Over the next weeks, I'll be playing catch-up on my blog and posting about the wonderful trip to Southeast Asia we took in November--Misha was doing an evaluation study and I was happily tagging along.
We got to Hanoi, the historic and administrative capital of Vietnam, on a pleasantly cool weekend, which felt like a gift to our overheated Bombay selves. Right as you drive into the city, the neat state of the buildings made an uplifting contrast to the seemingly bombed-out concrete horrors on a similar drive from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Airport.
Narrow and tall, evidently due to some ordinance on building taxation, these houses were all freshly painted, with handsome balconies and even little gables. This was the first piece of evidence we glimpsed of Vietnam's growing prosperity (apparently, as of this year, it is no longer officially a developing country).
The second piece of evidence of Vietnam's heady growth in the last ten years was the proliferation--no, the explosion--of motorcycles in the city. When Misha was here last, ten years ago, it was all bicycles, but now everyone seems to have their own ride, albeit cars are still prohibitively expensive. The vehicles whizz past you on the narrow streets of the medieval old town, sometimes occupied by families of four, sometimes laden with flowers or other wares, as in the picture here (one image, sadly uncaptured, was of a motorcycle laden with a dozen or so naked mannequins perched on top of one another).
Still, while you're dodging the traffic and wondering how not to be splattered during your next crossing, Hanoi retains its atmosphere of a relaxed city at peace with itself. On this Saturday afternoon, couples strolled around the lovely Hoan Kiem lake at the heart of the old town; elderly men played Go, and birds slowly stalked their prey.
Saleswomen in those famous conical hats carried baskets of fruit on long poles and men sat slurping large, appetizing bowls of pho--the delicious $1 beef-and-noodle soup we were to taste many times.
As evening fell, a ritual occurred that we were to see every night here--men and women, many of whom one would classify as "yuppies" in the United States, sprawled on the sidewalks next to low-lying tables in front of beer and snacks of sunflower seeds and dried fish and chatted animatedly into the night. The girls were dressed in miniskirts and high heels but the bar culture here was taking place right outside, as in the olden times.
As evening fell, a ritual occurred that we were to see every night here--men and women, many of whom one would classify as "yuppies" in the United States, sprawled on the sidewalks next to low-lying tables in front of beer and snacks of sunflower seeds and dried fish and chatted animatedly into the night. The girls were dressed in miniskirts and high heels but the bar culture here was taking place right outside, as in the olden times.
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