Hanoi

Hanoi 10.10.11

So to say that the city did not conform to my expectations is an understatement.  First of all it’s much more modern and up to date that I expected.  And beautiful.  It’s huge, and to an outsider there is little sense of order.  It’s not laid out on anything like a grid and all the streets wind and start and stop.  There are many tall modern buildings, and on the outskirts of the city some low level, but clean looking factories.  In the heart of the city are many charming streets with bustling entrepreneurial shops and stalls as well as lovely French-Vietnamese architecture houses.  The smells of papaya and pineapple fill the air as women with cone shaped hats and baskets balanced on poles over their shoulders hawk fruit.  In another decade they’ll probably all be gone, displaced by supermarkets.

We’re staying in a great neighborhood called the Hoan Kiem District.  It’s anchored in the center by a small lake with a pagoda in the middle.  Quite lovely.  The area we’re in includes the old city which is charming and a lot of government buildings.  The presidential palace, national museum and Ho Chi Minh mausoleum are close by and also lots of embassies and government ministries.  We’ve explored a lot in this area but there are huge parts of the city we haven’t seen much of expect for distant skyscrapers from our hotel window.

Had a great $2.50 lunch.  Speaking of food we’ve found a great website, http://www.savourasia.com/   It covers a number of Asian countries including Vietnam and directed us to a couple of fantastic restaurants.  Not only does it include terrific reviews of wonderful restaurants, it also provides detailed instructions on how to get to them.  In cities where and address is merely a starting point and the streets wind all over the place this is indeed a help.  For anyone traveling here I highly recommend it.  For instance last night, on their recommendation we had a dish of  grilled prawns with basil and garlic and other spices and an eggplant dish that were out of this world.  We’ve eaten well in Vietnam.  On our last night in Hanoi we went to a restaurant called Quan An Ngon which was around the corner from our hotel and another recommended by savourasia.   We were by chance seated at a long table with a family from Israel.  We had a great time chatting with them.  The father was trying to set up some business in Vietnam and was a very interesting guy.  His kids were just out of college age and adorable.  Great fun.

Water puppets are a traditional entertainment in Vietnam although they are dying out.  One of the few remaining troupes is in Hanoi and is done mainly for the entertainment of tourists.  Nevertheless we went and saw a charming performance.  It was sort of like watching an opera before the days of surtitles.  You got a good sense of the story from the action on stage and language didn’t matter.   It was great good fun.

On to Cambodia