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April 28, 2009. We arrived in Hanoi, where two baggage carousels service the entire airport.
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Susan's, Deb's (for Kim) and my bikes.
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Two bike boxes stuffed into the trunk of the SUV that came to pick us up...
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And another stuffed into the backseat, with me.
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The first night was a chaos. We were dropped at the wrong hotel, and after carting all these bikes to not one, but two rooms (we asked to change from a smoking room... and were given another smoking room), we had to pile them into a cyclo and walk them 10
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By the time we left ATS Hotel in search of food, it was past 9.30pm and all decent food places in our part of town was closed. In retrospect, we should have hit up the Old Quarter, but I was tired and hungry. We ended up at a fast food joint called BBQ Ch
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After not eating fast food in more than three years for various reasons, here I was in Hanoi ordering from a menu that was above my head. At least this stuff was grilled fresh. One hoped.
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See, just like Kenny Rogers Roasters. I ordered a set meal which came with this huge pile of fried rice and a BBQ chicken thigh. It was actually rather tasty in a grocery store rotisserie kind of way, good enough for a hasty meal.
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April 29, 2009. Breakfast at the hotel the next morning was a sad affair, if you're used to huge spreads at Asian hotels.
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But thank goodness for pho a la minute!
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Because it was drizzling, we decided to spend some indoor time at the Revolutionary Museum of Vietnam first. If you've ever wanted to start a revolution, the ABCs of doing so are right here. The Viets are pretty well-versed in it.
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The guillotine, an imposing figure in Indochina.
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Then, a stop at Kem Trang Tien for a sampling of Hanoi's favorite local ice cream.
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Susan had the green bean (left) and I tried the young rice (right), a popular Vietnamese flavor. We couldn't figure out, however, why the green bean was yellow and the young rice green.
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It was pretty good, the texture similar to potong-style ice cream on a stick in Singapore. A quick cooler without being too filling, and not too sweet.
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A little food alley off Pho Trang Tien. Now, I've noticed that the Viets enjoy eating. They're always eating, if not a meal, then dessert. They love their sweets.
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A noodle stand.
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Hoan Kiem Lake, the center of Hanoi and really, quite a dump with murky green waters.
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A graffiti'd monument of sorts.
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Crazy old tree that's all gnarls bark-ley.
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At the north end of the lake is Ngoc Son Temple, or Jade Mountain Temple.
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The Viets are predominantly Taoists, a direct influence from their proximity to China and Chinese ancestry. There are a ton of pagodas everywhere.
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The temple is dedicated to the scholar Van Xuong, General Tran Hung Dao (who defeated the Mongols in the 13th century) and La To (patron saint of physicians).
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Another look at Hoan Kiem Lake on a misty day.
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Huc Bridge (Rising Sun Bridge) connects the temple from the middle of the lake to the lakeside.
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The bridge was constructed in 1885, but doesn't look a day its age.
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Hanoi's Old Quarter is like a giant supermarket -- its myriad streets each boast a different commodity sold, like huge aisles. It was the Wal-Mart Supercenter of Vietnam -- you could get everything you needed and be set for life here.
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I've been to my fair share of Southeast Asian countries and seen my fair share of backward infrastructure, but this massive mass of tangled cables is really something to behold.
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We made a detour into the market on Pho Gia Ngu, and got a little more than what we bargained for, as you'll see...
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This nice old gentleman gave us a grand tour of his little noodle stall and enticed us to sit down for a tasting.
