Hanoi
Hanoi is such a pretty city! It's very old and a lot of the houses have the original french architecture going on which is really picturesque.
There's a lake in the middle of the city and there's meant to be a magical turtle living in it. I haven't seen it. Apparently, the turtle took a sword from the emperor many years ago and is now guarding it in the lake. It's meant to be lucky if you see one of the turtles.
Other than that, there are lots of shops and lots of people and it's very crowded and busy. Unlike HCMC, the roads are very narrow, but you get the same amount of traffic as in HCMC which makes it much more claustrophobic. We are staying in the Old Quarter which is picturesque with its little alleyways and funny shaped houses, but the city itself is massive. Exploring it is good fun, but the strangest thing is that lots of streets only sell one type of item, so you have shoe alley, musical instruments alley, noodle alley and glue-sniffers alley (they only sell paints and thinners and the smell there is overpowering!).
I find the people here are quite different to the ones further south - they seem friendlier down there whereas here, most people are a bit frowny and unhappy. Maybe it's about the weather... in general though, it's much rougher here and you are constantly being scammed. I'm sure tourists pay over the odds in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, but here, it's another level of overcharging. It does get tiresome to be honest. Also, you get hassled quite a bit every time you walk down the street and as used as we are to that now, it seems even more intense here.
We are off to Halong Bay soon though, so it will be nice to get away from the noise and pollution for a while.
There's a lake in the middle of the city and there's meant to be a magical turtle living in it. I haven't seen it. Apparently, the turtle took a sword from the emperor many years ago and is now guarding it in the lake. It's meant to be lucky if you see one of the turtles.
Other than that, there are lots of shops and lots of people and it's very crowded and busy. Unlike HCMC, the roads are very narrow, but you get the same amount of traffic as in HCMC which makes it much more claustrophobic. We are staying in the Old Quarter which is picturesque with its little alleyways and funny shaped houses, but the city itself is massive. Exploring it is good fun, but the strangest thing is that lots of streets only sell one type of item, so you have shoe alley, musical instruments alley, noodle alley and glue-sniffers alley (they only sell paints and thinners and the smell there is overpowering!).
I find the people here are quite different to the ones further south - they seem friendlier down there whereas here, most people are a bit frowny and unhappy. Maybe it's about the weather... in general though, it's much rougher here and you are constantly being scammed. I'm sure tourists pay over the odds in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, but here, it's another level of overcharging. It does get tiresome to be honest. Also, you get hassled quite a bit every time you walk down the street and as used as we are to that now, it seems even more intense here.
We are off to Halong Bay soon though, so it will be nice to get away from the noise and pollution for a while.
posted by Phil and Tanja @ 7:32 AM
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