Our first impressions seem validated. It’s vibrant, colourful, loud and crowded, teeming with life and not one inch of unused space in either the Old quarter or the French quarter which is where we have spent most of our time so far.

There are nine million people in Hanoi and over seven million motorcycles,  and it seems that every single one of them is continuously swarming up and down  the streets, never slowing down, simply swerving  around any obstacles that may be in their way such as cars, bicycles and of most concern, us.

Crossing the road seemed impossible at first, then I was told to watch out for any old lady who was crossing and just follow her. 

The secret is pace, you just pick a crossing, and as long as you stay on it, keep  your head down and maintain a steady and confident pace, they all just buzz around you in this incredible ballet, missing by centimetres, although I do have a couple of handlebar scuffs from the odd glancing blow. It’s neither pretty nor relaxing but it all works and everything keeps flowing. It’s unnerving but very efficient. No stopping, no jams. I’m sure there’s the odd squished person here and there but it’s very efficient.

It’s not as if there’s no rules or road signs. One-way streets are clearly marked, red lights tell them to stop and go, there are flashing crossings for when pedestrians can and can’t cross but they are completely and utterly ignored.

They are as much use as the Pope’s balls. 

Tonight I suddenly realised that this was our second day of walking the city and yet I still have absolutely no idea what side of the road they drive on!

Apart from the constant fear of a road-mageddon apocalypse, it feels like a very safe city. It’s quite unlike Japan where everyone is strangely overly subservient, polite and gentle. 

Everyone here is very friendly, respectful and helpful but with character and individuality.  No one is threatening or pushy and Brigitte is happy to wander down the backstreets, confident in her safety.  

It’s a really nice atmosphere. 

Although it’s not a particularly religious country, most follow Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism (just to hedge the risk, I’m told) so they believe in Karma and try to be good kind and helpful which is rather refreshing.

It’s a really interesting philosophy, a Communist state and therefore, according to my education, it must be bad but everyone seems genuinely happy. They are all encouraged to better themselves for the good of themselves and their country which they all seem to have pride in. They seem to work hard, capitalism is encouraged and they say that the country is going from strength to strength economically.  

Being a staunch cynic with entrenched views from a British education I’m still firmly wearing the cynic hat and prodding everyone I meet about it but even though I’m sure saying anything bad about the state would probably be a bad thing,  it’s seems to genuinely be working. I shall continue to prod and poke so please start a Justgiving page to get me released in due course.

We actually went to the house of one of the heads of the local communist party tonight with our tour guide (my cynics hat tells me it was done for propaganda reasons, my head is starting to question that though) and both he and his wife shared with us his home-made rice alcohol (hic). He had a breadth of western knowledge, he was openly and fairly opinionated and was genuinely nice and talkative through our interpreter. Strange days indeed.

Today’s morning tour was to the literature museum

which is a garden and temple of learning, followed by a visit to Hoa Lo, the infamous French prison where they imprisoned, tortured and guillotined political dissidents and which, during the Vietnam war, became known as the ‘Hanoi Hilton’ because of the way the state fairly treated their US captives. 

This evening was a street food tour presented by ‘Buffalo Joe’, named because his pregnant mother was evacuated from her village during a typhoon and gave birth to him on the back of the buffalo she was being carried on!

We spent a very entertaining evening with BJ sampling local delicacies, all delicious. However, as nothing wriggled, hissed or tried to run away from our chopsticks I won’t bore you with detail other than to mention egg coffee, a local drink that was invented here. 

Coffee, which was introduced here by the French, was not sweet enough for the Vietnamese palate so they added condensed milk. When that became scarce, an enterprising local decided to substitute it with a mixture of egg yolk, honey and cheese, which they whisk up and spoon on top of the hot coffee to serve. A half coffee-half cheese omelette which, personally, I’d have called a Comlette, but what’s not to like? It’s actually quite delicious 😋.

Strange things #3

Todays fruit quiz winner is Hannah who correctly identified the mystery fruit as a ‘Durian’  (Sorry Charlie, a Jackfruit is less bumpy, but please try your luck again today!) 

Today’s fruit quiz……

Oh no, I just realised that I completely forgot todays Dong joke, I must slip one in somewhere – ooh, I think I just did 🤣

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Hanoi

12th November 2024