After a wash, shave and a 35-minute power snooze it was back down stairs to be reunited with Lesley and Bob and to meet the rest of the guests – about 60 in total - on this part of the tour. Divided into Yellow – but with a confusing Green Guide paddle, the Yellow paddle having been mysteriously lost – we set forth from the hotel led by the lovely Lily, our second guide for the first 3 days along with Quang.
This was my first taste of the humidity and heat that characterises Vietnam especially at this time of the year just before the rainy season. This afternoon was a relatively mild introduction to the heat and humidity that I would experience in Saigon, along the Mekong and rising to crescendo in Siem Reap at the very end of the tour.
The population of Hanoi is 6.4 million, and they all seemingly own motorcycles!! Often described as the ‘grand old dame of the orient, Hanoi is perhaps the most graceful, atmospheric and exotic capital in Asia” (Lonely Planet APT Guide). It is a city of sweeping boulevards; tree fringed lakes and ancient pagodas.
Hanoi lay in deep slumber after the partition of 1954 but the city survived American bombs – I heard on the radio recently that one American General wanted to bomb Hanoi to extinction – and Russian planners to emerge relatively unscathed in the early 1990s as a splendid example of a French colonial city.
The French influence is still visible not only in the architecture but in in daily life since Hanoinians’ retain a penchant for café culture, fresh baguettes and French cuisine as I experienced later this evening.
The photo is of the Opera House.
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