After leaving the Opera House we chickened out on re-crossing the square by boarding a bus to take us to the Hanoi Flag Tower, a part of the Hanoi Citadel – a World Heritage Site. Here we were meant to have visited the Vietnam Military History Museum but this being a Public Holiday – which explains the extraordinary number of families out on motorcycles, that’s right I do mean the whole family on one motorcycle (See later) – the Museum had closed early, the Museum guards politely explaining that it was late afternoon and they wanted to enjoy some of the Public Holiday too! I did get this photo of an iconic, Russian ‘Mig’ fighter at the entrance.
So we were forced to abandon the scheduled visit and stroll along the wide boulevards flanked by beautiful French colonial architecture and observe the cavalcade of motorcycles – for your entertainment I have attached some photos recording this remarkable display of ‘runners and riders’!
Another feature of Vietnamese street culture is the numerous vendors of ‘green tea”. Seemingly every 100 metres or so we came across a vendor squatting on a ubiquitous small plastic stool armed with several thermos flasks of hot water or a small burner to brew green tea and perhaps offer a cigarette and all for a few cents.
Over the next week or so I was rather left with the impression that the whole of Vietnamese life is based around sitting on these small plastic stools waiting patiently for business to pass by but pass by it did and we were told that even the most lowly of vendors made maybe $6 a day – not much by our standards but that amount of money goes a long way in Vietnam.
The more enterprising vendors had associated offerings such foot pumps to assist with the repair of roadside punctures!
Our tour ended at one of the ancient gates before wearily (Remember I had only arrived a few hours earlier in Hanoi after nearly 24 hours of travel) back to the hotel for another power snooze and to get ready for dinner at a top restaurant below the Opera House.
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