Hanoi

Mist/fog/haze. Uniforms. Lakes. Ice Cream. Dog meat.

Arriving in Hanoi was a mysterious introduction to the country my severe lack of general knowledge had narrowed down to conical hats and rice noodles. The "foggy" weather only added more to the ambiance. Not knowing how things would be like once I crossed the glass doors onto foreign soil, I did what any self respecting paranoid woman would do in my situation: Relish my last moments in a proper toilet, with real live sized doors, and stock up on free tissue paper. Walking out of the airport friendly faces would chorus rehearsed lines of "Taxi?" They call once and they called twice before letting u off with the same friendly face. No pressure. Exiting the airport and along the main highway, were more solemn looking faces, the first of many smartly uniformed government workers. Man they looked so...clean..and important..and oh don't touch that it might be important to the government.

One of my favourite memories of Vietnam would be the scenes of the passing countryside, seen from aboard a rickety public bus, cramped minivan, motorcycle, "air-conditioned bus" etc. From Hanoi down to Ho Chi Minh, every time we travelled the scenes never failed to make me sit up, looks back, point, smile, crinkle in wonder or laugh a little. There was always something to see and the first things I saw were the tiny tables and chairs of Hanoi! The road from the airport to the Old Quarter is lined with little shop houses. Colourful narrow units are sandwiched against each other, very much like the buildings I used to build with Lego! Another peculiar sight were the young women who boarded the bus donning personalised fabric face masks. Suddenly the "foggy" weather wasn't so mysterious anymore, it was dust =p But hey, a little (hmm..maybe more than a little) dust isn't going to spoil the cool weather they had. It was perfect!

The Old Quarter is an amazing maze of shops, inns, nooks and crannies. Each of the criss crossing street specializes in something eg: hardware street, TOYS street (HEHE), silversmith street, even a tomb stone making street! And nestled amongst the web is a school, a market a theater, and a romantic lake! In Hanoi, the lake is THE (pronounced thee) place to play chess, read, have lunch, walk your dog/child/boyfriend, eat ice cream and hold hands. The serene lake is lined with ancient bald trees whose wrinkly branches go to extreme lengths to stretch out and delicately ripple the water a little. The spherical white lanterns adorning the sleepy trees and the silhouette of the bridge and floating pagoda in the middle of the lake completes the look. Did I mention the ice cream? The ice cream is good! And I still can't tell what flavour it is.

Turn your back on the lake and you are immediately brought back to the traffic of Hanoi abuzz with vespas, motorcycles, bicycles and cyclos. By a cross junction along the blacksmith's street is a little shop serving draft beer from a rubber host and keg. Sit down awhile on the knee high chairs under the huge tree and watch the motorists magically untangle themselves from a cross junction without rules or traffic lights. This was how I enjoyed my first bia/beer Hanoi, and it has become one of my favourites! Honking is not deemed rude, rather a norm/courtesy. Elderly people can cross busy roads as these without flinching. The secret? To always walk at a steady pace, the other motorists with take que and maneuver their way AROUND you.

Food highlights are aplenty! Baguettes stuffed with pork and liver pate, cow's heart in tomato soup (really much nicer than it sounds), ice cream (again), sticky pork with sticky rice, pig brains (more tolerable than it sounds), eel soup, bia/beer hanoi (again again because it is so cheap = price of chinese tea in malaysia), fried fish in noodle soup, some special yummy sweet sour and spicy salad with peanuts i no can remember the rest, and last but not least dog meat. Yes, there is a whole stretch of shops serving dog meat and only dog meat. Cooked versions are fine, but cold slices are a little too advanced for me.

As the capital city, Hanoi does not lack in museums and official buildings. Who knew a mausoleum could take my breath away? It was beautifully grand! Guards dressed in snowy white marched to and fro which such pride in their stride. And flowers were always fresh to bear witness to the love the people had for the one honoured by this monument. A war museum, a gothic church, a citadel, an art exhibition turned badminton court.


" With a tattled map, a flower from the market, and the perfect ice cream cone, I would no sooner love to get lost again in the dizzy vespa streets of Hanoi with you."