Vietnam- Hanoi

We absolutely loved Hanoi. It's an awesome city. Spent several days in the Old Quarter as a base for planning our upcoming month in Vietnam... highlights include crossing the street, haggling at the shoe markets (ended up with a terrible pair of plastic "Nike" flip-flops for Carter), driving a motorbike around the city to see the major monuments and museums (video below), following the Lonely Planet walking tour around the Old Quarter, seeing a show at the Water Puppet Theater, joining hundreds of local teenagers for the Friday night ice cream buffet at Fanny's Ice Cream Parlor, cooling off with a $0.50 can of Tiger Beer, finally tasting Vietnamese cuisine for the first time and realizing it is every bit as good as we've always heard, and a really cool day trip to Ninh Binh. We also used Hanoi as "home base" of sorts during our first week and a half in Vietnam, and we give a huge thanks to the wonderful Hanoi Cozy Hotel and our dear friend Ms. Thuy! 

St. Joseph's Cathedral

typical city street

Hoan Kiem Lake

Notice the intersection with no traffic signals! and the absence of cars. Everyone drives motorbikes, and somehow the mayhem works; it's actually quite efficient! A totally amazing sight, too. Crossing the streets is especially adventurous... you just step off the curb and into the sea of motorbikes whizzing by in the both directions.  It's crazy, but as long as you walk slowly (and best to not look), they part like the Red Sea and go around you. It's only those who get freaked and either freeze or run who get into trouble.  I almost cried the first time I had to "walk into oncoming traffic," but we grew to enjoy the challenge. 

rice drying in the sun

We rarely saw just one person riding a bike in SE Asia (that would be wasteful), especially when it was children. All bikes have a little seat on the back, or at least a metal platform, and foot pegs for the back passenger.  We gave it a try at one point, with Robert driving and me on the back, and it's incredibly hard to balance -- we almost fell off.

Ninh Binh

Rice husks & stems -- burned and used for fertilizer; the Vietnamese waste absolutely nothing

rice husks fire

The Vietnamese in Ninh Binh drive boats with their feet!  and most women wear (in addition to long pants and long sleeves in the 110+ degree heat) both socks and gloves in order to protect their skin from the sun.

 

Video of us riding a motorbike around Hanoi (Robert driving and Carter videoing from the back)

Mission accomplished!