Yesterday we arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam - and while I'm backlogged on blogging (South Africa, Hong Kong, and Safari still on the list...), I just wanted to share some pictures from this crazy place.
We took a mini bus from the airport into town yesterday and were instantly amazed by the traffic on the main roads - seemingly lawless, and full of fascinating sights, like people riding scooters with tens of dozens of eggs on the back among other oddities (we later saw a coffee table book featuring scooters and their bizarre cargo).
We were the only westerners on the bus, and so naturally we were dropped off last (even though about a 2 minute detour could have put us out first). When we did get dropped off, we were still about a mile from our accommodations, so we had our first experience as pedestrians in this city. There are simply no clear opportunities to cross the street, and getting from here to there requires a sort of kamikaze Frogger approach. As Jason pointed out, it's not 'look both ways', it's 'look four ways' - but the challenge with even this is by the time you've looked 360, something has changed again. So far, we're unscathed, tho sometimes by inches it seems.
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| Some daring pedestrians step out into the chaos |
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| Things get pretty jammed up with cars in the mix |
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| She seems to know what she's doing |
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| A very unusual opportunity |
After we arrived at our hotel, we were told we had to go stay at one of their partner hotels in the neighborhood (some story about our room's current occupants having a flight delay). We were carted off one by one on the back of a scooter - complete with our backpacks - to the next hotel. It was surprisingly not too scary an experience although I think I might have broken the ribs of the poor driver by holding on too tightly. That said, we really feel like we've had a truly local experience.
In other truly local experiences, we opted for this place for dinner:
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| We sat at the blue table at left. |
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| The kitchen & the cooks |
We waited for a spot to clear and sat down, again the only westerners around. We were shortly brought 2 bowls of pork, noodle, and vegetable soup, which was delicious. We ordered ourselves some beers. The total came to about $4 US.
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| If you look closely next to my right hand, you can see where the dishes were being washed. |
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| The table is not Jason-sized |
Now we're feeling like experts and ready to face Day 2 ... I think!
2 comments:
Whoa! Reminds me of my Dad's pix from Vietnam in 1968(!)...the scooters, the traffic, way too many people...
Yeah... I don't imagine the country has moved on too much, other than a bit of rebuilding. We actually really enjoyed it once we got used to it!
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