Beep Beep!

Everywhere you go... the incessant honking and beeping here in Hanoi, Vietnam can literally make you crazy until or unless you get used to it. Everyone here honks... the cabbies, motorcyclists, food cart guys (don't know the name for them), "garbage" men/women (they push little carts around on wheels that have containers for the garbage), bicyclists... EVERYONE here honks at everyone, non-stop. There's so much honking going on that you often can't tell where it's coming from! It starts at 5:30 AM... it's 10:30 PM right now in the historic Old Quarter and the honking is finally starting to... die down. It never completely stops.

Since you're not here and we may not be able to put up our video, here is an example of what it sounds like walking down the street. Imagine hearing this starting from 5:30 AM until your head hits the pillow: Honk, honk, HONK, meep, meep, beep, BEEEEEEP, MEEEEP, HOOOONK, honk, honk, wololololo (weird horn that some people have on their vehicles), honk, honk-honk... tired yet?! We are... it is exhausting. Here's a pic of how crowded the streets are with bicyclists, trucks, cabs, motorcyclists, pedestrians... it's crazy!


At night, after everyone has stopped driving around and the noise from the motorized vehicles finally starts dying down, these men/women pushing the "garbage carts" rings the bells attached to their carts... up and down the street... ring ring ring ring ring... *sigh*