hour or two of sleep, we wake up from our hotel room in Bangkok. Still a bit hazy while checking out, we pay our bill and head to the airport for our 6am flight, it was yet another early day. But 6 hours from the time we woke up were already in a vastly different place from where we left.

Hanoi, Vietnam. From the airport, our taxi driver, provided by our hostel, took us to the old quarter of Hanoi, where we'll be staying until going off to Ha Long Bay for a three day Kayaking and hiking trip.

Out of all the places I've been or lived, I would have to say Hanoi is my favorite city so far, well tied with Ballard (And that's just because Ballard has Golden City). In Hanoi the streets are filled with scooters whizzing by and people walking and congregating on the sidewalks but you don't have sky scrapers and tall building towering over you, or the sound of trucks, construction, tv's and radio's. The architecture and landscape is reminiscent of a small French town (due to the french occupation) and just as easily accessible to get around the city by foot or scooter. But the culture itself (fortunately) is nothing else but it's own. Hanoi is a place where they've been able to advance in so many ways but has still been able to keep it's identity and proud of it.








The alley's vastly outnumber the main roads and are just as busy with foot traffic and food stalls.In here you'll find a mix of restaurants, private dwellings, mechanic and retail shops, all coinciding next to each other while old lady's in there bicycle's selling anywhere from a fruits, flowers, or knick knacks, pass by.






Fresh produce from the provinces are sold daily right on the sidewalk.
































The first meal of the day was coffee in a sidewalk cafe before heading off to a restaurant for Vietnamese sandwich's. The sandwich were made of a fresh baguette, cilantro, sliced cucumber, dykon, pate', chicken, oil and vinegar, fancy, and hot sauce to you liking. A majority of the eatery's are in sidewalks and alley's where you can commonly be found on small plastic patio furniture. Fresh soup, Pho, is constantly stirred and monitored right next to you.




After a quick bite we headed off to another cafe for some drinks while our room get's ready. The beer of choice here is " Ha Noi", 333, Halida, and Tiger














We perched ourselves on a patio overlooking one of the main roads. Who needs a TV when you got hundreds of scooters intersecting all at once. Cars are the minority compared to the hundreds, if not thousands of, scooters. For every car there's probably a hundred scooters .