Life in Hanoi

Hanoi people are a contradictory collection of modern and traditional. Driving scooters in designer clothes and stilettos beside a woman on a bicycle wearing a conical hat and peasant clothes....a woman balancing 2 baskets attached to a board across her back walking down the street past a Gucci store with a Porsche Cayanne parked put front..

Everywhere , everywhere, everywhere - walking, standing in front of a shop, waiting to cross the street, sitting on a scooter - people are exercising, moving their bodies, arms, legs, stretching, rotating necks and hips.  there's a little lake in the middle of the city with a boardwalk all round.  It's a hub of activity, people walking, sitting, exercising. In one section, fitness equipment has been set up and young guys are pumping weights, doing  sit-ups and flexing muscles. 

English is much more common than I expected. Most people we have encounter have some eng,ish especially the ones who want something from the tourists - to sell you something, to offer a cyclo ride.  At the temple of literature, a small boy (maybe 10) came up to me, and with a scared look in his eyes bravely said, "hello, how are you?"  with his mother watching, he began asking me questions in English. What is your name? How old are you? How are you? Thank you. Thank you, the mother says as we walk away.

Garbage on the street common but so is people sweeping up dust..Sidewalks are packed with squatting people cooking on the street.   no tables here. just tiny plastic stools for sitting on. Air is filled with cooking  smells mixed with pollution, sweat  and garbage. 

The 20 year old girl working at the hotel could have spent all day talking to us.  She was studying economics in university.. She asked about Canada. We asked about her life.. She learned English from listening to music..loved Maroon Five, Adam Levine, Beyonce, not so much Justin Beiber. 

There was a wedding going on in the hotel. Its wedding season, she told us..the day and time of day people marry is decided by a fortune teller. Now I know why the woman on scooters wear those hooded jackets With the mitten-like ends. It's  not to stay clean, as I thought. It's to protect from the sun. 

She also told us that there is no unemployment insurance here and no healthcare, except for children.. That really surprised me. 

A group of 29-30 school kids walking down the street all waving at us and yelling hello, clearly enjoying the interaction with the foreigners..

The police, in their bright olive green uniforms, are everywhere yet the city appears to be lawless. Driving down the sidewalks on scooters no problem.....kids driving scooters no problem....yet everyone wears helmets. Helmets are u-shaped in the back for ponytails!! 

Driving down a 2 lane highway past a factory.. Water buffaloes are swimming in the pond on the side of the road. On the way to Halong Bay, passing through many towns.  All look the same.. Scooters liming the roads and sidewalks.. Traffic.. Honking. Open air shops. People and goods packing the sidewalks.. Outside of town peasants in rice patties harvesting rice. 

So looking forward to Halong bay..