This mornings tour of the old quarter will, hopefully, just be a nice gentle stroll as we are taking things easy this time.

The reason is that, when we did Japan, it was like two weeks in a whirlwind.

Tour after tour, each and every day meant that we not only became quickly exhausted, but we just never had time to reflect on, nor appreciate the places that we visited. It was a shame but also a good lesson learned and so this trip was planned to be more relaxed. 50% tour, 50% relaxation plus we have to add an extra 10% to consider motorcycle collision avoidance strategy which is taking its toll on our elbows. Tip: Always keep them tucked in.

(The above reminds me of the time I was told that 50% of the population can’t read, 50% can’t write, and the other half can’t add up!)

Today’s tour began with the obligatory market area walk to gawp at the strange foods, inhale the unfamiliar smells and try not to be repelled by the sight of animal body parts in their various stages of dismemberment.

Oh, and to answer to Sue’s question, no, they don’t eat dog here 😱. I think South Korea once had a specific breed for eating but I believe that’s stopped now 🤞).

Animal welfare in Hanoi actually seems pretty good. I’ve not seen a single stray, nor any animal that looked malnourished or mistreated. They are either good with their animals or have a very efficient dog patrol.

The market walk also allowed me to stock up on photos for the unexpectedly popular fruit quiz, so that was a bonus. 

Like many other cities around the world there are certain streets here selling particular products.

The Shambles in York for instance was where the butchery businesses were all gathered. I suppose it was simpler to keep all the fleshy bits of gore in one place for delivering into and the shoppers had a single location to visit to choose their cow parts for dinner.

Hanoi’s product streets are incredibly specific though and hold huge amounts of different items. There was a haberdashery street with a million different bags of buttons and I don’t mean small bags. These were serious bulk-buy buttons. Think potato sacks. Who on earth needs that many buttons? 

There’s the crockery street, the glassware street, the ceramic street etc etc.

The electrical street could’ve equipped the requirements of a small town and my personal favourite was a street of maybe thirty stores all filled to the rafters with just pumps. Water pumps, fuel pumps and yes, I do realise that I’m strange.

There really is a street for every product range. It’s basically a more modern Amazon where you can simply walk in and get anything you need, but you don’t have to wait a day for it to be delivered. I’ve seen the future!! 😅

We then visited the home of a very nice local lady called Mrs Quy, (pronounced ‘Kwee’)who proudly showed us her home and family tree …

…and then we walked to the railway station although I couldn’t understand why.

I didn’t remember ticking the ’trainspotting’ box when I declared our personal interests. We found ourselves in a very long narrow street, a little over two metres wide, with cafes and chairs on either side. It seemed like an ordinary cramped thoroughfare until I looked down and realised that there was a train track running straight through the centre of it.

We sat down next to the track and waited. I honestly expected one of those little ‘toy’ trains that shunts tourists around theme parks complete with a peak-hatted ‘driver’ to slowly parade past waving to the kids.

What I didn’t expect was a huge commotion and lots of shouting to get all the souvenir sellers and tourists off the line just before a massive ten carriage double decker train came rolling through. It took forever to pass and it turns out to be the main train that runs from South to north of the country.

The communist party of Vietnam definitely doesn’t have a health and safety directive. 

And that was the end of our morning tour, back to the hotel and sadly goodbye to Queen, our excellent guide for the last three days.

I’m considering changing the blog format. Instead of having a section entitled ‘Strange things’, I’m thinking I need a section called ‘Normal things’ due to the numerical superiority of the strange ones.

We’ve seen dog-riding scooters…

Then there was the fish-slipper store. There must be something that explains the necessity for fish-shaped footwear but it continues to eludes me.

But for truly superior strangeness take a look at this….

This was just a glimpse of one of the many Vietnamese fables enacted by underwater puppeteers accompanied by orchestra and singers. It’s called the Thang Long water puppet show – Pretty amazing actually. I bet they all have really crinkly hands.

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…. today’s fruit quiz.

Congratulations to Anita who was the first to identify the mystery fruit as ‘Buddas hand’ or ‘Buddas finger’. It’s mainly a ceremonial fruit, too bitter to eat but small, cute and chubby, hence the name. On re-reading maybe that’s racist? – sorry. Anita also gets a bonus point for providing the scientific name of Citrus medica var.sarcodactylis. Swot! For your prize, I’m sending you the Budda’s finger right now!

Onto todays fruit quiz.

You’re all doing too well so, today I’m increasing the level of difficulty!!

Sadly, it’s our last night in Hanoi and I’n the last shop that we walked through on our way back to our hotel, we found a T-Shirt that sums up the city perfectly…

Tomorrow, our driver (It’s an odd name, I know 😉 ) will collect us, bright and early, for the three-hour drive to Lan Ha Bay where we board a tiny cruise boat for three days. I have no idea if there will be connectivity so, if not, my next post may not be for a while.

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Hanoi

13th November 2024