Ha Noi, Viet Nam

Yesterday was my first full day in Asia. I am not going to talk of the weather, but I have embraced sweating. Isn't that supposed to be good for your skin anyway?

The day started with a morning walk around Ho Tay (West Lake) which is close to Julie and Richard's house. After a quick breakfast with my sister, we were off for downtown Ha Noi.


Downtown Hanoi is frenetic. Everything here functions on some sort of organized chaos. The roads are shared by everyone; pedestrians, bikes, mopeds, motorcycles, cars, trucks, and busses all vying for the same narrow path.



Crossing the street is an adventure. Its kind of like playing frogger. The key is to cross steadily at a consistant pace. Keep your head on a swivel and be deliberate with your footing.

Seemingly everything is carried by moped. The most interesting thing of the day...a large sheet of glass...Hmmm?



After a stop into the Operation Smile office to meet Julie and Richards co-workers, Richard and I headed out for a walking tour of the Old Town.

This place is amazing. There are 36 streets named things like paper street or bag street or tin street. Still today the street names are indicative of the items produced and sold there. There are enormous markets with piles of fresh vegatables, fishes, and meats.





The architecture is fascinating here. The local taxes are determined by the footprint of the structure rather than the gross square footage. This opens the door for extremely narrow buidings of 4 or 5 stories that typically have just one room per level. The spatial possibilities of this type of building are really interesting.



After a great lunch I was on my own to explore a bit more of the city. I went to the Museum of the Revolution. This museum covered the people's revolution from the beginnings of French Colonization in the 1860's to the American Aggression in the late 1960's. That's a long revolution!

Later in the day we arranged our weekend trip to Ha Long Bay and grabbed a great Vietnamese dinner at a restaurant a short walk from Julie and Richard's house. I am sure this goes without saying, but the food is really good here!