Hanoi

Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam. To me it was a reasonably quiet city with very interesting street life and lots and lots of bikes and mopeds. Vicky and I spent our days there seeing many sites and committed to what is our SUPER GASTRO-INTESTINAL TOUR of SOUTHEAST ASIA. We balanced seeing all the sites dedicated to Ho Chi Minh, the man responsible for making sure Vietnam became communist, and in 48 hours eating at about 10 restaurants and having 3 meals
on the street.

The city is filled with communist red flags and posters and signs about everyone working hard and making Vietnman a better place. In the morning city wide announcements are made over a loud speaker. Also, the city is rich with the history of Vietnam's heroes and all they did against the Chinese, the French, the Americans and basically everyone one else who tried to colonize, control and make money off of Vietnam in some way. This "outsider" history is very evident and seen everywhere from the fact that older Vietnamese speak French, to Chinese customs to reminants of the US vietnman war such as an American B-52 crashed plane in the middle of a housing community.

Hanoi equaled Ho Chi Minh (the person, not the city). His museum, his monuments, and his embalmed body are all part of the landscape of Hanoi. He is revered and referred to as Uncle Ho by the Vietnamese.

A familiar site in Vietnam are sidewalk restaurants. Mini plastic seats and tables are set on sidewalks in front of restaurant fronts and that is where the Vietnamese enjoy foods and teas. Of course, we participated in this custom and made sure to have pho, a traditional Vietnamese soup with noodles and meat made for breakfast and basically any other occasion.

In the streets we had yummies such as the soupt, baguettes with pate, butter, meats, and veggies. In restaurants we had lots of fish in amazing sauces, green tangerine deserts, lots of Vietnamese coffee, chaca fish (yummy fish in butter), lots of rice, and yummy spare ribs and sea bass. All were absolutely divine.

We left Hanoi, 1 kilo heavier and went off to Halong Bay for our Arctic Cruise of the bay. Up next!

"Into the Woods to Find the Giant..."
www.brazilbean.net