Vietnam: Hanoi

Ok, it's been a while and I don't think I can sit and recount all of Vietnam at once so I'll do it in chunks. First is Hanoi. Ethan and I arrived by plane from Vientiene on the 2nd of March and did a couple of trips to Halong Bay and Sapa (to be covered in other posts) while based out of Hanoi.

Even though we got off on sort of a wrong foot, almost got scammed by a taxi driver from the airport, I liked Hanoi. It has some character, maybe a mix of rough and soft. All the crazy scooter traffic (but I hear Saigon is twice as bad) contrasted to the french type buildings and tree-lined avenues. Anyway, we stayed there a total of about 4 or 5 days and here are some pictures from Hanoi.

Crap, I almost forgot about the noise. I guess I'm getting used to it. Honking, non-stop honking. Luckily the city/town shuts down pretty good around 10 pm or so and quiets down, but it all starts up again in the morning around 6 am. Loud and obnoxious.

So to start this off, you can view this little video of an intersection crossing in Hanoi:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0Rxp0o5X1w

Temple in the center of a lake in the Old Quarter

Stuffed Tortoise and little girl in lake temple

Another temple at lake's edge

Scooter parking

Ho Chi Minh Museum

And Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. And we did see his embalmed corpse and it was weird, very weird.

Old fighter jet

Me and Stalin, two peas in a pod

Nightlife in Hanoi is fraught with danger. Dodging scooters, trash fires, and jump roping girls.

Picture from Museum of Ethnology (or, as Ethan would like to think it should be called, Ethanology)

52 distinct ethnic groups in Vietnam. Here are a couple of the types of dwellings one might encounter when visiting one of said 52 ethnic groups.

Tomb....hmm what are those carvings of people doing???

Ahh...boom boom.

Good ole' uncle Ho.

Ho Chi Minh's original home moved from his village to Hanoi

Hard at work

Some weird bird thing

Mmm...Grilled pig's prick

Typical side street in Hanoi