Winter in Hanoi

January 23rd, 2002 at 12:00am

I cannot believe that just yesterday I was in Bangkok sweating profusely from the heat and complaining about the humidity and now I am in Hanoi in my hotel room under a heavy duvet and I am FREEZING my ass off! No one told me it was winter here!! OK, compared to home it’s quite mild (17C), but after being on the beach for nearly 3 months this is DRASTIC! I am wearing a long-sleeve shirt for the first time since I’ve been in Asia!

So I arrived today to Hanoi…I’m staying in the Old Quarter of the city which is the’backpacker’ area but it’s quite charming with a lot of French influence showing in the buildings here. I took a bus from the airport and then went straight to the one ATM in the city (and all of Northern Vietnam for that matter) before looking for accomodation. The local currency (Vietnam Dong) is so weak that there are 14,000 Dong to one USD. I made a 1,500,000 Dong withdrawl – it felt very strange to be entering such a large number into the ATM – the biggest numerical withdrawl I’ll ever make!

Some things to get used to here –

1. They drive American-style on the right-hand side and the driver is on the left in the car…this actually looks quite bizarre to me after finally getting used to the British-style in Thailand.

2. It is COLD here (did I mention that yet?)

3. Traffic laws are non-existent. Movement on the road is only achieved by honking. You honk when you want to pass, you honk while you are passing, you honk on the straightaway (just in case), and you definitely honk to get through intersections. I have never heard so many horns going off at one time in my entire life.

Believe it or not, there are actually MORE motorbikes here than in Bangkok – so many in fact that the streets are SWARMING with them AND the sidewalks are TOTALLY full with parked bikes to the point where you can’t walk on the sidewalk and you risk death every step you take on the road. I think there are like 77 million people in Vietnam and I’m quite sure that EVERY single one of them owns a motorbike. Somehow it seems to work for them though – order within the chaos I guess.

Tomorrow I’ll decide for sure but I’m thinking about leaving the bike in Hanoi for a week to go north to Sapa to do some trekking and then come back here to then cycle south to Saigon. Will tour the town tomorrow and then decide.

Traffic in Hanoi, Vietnam

Street vendor in Hanoi (selling live chickens!)

Entry Filed under: Hanoi,Vietnam