Kinh Kỳ 1

This is one hell of a fascinating city. I absolutely love it here.

Look, I know that I generally say those exact words within the first few days of arriving pretty much anywhere, but I've already been here a few days and I'm still saying it.

Yeah, I've been to Hanoi before, and, as I've been repeating ad nauseum about many places on this trip, it's unrecognisable these days.

The old Hanoi that I first visited was pretty much bicycle only, I rode here all the way from Thailand in the 90s, and it was quiet, interesting, cultured and beautiful.

These days it's noisy, interesting, cultured and beautiful.

Motorbikes are everywhere. Cars are nearly everywhere. Bicycles are almost nowhere.

And there's also a seedy side to this kinh kỳ  (Vietnamese for capital city), but the seediness is not as in-your-face as it is in Ho Chi Minh City, the country's surrogate southern capital.

Riding a bike here can be challenging, but I'm sorta used to it. Generally speaking. I just do what the motorbikes do. I take off fast when the lights turn green, already having positioned myself in amongst them somewhere near the front of the queue. That way I avoid all the turning traffic that enters the intersection from the wrong direction after the lights change.

I don't hesitate. I often keep moving, or even speed up, rather than slow down in any situation involving another vehicle or pedestrian. Because that's what they do, and that's what they expect me to do. Of course, sometimes that's not possible, but almost always it is, surprisingly. The traffic just flows, noone seems to ever really stop, except at traffic lights (if that).

The Old Quarter

I found myself a reasonable room, scraped Mother Earth from my skin and hair, locked up my bike, and immediately went off to explore this hugely interesting district on feet.

My new home street.

Fishmongers across the road.

I found a great spot for food straight away, in fact it's right next door. Now that's handy innit. A big plate of steamed rice with various vegetable offerings plus an omelette and a couple of boiled eggs, all for the bargain price of 30,000Đ, about $1.80 Oz. This place is a real find, because I know that in this tourist district most plates will probably cost three times that, at least.

And won't necessarily be as good.

Filtered drinking water on the street. So good. Not that I personally need it, I have my own water filter, and just filter tap water everywhere (except in some places in India). But free drinking water is a great service in these parts.

Theatre for classical Vietnamese opera, called hát tuồng.

By the way, if you think I'm particularly fussy about all the accents and squiggles all over Vietnamese words, I'm not. I inadvertently made what turned out to be a smart decision by uploading a Vietnamese keyboard onto my iPad, and whenever I type in a word it recognises, it kindly doodles in the squiggles. I never check if it's right, sorry to all you multitudes of Vietnamese speakers.

Trapped beauty

Trophy and banner shop

Cyclo city

Loads of bloomin lamps

A tinsmith not making something out of tin. One street, Hang Thiếc, is full of the stuff.

Paper burners. In the evenings I often see people burning fake money in burners on the street. Or other paper things. Some people here believe that if they do this the burning items will be received by their relatives in the afterlife.

Stickers galore

Stunning lantern displays

The huge Dong Xuan market

In the 'shroom room

These aren't bananas, but "Buddha hands," tay Buddha. They're not edible, but have a beautiful fragrance, and are used for temple offerings and displays, especially during Tết, the huge Vietnamese New Year celebrations.

Stink zone

Medicinal wood and bark

Decorated palm fruit temple offerings

Dried berries

Pickling veggies

Chopping delicious bamboo shoots

Tofu

You can't get it much fresher than this.

The worm thingies looked like swimming millipedes, with legs everywhere.

Raw, cooked or gizzards? I'm sure they could sell the trotters without the nail polish.

Unless of course the poor pigettes had dressed themselves up for their own slaughter. Sorry, that was a bit tongue-out-of-cheek.

Snail pails

What a bloody job

One of the few remaining ancient city wall remnants, the East Gate.

Eggsellent collection

A type of jasmine flower, all bursting with fragrance

Bach Ma temple is the oldest temple in Hanoi, and guards the eastern part of the old city from evil spirits. There's three other guarding temples in the city, in each different direction.

It was built in the 11th Century, after Emoeror Ly Thai To had a dream that a white horse showed him where to build the city walls.

This is the horse, smack bang in the centre of the temple.

I really wanted to hug this guy, his body shape perfectly matches the opposite of mine. His convex belly would fit perfectly into that con cave of mine.

Many temples have prolifically fruiting grapefruit trees in their gardens at the moment.

Another Old Quarter temple

Woman with her mobile hardwares

Check out the size of the rat traps. If they're rat traps that is.

Wall-on-wall cafés

Interesting name for a sports store. Uomo means man in Italian. Man & Sexy. Korea. Now that's cryptic.

I found another amazing place to eat authentic flavoursome cheap veg food. Fresh spring rolls and a killer veggie phở, jam packed with delicious mushrooms and tofu.

Around the corner from my place

http://buymeacoffee.com/krolesh9

Go to Part 2