Hectic Hanoi

So, my time in Hanoi is over and I am haring through the streets in a coach making my way towards Halong Bay. We had had a whirlwind couple of days, seeing the most amazing sites. The streets are a buzz of activities, no rules for driving, anything goes. Scooters are king and go literally anywhere. You take your life in your hands when crossing. Even crossing in a group, with the help of the virtual green man makes no difference, scooters push past between you, beeping their horns. By our second evening we were confidently waving our arms and just walking between them….yet still quaking inside.

The streets were vibrant, a cachofany of sounds and smells, tiny shops selling such a variety of things. Certain streets sold certain things, we came across, coffee street, silk street, tropical fish street, shoe street, beer street, twinkly fairy light street, scooter seat repair street, chip street and the most bizarre was coffin street!

Twinkly light street

 

 

That crossed coffee street at right angles and I thought that they were one and the same, lost in translation somehow, but no, there was a road full of coffin shops!!

Street vendors are prolific, sweet old ladies sitting selling a few bottles of water, to fruit vendors with the most amazing fruits of all shapes and sizes, so many of them unknown by the western tourists. We stopped and tried a custard apple, mini apples, lorgans, to name a few.

The vendors generally don’t bother you, but if they did it wasn’t in a pushy way as in other countries.

What did I see: a man sitting on the kerb, sharpening knives, and on the street barber, shoe shiner…

My favourite was the man on the cycle selling coolie hats, he spoke no English, but we had a lovely conversation using gesticulations and smiles!!

The highlight of the day was the train passing through the street, but that warrants a blog of its own on my return!