North Vietnam - Hanoi

As we had a relatively short amount of time in Vietnam we decided to leave the resorts of central vietnam for another time and fly straight to the capital in the North. Immediate thoughts on arrival - FREEZING!!! After the 30 degrees plus heat of everywhere else in Asia for the last 4 months this was quite a shock! It was probably around 10 degrees or just under for the first couple of days (I had to join the locals in buying, hat, scarf and gloves to survive!) and then luckily it warmed up as the days went on to a reasonably comfortable 20 degrees.
As a city it seems much more Chinese influenced but was also full of motorbikes (only 3 million this time!) and our road crossing skills came in useful again. In fact an older couple from the UK desperately requested our help one day in order to cross a road safely in the mayhem - and we thought that was a quiet day!
We went on a 2 day, 1 night trip to halong bay which is a UNESCO heritage site. After seeing this on Top Gear it was a must do on our list. It was very picturesque and the cold mist added an eerieness to the limestone karsts. We saw the floating village and playforms that Clarkson, May and Hammond had finished up on. After a trip to view a nearby cave we returned to our Junk for dinner and slept overnight in the bay before returning the next day.


Halong Bay



The floating village

Our junk we spent the night on

John tries a new job - captain of the junk

Again we persevered with walking around the city on our return and covered most of the old quarter on foot. We visited the military museum and had fun climbing into the old planes, vehicles and helicopters.

I had a go at flying a plane

John tried his hand at another new job ...

We saw Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum although it wasn't open the day we were there. It was Tet while we were here also and there was a fantastic 15 minute firework display over the lake which we watched from our top floor hotel rrom. Although esentially a new year celebration and the start of the new finacial year it sems much more like our Christmas celebrations. People travel to spend the holiday with their families, everything closes down (the one time in the year), people buy gifts right up to the last minute and it is also traditional to buy a blossom tree or kumquat tree for the house to signify the coming of spring and new beginnings. Gifts of money are given in red envelopes, traditional foods are eaten and locals visit the temples to burn incense and pray.

The street we stayed on decorated for Tet

Our favourite Vietnam dish was the local Pho which is a beef noodle soup based on the French dish, Pot au Feu. The word Pho is pronounced feu but with a slight o sound on the end. The Vietnamese seem to eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner and it can be bought very cheaply on eery street corner. There is even a very good Pho fast food chain called Pho24. It's all about the stock and you can add your own fresh herbs and chilli's to taste and we loved it. Baguettes and pate were also available everywhere as was good wine, mmmm! At least the French had some good lasting influences!

A street food stall

John finally finds the right job!