The itinerary:
This morning there is time for a last-minute shop in Saigon before we transfer to your flight to Hanoi.
There an afternoon walking tour takes you around the fascinating old quarter, a myriad of narrow streets once named after each ware (silk street, tin street, etc) and Hoan Kiem Lake which is popular with locals for early morning exercise and evening relaxation.
You’ll visit Ho Chi Minh’s house where he preferred to live simply, there are splendid reminders of the great man who led the country and the Temple of Literature which was originally built in 1070.
(This was changed to tomorrow for us)
Flying North
On the bus to the airport, so many scooters at a Hồ Chí Minh City service station!
It was just a normal domestic flight but on a Vietnam Airlines wide-body Boeing 777 aircraft. A bit larger than the Boeing 737* you see on Air New Zealand's main trunk domestic flights.
Hanoi and M Hotel
First impression of Hanoi, on the bus from the airport, was how does that work?
Hotels in Hanoi...
The M Hotel lobby (2023 I think renamed Mövenpick Hotel) was nice. For once we didn't arrive hot and sweaty in cycling gear!
View from our M Hotel room. Not in shot, the woman who persistently tried to sell tourist caps and cheap photocopy books. I would run afoul of her later in the trip. It wasn't far from Hoàn Kiếm Lake and the city centre.
A very different kind of accommodation Hỏa Lò (aka the 'Hanoi Hilton')
Hỏa Lò Prison was built by the French for both criminal and political prisoners (who were held in sub-human conditions) and capital punishment by guillotine. Under Vietnamese control it was used 'as an education center for revolutionary doctrine and activity', in the war for US Prisoners of War who dubbed it 'Hanoi Hilton'.
This depicts French colonial treatment of Vietnamese...
The Guillotine and the Ghost.* How many had this last view.
* It's just a partial exposure of a tourist due to the long exposure... or is it?
Old city wander
The afternoon was filled with an old quarter market wander and, I think (from 2023), a traditional Múa rối nước (water puppetry) theatre show. Getting there was a short walk from the Hotel, a few road crossings to adjust to the Hanoi traffic with an eye open for red light runner
Market stalls/stores had everything you'd ever need on offer, and more!
Scooter through the old quarter market, where there's barely space to walk, no problem!
The infrastructure is amazing, and mostly seems to work.
Sharlene takes on market work.
One room wide, but 4 storeys tall, a building made to fit.
Market Merchandising. A challenge to Planogram, love the one tile wide aisle to maximise product display!
Market Cat'egory Merchandising.
Fresh meat...
A mobile florist.
Dried shrimp, lots of dried shrimp...
How do you get around this town in an Audi Q7?
Playing with slower shutter speeds, as the evening light reduced, resulted in my favourite street photo of the trip.
She knows where she's going...
Rooftop café views
Some of the group had been told of a café with rooftop views across the lake. It was a great stop for the evening.
Hanoi Traffic, works!
Below a comment from Flickr soon after I posted these photos looking down on the busy traffic from our café rooftop:
virgo milena 15y
bravo. je retrouve là Hanoi tel que je l'ai connu!Well done. I find Hanoi as I knew it!
And not a collision
Walk steadily, the traffic will miss you, honest!
The balloon seller
The balloon seller stands out in this photo as the world moves around him.
Future Robin would recognise that balloon seller again, half a world away and a decade (2018) later.
The overnight bag...
We had to pack just what we needed for a day, 'just a small bag due to limited space on the junk we overnight on tomorrow'. It was only one night but we would also be swimming and kayaking so had to consider that.
Future Robin: I was not alone in misunderstanding what 'limited space junk' meant...
2023 Amendments
This post was written in 2023, so this section will document any gaps. I had a blog back then but didn't update it while travelling, and it was before I used other social media.
* Air New Zealand didn't start changing the domestic 737-300 fleet to Airbus A320 until 2011-2016, the purchase announced in 2009.
