Flowers sellers, Dong Xuan market

19th March 2006

HANOI

I felt that my whistle-stop tour would not be complete without a visit to Ha Noi. Its name means ‘River Exterior’ and is a reference to the Red River; 100km of its dikes embrace the city. I feel so privileged to have lots of kind friends willing to host me as I travel from South to North. I've been so inspired by this beautiful country and its people and have been writing and taking photos every day. Today I was shown the sites of Hanoi from the back of a motorbike with R as my host and tour guide, and B (his cute 5 year old son) between us. The Northern capital is a lot more chilled than Sai Gon, with 1.2m inhabitants compared to the former capital’s 4.5m, so riding around is safer and the only true way to explore the city. Motorcyclists even stop at red lights here! The city has an air of a provincial French town in the 1930s with its blocks of ochre buildings, peaceful lakes, shaded boulevards and green public parks.

The morning was spent wandering the Old Quarter, which is made up of 36 narrow streets seemingly dedicated to specific areas of trade. My trusty guide introduced them as ‘Cloth Street, Food Street, Stamp Street etc’, which made me wonder how any of them ever make any money due to all the competition but I guess that’s communism for you!

R and I popped into a coffee shop for an elevenses caffeine fix – I am now seriously addicted to Vietnamese coffee and love to watch patiently while black melts into white. I was also able to revisit my love for coffee and cigarettes, as here you are able to buy a single cigarette to accompany my coffee. Wouldn’t it be great if you could do this in the UK? One is always enough (for me at least) and I’m sure there are lots of other ‘social smokers’ who would love to indulge occasionally in this way.

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