- Old Quarter: A maze of alleys branching off in all sorts of directions. The architecture is beautiful as a result of the mix between influences from their time under the French and the remaining Asian influences from their neighbors.
- Hanoi Hilton: Interesting to see the way the prison was used by the French to detain Vietnamese protestors and dissidents. It was also interesting to see their account of how they treated US POWs during the Vietnam war. Ironically, the majority of the Hanoi Hilton was razed and an enormous skyscraper now towers over the remainder of the site.
Top Likes:
- Proximity: From Hanoi, we were able to easily take day trips to Ha Long Bay and Tam Coc (for our bike ride alongside the rice paddy farmers). It's not much different from living in central NJ and having convenient access to NYC, Boston, Philly and the rest of the Northeast.
- Food: Vietnamese food is fantastic... fresh and diverse. There is everything from amazing seafood, spring rolls, and pho - noodle soup with beef to vermicelli with grilled pork chops and/or beef.
Top Dislikes:
- Noise: The honking and traffic is never-ending, from early morning to the end of each day. - Harrassers: We encountered some of this in Thailand, but it wasn't 1/100th of what we experienced in Hanoi. The poverty is everywhere and it's as if you are walking around with money taped to your forehead. Everyone wants a piece of you and they approach you endlessly in an effort to "help" you.
- Scams: The scams are legendary. One of our dinner topics from the Ha Long Bay tour was the various ways that people had been victimized. That will have to be a separate post, as we've already run into some new ones here in Nha Trang, Vietnam (our next stop after Hanoi).
We are now headed to Nha Trang, a beach resort ~2 hrs. south of Hanoi by plane. We expect that we won't have much to tell you about Nha Trang other than the fact that we are going to get some R&R in the sun and sand (Hanoi really wore us out!). We know... boo hoo.
Here's some parting shots of Hanoi...
A chic lady in blue talking on her cell while commuting...
The only way to get people to stop at red lights... sort of.
The opera house...
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