Vietnam

I've recently got back from holiday in Vietnam, where I stayed in Hanoi, visiting my aunt and uncle who live there. I've been looking through my photos today & realised again they often don't capture the moment quite as well as you remember.What will be my overriding memories from 9 days in Hanoi?

- I think the motorcycle traffic will be hard to forget! I remember watching a travel programme in the UK a few years ago, seeing how hard it is to cross the road there.If you're in a car or on a bike, it's like the traffic can come at you from any direction - but it's almost always near misses. So many times when in a taxi, I'd hold onto the handle on the car door (a bit like Mum did when she used to take me out for driving practice). I know holding onto this bit of plastic won't be any help either way, but I guess it was a knee jerk reaction.The other way I tried to cope with this constant stream of traffic, overtaking & lack of breaking distances was (sorry Ruth), joining in the cacophony and saying 'beep beep' out loud! Crossing the road as a pedestrian was also quite tricky - a bit like crossing the road from the Tigers Head to near St Nicks as a Coopers pupil, but about 10 times more complicated, as the roads are very rarely empty & just as you think it's clear, a motorbike comes out of the middle of nowhere.

Oh dear, this post could just be about the traffic! Another interesting thing, is because there aren't many cars, it means there aren't many vans or use of car boots etc. So almost everything is carried or delivered on the back of a bike. I saw a man clinging onto a flat screen TV on the back of a motorbike, and later in the week saw a cyclist with a tree attached to her bike! I don't think I'll ever have to worry that my basket is too full, when I stop off at the supermarket after school, balancing my school bag and shopping. I've seen SO much more- although the Vietnamese sensibly do seem to strap things onto their bikes rather well.

Due to my lack of creativity & brain power, I'll just string some further thoughts together below to sum up a great time in and around Hanoi: -
Yellow buildings- tall & thin; interesting architecture inspired by the French; decent French bread; nice Western food in restaurants; people can speak English; women carrying a pole on a shoulder, from which baskets would dangle, often holding and transporting fruit for sale; many street cafes - people sitting on plastic stools along the pavement eating noodles or rice-based meals; sub-tropical trees lining the streets; people 'exercising' around the lake - either walking or playing badminton; being able to pay in dollars or dong & never quite knowing if you were being fobbed off or not; not being stared at (hooray!); beautiful, bright colourful lacquer ware in shops; banana trees planted alongside rice paddies; women wearing conical hats working in the fields or walking along the streets; super lean cattle I first thought were donkeys!!; seeing pigs strapped on the back of motorbikes to be taken to market; nice seafood; water puppets on sale in many shops; interesting & unique musical instruments (including one made of many wooden tubes. Instead of hitting or blowing through them, you clap outside them to produce a nice mellow sound.)
Below are some pictures of some of these things & more:

From L-R, top to bottom: At the Museum of Ethnology(- seeing an exhibition of woven items definitely helped to put the woven bamboo vase I made last year, into perspective!); With some folk who helped us make woven fish, some of whom had left their village in China for the first time to come over for the exhibition; Kayaking in Halong Bay (x3). - On an excursion from a junk we stayed on for 2 days. It was great- a cross between a journey on the Orient Express & Death on the River Nile - not that I have any experience in those 2 things though! The kayaking was followed by Ruth & I swimming in the water - pretty cold but warmer than an outdoor pool in the heat of an English summer & reminiscent of our family jaunts to swimming in the R. Thames in Oxford in the summer holidays; On our return from Halong Bay, we met up with Ian & went to see the water puppets (a much more elaborate Punch & Judy show, which originated when the rice paddies were flooded, so the farmers entertained the people in the village with rigging up a stage & wooden puppets on the water). Much more elaborate than the picture suggests, with fireworks, all sorts of puppets & live musical accompaniment; The History Museum, where Ruth goes for Vietnamese Classes; Hanoi Opera House- where we saw2 concerts; one of the lakes; road; & at a steamboat restaurant (x2).

Thanks very much to Ruth & Ian for having me stay and being such great hosts!