Hanoi – October 24

First impression of Hanoi is that TRAFFIC IS INSANE! We are staying in the “quiet” Old Quarter, but getting there from the airport was incredible. The streets are packed with motorcycles, a few brave souls on bicycles, and very few cars. There are traffic lights at some of the larger intersections and people sorta/kinda respect them. But at most others, no one stops and the boundaries between lanes are fluid at best. And the noise level is stunning – all those motorcycles are honking, constantly. In fact, that seems to be a driving technique – honk and just keep going, regardless of whether what you’re doing is illegal or not – like driving on the sidewalk or down the street the wrong way. As long as you honk, you can pretty much do anything.

So, crossing the street is a real adventure. It’s pointless to wait for “your turn” – that’s not going to happen. You just step off the sidewalk and keep going, slowly but with purpose. And somehow it works – the motorcyclists see you and judge where you’ll be next and you just keep going forward, with a motorcycle whizzing a foot in front of you and another one a foot behind you. It’s basically just one big game of chicken. After a few times, you get more confident and “lock eyes” with the oncoming motorcyclists – which you really can’t do since they’re all wearing helmets – but they see you and you see them and you just keep going.

Second impression is how odd it is that everyone speaks English – English seems much more pervasive here than in Bangkok. And the stores and restaurants and museums all take US dollars – when the bill comes, the total is listed in US dollars and in Vietnam dong. It’s a good thing, since the exchange rate is approximately 20,000 Viet dong to one US dollar, so the totals in dong are crazy – lots of amounts in the hundreds of thousands. But not only do they take US dollars, they can also give you change in US dollars. I bought a poster for $8, gave the vendor a $10 bill, and she opened up her register and pulled out two dollars bills. Bizarre – not sure how they keep two currencies going but they do. And the people couldn’t be nicer. This is a country we were at war with 40 years ago, and here we are today as tourists, feeling very welcome.

Hanoi is celebrating the 1000th anniversary of its founding this year. And there is certainly energy in the air – lots of couple posing for wedding pictures in the park, little kids running around, and flags with red stars flying everywhere.

Hanoi has some beautiful old buildings from when the French ruled here. And the food is a wonderful blend of French and Asian – we had some very tasty meals of duck and fish, but served with unusual spices like tamarind and strawberry chutney.

We went to some interesting temples and markets, but mostly we just enjoyed walking around the city – like many places in Asia, Hanoi is a great place to people watch.