Good Morning, Vietnam

Day 8-9, January 19-20, 2007, Hanoi.

I've spent a couple of days roaming around the streets of Hanoi with Jen.  She's in Vietnam on an organized tour, but she got here two days before the start date, which gave us some time to explore the city together.  Jen has never been to Asia before, so this is a major culture shock for her.  I really like the fact that she's totally game to go anywhere and try anything, and most importantly, to eat street food.  Quite useful for me, since there's a lot of pork dishes out here, so I rely on her to be my taster.  She claims the best bites she's had were pork that she had in my presence, I think she's just enjoying it more because she knows I can't have any.

Traffic in Hanoi is crazy.  There's a ton of motorbikes, mostly small 100-120cc Honda two seaters.  The two seats is not much of a limitation, you'll often see a scooter carrying a whole family of four or more, or anything else that they need to move around (such as refrigerators).  There are virtually no stop signs or lights anywhere, so traffic is constantly flowing, with almost never any breaks.  To cross the street, you just have to walk deliberately and slowly across, and vehicles magically part ways to let you through.  Very different than say in India, where you have to wait for a lull in traffic, and drivers speed up when they see you cross.

I've really enjoyed the food on the streets and markets here, in particular in the fruit department.  We found the most wonderful passion fruits.  They're purple on the outside, rather than the green/yellow skinned ones I'm used to, a bit tangier, and absolutely delicious.  The rambutans (a fruit that tastes much like a lychee) are starting to be in season.  I've also found green mangoes, which I've been peeling, slicing and dipping in salt and red chili powder, just like we used to do in Comoro Islands.  The only disappointing fruit so far are the mangosteens, which have not been good.  But the Hanoi climate is fairly cool, so I suspect they're trucked over here from the south.  I'm hoping to find better ones later in the trip.

The other nice discovery out here has been the coffee.  I've had iced Vietnamese coffee with sweetened condensed milk before, but I've  drinking it hot over here.  Sweetened condensed milk is one of mankind's greatest inventions, but I didn't know how well it went with coffee.  It can even turn an average cup of coffee into a delicious drink.  I can't wait to try it at home with good quality french press coffee, I'm sure it'll be amazing.  There's one coffee place in particular that Jen and I have liked a lot, but we can never stay there too long as we can't stop ourselves from ordering cup after cup.  For those of you travelling in Vietnam, it's called Cafe Xua Va Nay on Tong Dan St and is next door to the Thuy Tien Hotel.

Oh, the sights.  I guess I should mention those at some point.  There are some nice attractions in Hanoi, in particular the Temple of Litterature, a Confucian university/temple complex, the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, where Ho Chi Minh's embalmed body is on display, and the Water Puppet theatre, where puppeteers stand waist deep in water and use bamboo poles to put up a surprisingly fun show of puppets enacting ancient mythical tales as well as daily life in the country side.  Plenty to keep one occupied for two or three days in between culinary explorations.

Comments

[Al Satchu]

Good question ... Ou est Malik? Looking fwd to your next post ... Al.

[Jesse]

Where are you now, Malik? The Landsharks are missing you!

[jon]

Hey, it says you're in Vancouver, but I saw you at the Lick yesterday