March 4, 2015 – Hanoi.
Well, here we are in Hanoi, Vietnam’s second-largest city. It’s our jumping-off place for a boat tour of Ha Long Bay, which was made famous in a couple of James Bond movies for its dramatic landscapes, and for an overnight in Sa Pa, a beautiful town in the mountains near the Chinese border. It’s also our exit point for the trip, as we’ll fly back to Vancouver from here.
It’s a city of eight million people, so we’ll get to see about 0.01% of it. We’re staying in a little mom-and-pop hotel three or four blocks from the central lake downtown, so that’s where we’ll focus our attention. First impressions – Hanoi feels very different than Ho Chi Minh City in the south. The streets downtown are narrow and crowded, and everyone is on a mission. It feels more like a Chinese city, I guess. It’s our first experience with the North, and everything feels different! The weather, too, is definitely cooler here.
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The street scene in front of our hotel.
OK, maybe it’s a LITTLE overloaded. Somehow, he managed to get it back up off the ground.
This is a five-way corner with no traffic control. It was a fun intersection to walk across!
A view of the central lake from our dinner table.
The next morning we went for a walk around the lake. It has a broad walking path all the way around, the banks are fully bricked-in (is that a word?), and there are lots of trees, benches, and a few teahouses. Very civilized.
The walking path, with flowering trees.
A teahouse on a little island.
One of many pretty little spots to hang out around the lake.
When we got to the other end of the lake, we spotted what seemed to be a Gucci sign. THAT wasn’t something we expected to see, so we crossed over the street to check it out, and sure enough, there’s a Gucci store in Hanoi.
Yup. Gucci store.
Rhinestone motorbike, this week only!
Walking back along the lake towards our hotel, we came across a busy storefront that turned out to be an art factory, where they teach students to do ‘commercial’ art, and of course they sell it both locally and on-line.
It’s a bit of an assembly line; a painting my pass through three or four sets of hands before it is complete.
Need jade?
So, that’s it for Hanoi right now. We have an early bus to catch tomorrow morning that will take us to Haiphong harbor, and then on to Ha Long Bay!